Services on demand hits the road as IBM shifts gears

By Rob Bamforth 16 Oct 2003 | IT-Director.com, special to SearchWebServices.com

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Market Analysis

Services on demand hits the road as IBM shifts gears
If you thought your mobile phone was the only data communications route from your car, van or truck and the wider world think again. Telematics encompasses the wider communications that might occur between a road vehicle and a remote server. There was much hype in this field around the peak of the Internet boom, but recently the market has been dropping, and many smart ideas have remained on the drawing board.

One company whose telematics sales have bucked this trend is IBM, which has seen continued growth here in spite of the market decline. IBM first entered this area in 1996 with the networked vehicle concept 'truck', developed in conjunction with Sun, Netscape and Delco Electronics, but appearing more like an accessory from the 'A team'. However, over the last seven years IBM has continued to focus attention and resources in this area, with a number of successful pilot projects and proof of concepts.

One was the innovative "Pay As You Drive" pilot system with UK car insurance company Norwich Union, where IBM partnered with Celestica Ltd, QNX Software Systems Ltd and Motorola Inc. The solution used a specially developed in-car black box, or eDevice, based on a Java platform on the real-time QNX operating system. This collected information about when, where and how the vehicle was being driven, and fed this back to a central server over a mobile link. The idea was that drivers would pay, in this case hopefully less than their regular premium, but based on the usage of their vehicle. So for example, a lower mileage, and driving outside rush hour times or city centre locations might incur lower charges. Norwich Union's research discovered that nine out of ten motorists supported the pay as you go concept.

IBM's approach is based on bringing open standards such as Java and the consumer electronics Open Services Gateway initiative to the automotive space, and combining this with partnerships with automotive product vendors and car manufacturers. Recently IBM and BMW group announced they would work together to focus on the automotive industry's shift from mechanical to software and electronics innovation in-vehicle.

BMW chose IBM as a partner for software architecture and infrastructure, perhaps in part as a result of their recent mixed experiences with in-vehicle software systems, notably the i-Drive on the 7-series. BMW's collaboration with IBM makes them the lead customer to be involved with IBM's Automotive Software Foundry (ASF) initiative. IBM has developed the ASF as a framework to promote the processes, tools and services needed for software and electronics development for in-vehicle systems.

With the ASF initiative IBM are not only emphasising the need to deal with the technical complexities of developing and delivering software to work in real-time systems, but also the changing business of the automotive industry. Software and vehicle electronics innovation now account for the majority of advances in the automotive industry, and by 2010 this is expected to account for close to 40% of a vehicle's construction costs.

Mobile services on demand offers the greatest potential for new revenues and cost management over the lifetime of a vehicle. IBM clearly recognises this, and recognises the value of working closely with car manufacturers to support this evolution. Even in difficult times for the rest of the industry, IBM's deep pockets and commitment to the idea of telematics have supported a wide variety of pilots. They have learnt much from these projects. As this industry blossoms their commitment should pay off.

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