The time for Telematics over IP (Internet Protocol) has come

Automakers have been delivering Telematics services such as Air Bag Deployment Notifications, Remote Door Unlock and car diagnostics for many years now. However, the technology they have been using hasn't evolved with the onset of the Internet and IP based services. They still use old technology, such as proprietary modems running over cellular voice networks (Remember 300 baud modems?) and SMS messages. These technologies are slow, proprietary and not forward compatible. While these may have been the best methods back in 1990, networking technologies have evolved considerably since then and the auto industry hasn't kept up. It's time for automakers to catch up and put IP in the car

Consumers are bringing the Internet and IP into the car today independent of the automaker by bringing in their own devices such as the Autonet Mobile router and Smart Phones for entertainment applications. IP has clearly won as the network protocol of choice in the world today and it's ideal for providing telematics services to the car as well as entertainment applications. Can you imagine any other industry that is still debating whether to develop applications using IP or not? Back in my days at Wellfleet we were developing routers that supported many protocols such as DECnet, NetBEUI, IPX and appletalk, but we eventually got the hint that IP had won the race and the Internet was built on top of IP. it's time for the auto industry to get that same hint.

I think the reason for this hesitation with some automakers is that when they think of IP, they only think of the Internet with applications like Facebook or Google and they don't see how that relates to the telematics services they wish to provide. They don't get that IP is a method of data transportation and is useful for many types of content. Some of the advantages of IP are:

• Speed - The mobile broadband wireless networks are all built using IP. While it may have been true at one point where cellular voice networks had better coverage than the cellular data networks, that's just not the case any more. The opposite is true in my experience.
  
  
• Scalability - Since IP is a layered model, applications can be built independently of the network type. Today we have wide deployments with 2.5G and 3G networks that support IP. Coming soon we'll have 4G networks like WiMax and LTE. An IP based application that works today will still work tomorrow as networks evolve. Some of the proprietary solutions out there require a complete application re-write as the networks evolve.
  
  
• Time to Market Advantage - By using standards based protocols and development tools, automakers are able to get applications to market much faster and cheaper than using custom and proprietary solutions. Also, there are millions of developers and applications that are developed using IP based solutions and it's very powerful to be able to leverage that kind of available resource.
  
  
• Reliability - IP is capable of ensuring that messages are received, understood and completed successfully, while some of these voice based packages are unable to receive any feedback, so you don't know if a message was ever received or not.
  
  

Automakers are traditionally very conservative about adopting new technologies because they have to be when looking at anything that concerns passenger safety. But I think the case can be made that IP is a proven protocol and the networks that support it are ready for the auto industry. Automotive engineers are mostly graded by how many warranty and safety issues they have but they should also be graded on how innovative they are.

This whole Toyota mess probably has a lot of auto engineers paranoid about integrating new systems and technologies in their vehicles, but I'd argue that they got into this mess because they haven't totally embraced modern software development processes and tools. It seems like they are integrating embedded software solutions in their cars, but their development processes and tests treat it like it was a spark plug or a piece of steel. The Automotive industry is becoming more and more like the software industry but they've got a bit of catching up to do. However recently, I have seen some really positive signs out of Detroit lately that they are now understanding this and are preparing to make aggressive moves towards adopting IP and modernizing their network operations.


-DOug

Posted at 06:47PM Mar 14, 2010 by dmoeller in Doug Moeller  |