The age of the internet is set to make everything ‘smart’. You have smartphones, smart TVs, smart watches, smart cards. Basically anything that wirelessly connects to other things using the power (and magic) of the internet. All this has been dubbed as the ‘Internet of Things’, which is an initiative to connect devices we use every day to make our lives easier and more convenient. The smarting up of machines is now moving over to bigger things, and there is a conscious effort from car manufacturers to develop and manufacture new cars that are capable of connecting and interacting with the smart devices you already have in your possession.
The focus of this connected initiative is on the central infotainment system present in most newly launched cars as the point of interaction where information pertaining to the car’s performance, navigational inputs, and entertainment features are at the driver’s fingertips. Before the Internet of Things initiative, these functioned as individual units but this new connected initiative looks to connect the car to the internet. That means better navigation information, direct assistance from the manufacturers in case of a breakdown or malfunction, and direct access to entertainment content on the internet.
This new technology, fortunately, isn’t restricted to recently launched cars. Any car manufactured after 2008 with an On Board Diagnostics (OBD) port can be turned into a connected car. Companies like Zene and CarIQ are offering OBD plug-in devices that connect with their respective apps on your smartphone and provide details about how the car is performing in terms of fuel efficiency and other such parameters.
The future is connected and fortunately, this time there’s no reason to get onto the bandwagon years after the whole world has experienced the new technology. So, go ahead and take the leap into the connected future.
