Airbiquity Reveals 2016 Predictions For Connected Car Industry +VIDEO

Pressure from Consumer Electronics Behemoths, Quest for Higher Return-On-Investment, and Fight for Technology Leadership Will Drive the Automotive Market in the Coming Year

SEATTLE -- January 27, 2016: Airbiquity®, a global leader in connected car service delivery, today released its top 2016 connected car predictions for the automotive industry. Based on the company's experience working with automotive manufacturers and the expanding connected car ecosystem, Airbiquity is well positioned to provide insight on what to expect as the industry evolves and reacts to an influx of disruption and innovation that has reached unprecedented levels for one of the world most established, albeit conservative, industries.

"Automotive continues to face significant challenges—and opportunities—for connected car technologies and programs. The industry has only begun to scratch the surface of what is yet to come," said Scott Frank, Vice President of Marketing at Airbiquity. "A decade ago, no one could have predicted the rate of technology evolution or level of competition the industry is experiencing today. One thing we know for sure is the pace isn't going to letup; in fact it's going to accelerate."

Airbiquity's top 2016 predictions, include:

Increased Recognition of Automotive Leadership Threats by Non-Traditional Technology Players
Well-known and highly capitalized Silicon Valley technology companies like Google, Apple, Tesla, Uber, and Lyft are declaring their ambitions to be automotive industry disruptors and leaders – and consumers are receptive to the idea based on the dominance of their brands, products, and track records of vision and innovation. To counter this threat, traditional automakers will fast-track internal transformations to adopt new technologies, embrace new ecosystem partners, and change outdated processes and procurement policies that are hindering progress. The good news is automakers are increasingly aware of the stakes and taking action as reported by Jason Stein in Automotive News. The bad news is a daunting task lies ahead that will test automaker management teams top-to-bottom, as well as the rank and file that must get on board to make it happen.

Tighter Integration of Connected Vehicle Programs with Product and Customer Life Cycles
In addition to providing consumers with in-vehicle infotainment content, connected cars are unique in the ability to receive remote software updates to fix recalls and enhance features, as well as provide data about vehicle operations and driving history. This ability presents tremendous cost savings and consumer engagement opportunities for automakers such as reducing recall expense, enabling real-time part and system evaluation, optimizing back-office operations and supply chain, and introducing new driving centric services and monetization. But seizing these opportunities will require automakers to better integrate the strategy and operations of connected vehicle service functions with long standing areas like design and engineering, customer experience and support, brand and marketing, and dealer channels. In 2015, Airbiquity saw an increased maturity of automaker connected vehicle service organizations, and we expect this trend to continue through 2016 given the significant brand stakes and increasingly attractive return-on-investment. Jonathan Bacon provides some marketing perspective in a recent Marketing Week article.

Increased Focus on Developing and Deploying Electrification and Autonomous Technologies
Automakers will increase investments for the development of technologies to improve electric vehicle performance and expand autonomous driving features. Regarding electrification, oil prices and consumer demand for electric vehicles may be low today, but increasing global warming concerns and efficiency mandates will press automakers to improve fleet efficiencies. Gas prices will eventually increase followed by consumer demand for more efficient vehicles across all price ranges. In response, automakers must ensure they have the right product at the right time to remain competitive. As far as autonomous goes, the future is clear: It's going to happen. If automakers want a slice of the autonomous pie they have to develop and equip vehicles with enabling technologies. The road to fully autonomous vehicles will be a long one (Airbiquity predicts 2030-35) and there will be bumps along the way. To succeed automakers need to put their stakes in the ground now. Nick Jayne's Mashable article provides a good view of Kia's commitment in these areas.

Airbiquity's Choreo™ cloud-based service delivery platform provides customizable and scalable connected car service delivery for vehicle connectivity, safety and security, infotainment delivery, electric vehicle, and fleet management. Over seven million vehicles have been subscribed to Choreo, which powers hundreds of millions of connected car transactions per month in more than 60 countries and over 30 languages.

Learn more about Airbiquity by viewing this video.