Move over Mr Knight Rider, connected cars are finally arriving in India

5G-ready eSIMs will be a key enabler for the automotive sector as the era of connected vehicles dawns

For people who grew up in India in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and soaked in on heady doses of the iconic TV show Knight Rider, connected cars would have been pure fantasy. But this June has been an exciting month for car aficionados in India, with the launch of Hyundai Venue and MG Motors’ Hector, the first in the series of commercial connected cars that hit the market.

Hyundai Venue, which claims to be the first connected vehicle in India, uses the company’s the proprietary BlueLink connected technology. Using this technology, the company offer 33 functions to the users from controlling the AC to starting or stopping the car engine and tracking the vehicle in case it is stolen, remotely through a mobile app.

While most of the connected features on these cars are for the top-end models, what enables the cars to connect to their owners in the first place is a simple technology called the eSIM. In Hyundai’s case the eSIM hardware has been designed by the Hyundai Mobis while Vodafone-Idea is the service partner. The automaker will provide free data to the owners until the car is under warranty, following which the customers can recharge the data packs, just the way we recharge data packs on a smartphone.

In case of MG Hector’s much awaited SUV which was launched in India last week, the connected featured is powered by a 5G ready eSIM which is powered by Airtel and provides several features including emergency calling, geo-fencing, driver analytics, and vehicle status through voice commands.

eSIMs or embedded SIMs which allow manufacturers to embed SIM cards into the devices and change configuration on-the-go, instead the usual removable SIM cards, were first introduced by Apple for its flagship iPhone. 

Going forward however, tech analysts expect the connected platforms to become so ubiquitous that automakers will simply provide the technology platform while users will go ahead and choose the network service provider of choice for their cars. A lot more will of course depend on how the policy makers decide to go ahead with 5G as it will be a game changer in the automotive segment.

At the Mobile World Congress this year, Tim Sherwood, Vice President, Mobility & IoT Solutions, Tata Communications had said that the autonomous vehicle network will rely on next-gen mobile networks to handle the high levels of data across all areas, though it’s still in the infancy stage. “Thanks to 5G, the insights gained could be used in new ways, such as reducing the amount of breakdowns and providing more detailed real-time traffic reports and air quality information.”

Tata Communications’ software solution MOVE supports traditional SIM as well as eSIM capabilities, making the solution both carrier independent and flexible. In the automobile segment particularly, MOVE enables a manufacturer to become a global mobile virtual network with all the associated capabilities including end user billing, roaming plans, and policy controls.

For example, DRVR, a Thailand-based international fleet management application provider, partnered with Tata Communications to make Asia’s vehicle fleets the smartest and most cost-efficient in the world. As DRVR operated its fleets across Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines and Indonesia, it faced the key challenge of negotiating multiple access agreements to control their cross-border fleet management services. For this, DRVR partnered with Tata Communications to leverage its mobility solution MOVE. This has allowed DRVR to convert information collected from vehicles across Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines and Indonesia into actionable insights, helping drive efficiencies.

Commercial use cases aside, fleet management through connected vehicle platforms is expected to be a big business opportunity for communications service providers as is apparent from the large investments in to this space. Last year, Volvo Cars announced a partnership with Ericsson to use the latter’s connected vehicle cloud platform to further enable its digital vehicle services in more than 120 markets worldwide for the next five years. Similarly, Nokia is ready with 5G-ready augmented reality platform that allows buyers to visualise the car in the convenience of smaller spaces, a use case that can be particularly useful in India for high end car manufacturers.

However, a lot will depend on how 5G standards are adopted across the globe and in India in order to solidify the connected vehicles technology. Indian telecom startup Reliance Jio is known to be working on their own connected car platform for some time.

Mahindra & Mahindra’s connected vehicle application DiGiSENSE assists farmers who own or use Mahindra tractors to monitor how their tractors are used, to optimise usage of fuel and consumables. DiGiSENSE also ensures timely intervention was made available for troubleshooting and tractor service.