We already passed the time when potential car buyers were revolving around the powerful engine, sleek design, and computer panel. With the rise of car connectivity technologies, a driver’s experience has been significantly changed, as well as drivers’ expectations of safety, convenience, and personalized services.

Generally, the costs of owning and maintaining a vehicle are one of the highest in a household. The ways of balancing between having a pleasant driving experience, extending the life cycle of a vehicle, and cost reduction are always in the mind of many vehicle owners.

Powering the vehicles with connected services creates efficiencies for the drivers allowing them to experience greater comfort, improved usage, more personalized, and digitized service.

In this article, we cover the main aspects of car connectivity that are aimed to bring drivers’ experience to the next level.

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Car connectivity in a few insights.

According to the data presented by Citroen, drivers in Europe spend 4 years in their cars on average. Spending such a long time inside, many of the respondents see the ideal car of the future as safe, powerful, and efficient.

Growing demand for connectivity as a current trend. According to McKinsey, 13% of buyers are no longer prepared to even consider a new vehicle without Internet access, and more than 25% already prioritize connectivity over features such as engine power and fuel efficiency. In fact, 75% of consumers consider connected car services an important feature in their next car purchase.

IHS Automotive expects that 152 million actively connected cars will be on roads around the world by 2025 and that the average car will produce up to 30 terabytes of data every day.

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What can drivers expect from connected cars?

Transforming driving experience through technology. Consumers expect connectivity in every part of their life, and driving a car is not an exclusion. Digitalization fosters the deployment of leisure and information services in vehicles. Connected car technologies create a completely new and different way of driving experience, deliver personalized benefits, and improve driving conditions.

Improving driving comfort and experience. Drivers receive information and advice from the analysis of vehicle data to improve their driving habits and lower their consumption. This can help improve the comfort and comfort of their passengers while saving money and providing environmental benefits.

Ensuring safeness. One of the main directions of the connected car technologies is empowering driving capabilities in vehicles, thus creating safer roads for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Thanks to connected car technologies and platforms like OBI+ providing fast and easy access to connected car services, drivers get a new set of possibilities to benefit from. For instance, every driver can get access to remote vehicle diagnostics and be aware that their vehicles are safe to drive as mechanics have access to the vehicle data and status. Such a remote diagnostics service predisposes to strengthen the market for connected cars. It brings both safety and convenience to the driver, helping to act on issues as soon as such occur and eventually predict potential problems with the vehicle. With safety at the forefront of the car-owning experience, this connected opportunity brings drivers confidence in their vehicle.

Secureness. Connected car technologies enable better security both for the driver and the vehicle. For example, by sending alerts about any unauthorized activity as well as help in insurance cost reduction.

Convenience. As we have already covered in the previous article, convenience is crucial for most of the drivers. In today’s fast-moving world, anything that offers convenience is a plus. Many car owners in particular value connected car features like direct communication with the mechanic, or virtual digest with the latest vehicle overview that allows them to save time by avoiding lines of waiting or reducing wait times to solve car-related tasks. Many drivers rely on their vehicles to go to work every day, others spend a significant part of their day in a vehicle.

Increasing productivity. For a big part of the drivers using cars for commuting or any kind of business purpose, connected car services all-in-all are able to increase drivers' productivity by simplifying and/or automating car-related tasks. On average, those groups spend 1 hour per week to administrate their driving by using Google Maps to remember information about trips in order to prepare different mileage reports. This equals to more than 40 hours or 5 working days per year spent on something that could be automized!

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More and more people and service providers are recognizing the benefit of connected car services and take advantage of using these new possibilities. At OBI+, we deliver new smart services both to drivers and the auto industry. In this way, we aim to provide more value for everyone and create new possibilities to enable even more benefits.