Date: 03/01/2011

The cars with factory installed telematics to rise to 62% in 2016 from 10% in 2010

ABI Research has estimated the percentage of new passenger cars globally shipping with factory-installed telematics will increase from less than 10% in 2010 to 62% in 2016.

ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte comments: "Several factors are driving the uptake of OEM telematics, the most important being an automotive industry that is emerging from a painful recession and finding renewed dynamism.

"At the same time soaring interest levels in the adoption of open platforms and the integration of smartphones and telematics applications into vehicles represents nothing less than a renaissance of both the consumer and commercial telematics markets, borrowing the hugely successful application store paradigm from the mobile industry to improve time-to-market and industry innovation, and most importantly to reduce the costs of telematics services for end-users. Initiatives such as the open source GENIVI infotainment platform and Nokia's Terminal Mode standard are creating high expectations and result in industry wide cooperation."

ABI says other market barriers include stalling telematics legislation with both the EU's eCall and Brazil's SVT stolen vehicle tracking projects continuing to suffer from delays and indecisiveness. Finally, despite the many benefits offered by telematics smartphone applications, they also bring new safety risks through increased driver distraction which in turn could lead to legislation limiting the use of portable devices in vehicles.