You can’t possibly have watched the news this past week without experiencing all of the discussion related to the potential for an “iCar.” First of all, why is this so shocking and surprising to everyone? What Google does Apple does. What Apple does Google does. Android Auto – CarPlay.
Let’s look at the highlights from the last week. The stories bounced all over the place – are they or aren’t they? Is it research or is it real? Will it be a self-driving car or an electric car or maybe a self-driving electric car? Will they build it themselves or are they just doing a research project and someone else will build it? I’d venture a guess to say the hype on this is not nearly done. Especially when considering the fact that this topic has been discussed on and off for a few years now. Check out this article from 2012 that predicted we might all be driving around in iCars by 2015.
Speaking of 2012, let’s see how good the predictions were over the last few years on this topic. Below is a YouTube video from 2012 discussing Steve Job’s supposed vision for the iCar (fast-forward to 3:44 in the video). What’s interesting is that this really had nothing to do with developing a car, but I would say it is pretty right on the connected car topics of today.
All kidding aside, why could the iCar be so disruptive?
What does Apple do well? It offers easy-to-use intuitive products that work. Think about the car having more intuitive services. Connected car consumer surveys indicate there’s still a great deal of market education to do and a lack of understanding about how all the features work. But what if they were easier to use and worked just like your smartphone?
Next up: electric cars’ battery life
This is a well-known problem in the electric car industry that no manufacturer has solved to the extent required as of today. Based on the lawsuit filed against Apple by A123 Systems for hiring so many of their battery engineers; could they be the first to truly solve this issue? There has also been hiring from the ranks of Tesla in the news.
Automotive services in the sharing economy
Within the connected car topic, one of the concerns going forward is how the OEMs will operate in a society of drivers who are less interested in owning their cars. This will cause huge adaptions to be required within the OEMs in order to be successful. What if a new car company came on board that was built with this mindset from the start? Imagine an App Store for your car needs, perhaps. Based on where you’re going and what you’re doing, use the car you require at that specific time.
The story continues to evolve
Will there be iCars on the road by 2020? Some industry experts offered their views to Bloomberg earlier today. It seems they believe there’s still a great deal of innovation yet to come in the electric and connected car categories.
It’s Freitag and the weekend is upon us. Each week this column will focus on light-hearted musings of the wireless industry and all of the moving parts that make this industry work. Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and security. Having experience as an operator, software and hardware vendor, and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless News through daily contributions going forward.
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Picture credit – http://appadvice.com/appnn/2012/03/could-apple-be-making-an-icar
