One of the next frontiers of digital innovation is your car. You may have heard the saying that the automobile is the next mobile device… playing on the mobility of four wheels. In all seriousness, the device we park in our driveways is slowly inheriting and enhancing the role of the one we carry in our pockets.
This is a topic we’ve been following for a while, which re-emerged during Localogy 20/20 when Mobileye’s Mois Navon walked us through the positive impact and ripple effects that autonomous vehicles (AVs) will have on our lives. That includes everything from safety to more AI-infused and connected experiences.
And as we examined recently, the data that’s required for complex automotive telematics systems can also have the byproduct of tracking ad effectiveness. It’s all about measuring behavior post-ad exposure to determine impact on transactions or store visits — the job usually performed by your smartphone.
But it’s also differentiated from mobile attribution. For example, because the car is a place where radio listening is native, ad exposure could be tied to subsequent behavior and give radio broadcasters a much-needed digital edge. The same goes for out-of-home advertising, given billboard impressions.
The Plot Thickens
Beyond the above opportunities, two new connected car news items emerged this week to further the narrative. First, General Motors launched an auto-insurance division, which will utilize driving data from its connected cars. Second, Blackberry has partnered with AWS to integrate sensor data in vehicles.
Starting with GM, the company saw an opportunity to better deploy the data that’s generated from its growing fleet of connected cars. In this case, an insurance division can benefit from the actuarial precision enabled by first-party driving data. For the same reason, it can hyper-target competitive offers to GM owners.
Given these dynamics, the new insurance division will be housed under GM’s OnStar brand. For those unfamiliar, OnStar is GM’s connected car backbone. Consisting of telematics, navigation and other services, OnStar is offered to new GM owners at drastically reduced rates, causing many to opt-in.
Those OnStar promotional packages can be seen as a loss leader or Trojan Horse to then seed other initiatives like everything mentioned above. To quantify that installed base, OnStar tracks 19 million trips daily through its Smart Driver program; and 7 million GM car owners have enrolled since the program’s 2016 launch.
Previous to this move, GM offered insurance (GMAC) from 1925 to 2008. Different market factors and capabilities now compel it to relaunch, and for good reason. Synergies with OnStar plus GM’s installed base of car owners will make it a meaningful competitor in the $250 billion auto-insurance market.
As for rollout, coverage will be offered this week to about 1,000 GM employees. It will then be offered to the remainder of its 85,000+ employees and the general public by the end of next year. Non-GM owners will be able to purchase OnStar insurance policies, but they won’t get access to the same offers and perks.
Yes, that Blackberry
On to the second connected-car development this week, Blackberry (yes, that Blackberry) has partnered with AWS to infuse data monitoring technology into new cars. As background for those unfamiliar, Blackberry has accomplished a Foursquare-like pivot, now positioned as a business security and data integration play.
Back to the deal itself, the two companies will jointly develop and market Blackberry’s vehicle data integration and monitoring platform known as IVY. This builds from an existing partnership that co-develops and integrates the AWS-enabled QNX service in 175 million cars, based on direct OEM partnerships.
The difference between that existing QNX integration and the newer IVY platform is that the latter will let automakers monitor vehicle sensor data to inform and alert car owners about key diagnostic events. It offers the unique ability to do this in a centralized way, even with third-party “after-market” equipment.
IVY is also cloud-connected (it is AWS after all), so that it can provide driver-facing features like real-time info. That could include everything from dynamic road condition alerts to driving performance to EV battery status. Driver expectations and standards for such real-time data continue to ratchet up.
Notably, IVY is also built like a true software platform (which Tesla has been doing for a while). In that sense, it lets automakers generate SDKs to tap a wider universe of developers to build things. That could include features around performance, diagnostics and software updates. Think of it like iOS for your car.
BlackBerry stock was up 35 percent, or $2.11, at today’s NYSE opening bell, signaling investor confidence in both smart vehicle services and AWS’ “halo effect.” We’ll keep watching it closely.
