Cross-Industry Whitepaper Series: Empowering our connected world
Impact of video on the future of connected cars
Key topics we will discuss in this paper include:
Steps taken to ensure commercial viability
Mobile broadband design to meet the needs of these services
THE ROLE OF VIDEO
IN THE
CONNECTED CAR
Connected vehicles and associated services have emerged as a
potentially significant revenue driver for the automotive industry.
Growth in the market is going to be swift. According to Gartner, global
connected car sales are expected to rise from 6.9 million units in 2015
to nearly 61 million units in 2020 . This will mean an installed base of
nearly 184 million new connected vehicles entering the market
between 2015 and 2020.
INTRODUCTION
1 - September 2016: gartner/newsroom/id/3460018
2- September 2016: strategyand.pwc/reports/connected-car-2016-study
And whilst nearly 70% of those new connections were
tethered (used a passenger’s separate mobile device for
connectivity) in 2015, this situation will also change quickly.
Just over 70% of connections will be embedded within new
vehicles by 2020.
Other industry commentators also see rapid growth too.
Strategy&has projected that revenues from the sales of
connected car service packages could rise from $35.5
billion globally in 2015 to $155.9 billion in 2022. The
majority of sales and revenue will come initially from sales
to owners buying premium brand vehicles, but by 2020
Strategy& expects the volume part of the market to account
for three-quarters of all unit sales.
This growth will unleash tremendous creativity
and innovation, with the introduction of many
new services, and new business models.
Cars’ communications capability will enable:
New in-car information and entertainment services
Dramatically improved visibility into the performance,
maintenance requirements and technical status of vehicles
Better monitoring of drivers’ health
Digital transport systems, in which increasingly automated
cars, roadside infrastructure and centralised management
systems all communicate with each other to aid transport
flows, and improve safety
Improved car security solutions
Better mobile network coverage (using the vehicle as a
node to enable both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-
passenger communications – even where there is no
traditional mobile network coverage)
Enhanced situational awareness for autonomous vehicles.
(Autonomous vehicles under development are currently
limited to line of sight awareness).
Video imagery is being used by autonomous car prototypes
to help the vehicle make sense of its environment (to work
out where it and other road users are, and where they are
going). But so far video has played a limited role in the
connected car story. Whilst some video entertainment has
been offered, early connected car services have focused on
telematics and status information. This is going to change.
Several forces will combine to ensure that
transmission of video – both to and from the car
– becomes a major feature of connected cars:
Video cameras are becoming mainstream technologies
in cars. Cameras now available include reversing cameras;
360-degree vision systems (offered by combining the
pictures from two or three cameras around the vehicle);
blind spot monitoring cameras (in mirrors); split-view
cameras which project right, left or central views on the
dashboard; cameras to support lane positioning; and
various high-end vehicles even include night view cameras.
It is not uncommon for vehicles to have three or four in-built
cameras. Chinese manufacturer BYD for instance markets
sedans with four cameras to deliver 360-degree views
around the car. At the high-end of the market, the Cadillac
CT6 prestige sedan is equipped with seven cameras includ-
ing the night vision option.
Networks will rapidly improve (underpinned by the
deployment of new generations of mobile technology) to
make streamed video consumption much more reliable
and enjoyable for passengers.
Automotive manufacturers, entertainment and software
companies have realised there is an untapped economic
opportunity, and are moving to sell new video-rich services
to passengers spending hours in their cars.
Improved image recognition and video analysis technology
will put video at the heart of connected and autonomous
car security and safety systems.
21
61
MILLION
Global connected car sales are expected
to rise from 6.9 million units in 2015 to
nearly 61 million units in 2020
141
BILLION
A report from Allied Market
Research suggests that the
global connected car market
may generate revenues of
$141 billion in total by 2020
$
1.8
BILLION
LeEco plans to invest
$1.8 billion in a car
plant in China
$KEY DATA
VIDEO WILL PERFORM SEVERAL MAJOR TASKS IN THE
FUTURE CONNECTED CAR
PART 1
Video transmission to and from cars will enable a range of
innovative services for customers:
Video At the Heart of In Car Entertainment
Streamed video entertainment services for passengers
will become increasingly popular and sophisticated, and
there are many examples of organisations already moving
to exploit the opportunity this presents. Chinese media
streaming company LeEcohas unveiled an approach
which sums up the role cars will play in the future of
entertainment consumption. LeEco announced an
ecosystem consisting of platform, content and
applications that will all run on its Le Cloud video delivery
network and that will be accessible from a range of
devices including phones, TVs, and smart bikes. The
content and applications have also been included in
LeEco’s new concept car, called the LeSee Pro. LeEco
promises the ability to “cast content from your phone to
your car with a simple swipe”.LeEco’s entertainment
lounge in future vehicles will provide its full portfolio of
content (including music, full-length HD movies, TV
programmes and sports) on any of five in-car screens (and
not necessarily the same content on each screen). The
LeSee Pro remains a concept vehicle at this stage but the
company harbours commercial ambitions. It plans to
invest $1.8 billion in a car plant in China, and has
announced projects to work with Aston Martin, BAIC Motor,
Yidao Yongche and Faraday Future. It is expected to show
its first production car in 2017.
LeEco is not the only car company showing off its
entertainment plans. Volvo for instance unveiled Concept
26, another concept car that it named to reflect the
average 26 minutes spent commuting daily that “could be
spent doing something more meaningful”. The solution
presented in Concept 26 continuously receives streamed
entertainment – even through network not-spots – by
analysing the planned or likely route, and speeding up
content delivery to provide a buffer when passing through
areas with connectivity.
- Anders Tylman, General Manager Volvo Monitoring &
Concept Centre at Volvo Car Group
Imagine a highway full of autonomous cars with
their occupants sitting back watching their
favourite TV shows in high definition. This new way
of commuting will demand new technology, and a
much broader bandwidth to ensure a smooth and
enjoyable experience.”
AT&T and Uber meanwhile have been testing demand for
in car entertainment since October 2015 by streaming
live college football games to Samsung tablets mounted
in headrests in specially adapted cars. The service has
been available in several US cities, using AT&T’s LTE
network to deliver the content. The partnership has been
expanded and in September 2016 they announced a
marketing initiativ