With vehicle connectivity becoming the next hot topic in the world of technology and innovation, NASSCOM Centre of Excellence partnered with Telematics Wire and organised the fifth edition of India’s biggest summit of connected vehicles in Bengaluru — The Connected Vehicles 2020. 

With more than ten connected vehicles on display, and over 1200 delegates from different domains, the summit aimed to bring the real essence of connected vehicles in the country.

On a three day session, numerous speakers driving the automobile and technology industry extensively shared their views on spearheading an Intelligent Transportation System in the country which, in recent years has seen massive growth in the connected vehicles space along with the development of telematics at a rapid pace. With the presence of high-speed internet connectivity and smartphone integration via applications, the adoption of telematics among users has been on the rise.

In the summit, one of the most talked subjects remained the adoption of AIS-140 which has been made mandatory by the government, i.e., the capability of tracking vehicles and the availability of emergency buttons in the vehicle to ensure a safe ride for everyone, especially for women. Moving forward, the summit also focused on the government’s mandatory plan to adopt the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) in every vehicle by the year 2022. It encouraged manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to step up and come in full support.

Connected, Clean & Smart — The Backbone Of Future Mobility

Diego Graffi, CEO & MD of Piaggio Vehicles Private Limited said, “There are several benefits related to connected vehicles, such as helping authorities to understand traffic flow, to help understand drivers the traffic build-ups, and the breakdowns of accidents. The problems to these solutions can be only brought by an ecosystem which is fully connected.” 

Graffi further demonstrated the latest app interference which is capable of hosting information to keep a driver connected to the vehicle such as state of charge, distance to empty, vehicle balance, number of batteries available at the nearest station with a strong emphasis on moving to electric vehicles with swapping battery system. 

On the other hand, SS Gill from VE Commercial Vehicles enlightened on transforming the logistics business through the use of advanced telematics in the trucks manufactured by Eicher. With the use of RFID and connected apps, fleet owners are now capable of managing fuel, managing uptimes, and managing trips 24×7 by giving instructions to drivers about the health of a vehicle. It also orders to stop before a breakdown takes place, and sends a nearest quick response team kept on standby to fix the issues in order to resume the journey. In short, ensuring that long hauls vehicles reach their destinations in the shortest possible time frame. 

V2X & IoT solutions

Amongst many innovative ideas, V2X earned limelight by enabling a vehicle connecting to another process and taking the next necessary steps. Maneesh Prasad, CEO of Telematics Wire, explained, “It is not like every vehicle will talk to every vehicle. The vehicles will talk with another vehicle that is in the proximity of 300 meters which is a fairly good distance. For example, if there is a crossing without traffic signals, then the vehicles will decide who will cross first.” To make V2X turn into a reality, DSRC or dedicated short-range communication along with 5G is likely to bring down the latency to a satisfactory extent and allow the vehicle to communicate within the needed time frame.

Moving forward, a lot is riding on M2M and IoT devices as several system designs, and software development services are coming into picture for IoT Node and gateways. IoT clouds are being designed to collect data from POS, wearable devices, connected conventional as well as electric cars, IoT gateways and sensors to provide analytics and insights along with management of devices. 

Threat Protect & Smart Security

The amount of data that connected vehicles are likely to generate, the security of vehicles was a concern on everyone’s mind from the industry. However, smart and intelligent analytics platforms are being developed that will monitor a vehicle’s ecosystem to keep continuous surveillance along with risk management and vulnerability assessment. The systems will keep a check on different kinds of threats such as CAN attack, network attack, malicious firmware update, wrong display of data, DB injection and keyfob attack in various sections of a vehicle such as telematics ECU, battery management system, gateway ECU and RKE. 

Not just four-wheelers but AI-powered two-wheelers such as the Revolt RV400 can also receive a number of attacks in the form of electromagnetic fault injections, GPS spoofing and immobiliser attack to point a few. Adding to the concern, Prasad says, “The industry is working continuously keeping the kind of threats in the picture. On the government’s front, TED or transport engineering division is working on various standards related to automotive cybersecurity. 

Data ownership is another bottleneck that needs to be overcome since a big data is supposed to be generated and who should hold that data remains a debate. Not to mention, who is likely to respond or should be made responsible in case of a data breach is another segment to look at. “There are different situations at hand, but the automotive industry is looking forward to bringing in innovation which will be safer for everyone to use as that is the number one priority,” concluded Prasad.

Prominent industry experts such as SecureThings, Nextgen, Hero MotoCorp, Zilogic, Daimler, Piaggio Vehicles, Mercedes-Benz, Mahindra and Mahindra, Renault-Nissan, Eicher Motors, and Royal Enfield are some of the big names participate in the summit.