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Published on 23 April 2020

Enterprise IT faces a learning curve and must avoid hype when evaluating connected vehicle tech opportunities, such as the use of 5G and private wireless networks.

Enterprises operating fleets of trucks, vans, and cars are looking to create highly connected, smart vehicles using emerging technologies. Creating a strategy, however, is becoming tougher still as the near-term and long-term options vie for their attention today. Learn first, then evaluate.

What a long strange trip it has been! You can trace the advent of the connected car back to the launch of OnStar’s satellite-based interactive in-vehicle services in 1996. Now, 25 years later, IT managers with vehicle fleets have more tech-fueled options than ever to consider. Telematics, designed primarily for trucks, track back farther, to 1974.

The use of connected services such as voice assistants, artificial intelligence (AI), and sensor-loaded vehicle parts, are all forecasted to rise. Enterprise IT managers have much to address on the road to the wide use of smarter, connected, vehicle fleets. And that’s without the safety and security issues that come with driverless and unmanned vehicles.

Understand the big-picture impacts

The extended auto industry alone touches nearly every facet of the American economy. It represents nearly $2 trillion in revenues—more than 10 percent of US gross domestic product (GDP), according to recent research from Deloitte Insights. It’s estimated that the commercial trucking industry adds another $700 billion to that figure. "The future of mobility could affect nearly everyone who commutes to and from a job and nearly every company's supply chain."

Tech is also playing a starring role in the eventual plan for driverless and unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAV), which are seen by some as the answer to the worsening U.S. truck driver shortage and as the future of freight for enterprises, and transportation for consumers.

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