The world including India is moving towards digitalization at a great pace. We are seeing the advent of smart cities, entire nation being connected by Internet of Things, now it’s the automobile sector which is building connected cars to take this era of digitalization a step further. The automobile manufacturers till now were focusing on developing the internal functions of the car like more mileage to enhance the consumer experience while driving the car so that there is a sense of comfort. But now the importance is being given on developing the ability of the car to connect with the outside world so as to enhance the in-car experience.

What is connected car

A connected car is a vehicle which would use its onboard sensors and internet connectivity to enhance the way it works as well as provide more comfort to its passengers. By connected car, we just don’t mean the capacity to surf the web on the go, but the communication between cars, communication of cars with other devices. As of date, there are only a small amount of cars which are web enabled but the automobile industry expects the number to rise considerably in less than a decade’s time.

Connected Car Market

The way the connected cars market will work is where the owner of connected car will be sharing the data of his car with the IT-infrastructure of governments and corporations. In return, the owner will receive services from the government and corporates for a price. The services from corporates for example would be predictive maintenance services or an app to improve the driving experience, etc. The government for instance will provide to the car owner services like emergence management services or information required about a particular area or city to the driver, information about traffic jams on the route taken by driver. The concept of connected cars is expected to establish its base in India as the focus of connected cars is on integrating the features of smart phone and using lot of data and information to give a unified experience to the owner of the car. And seeing the lifestyle experiences required by today’s generation and the exposure to smartphones will definitely help the connect cars market grow exponentially

Indian Start-ups in Connected Car Market

There are a few Indian start-ups that have come forward and started developing the technology required in the connected cars space. Let’s have a look at them.

CarIQ

CarIQ is a plug ‘n’ play device. It is extremely user friendly as it can be connected to any connecter in the car near the steering wheel. Once connected, the CarIQ as the name suggests cleverly comprehends about the car it is connected to and accordingly organizes itself. CarIQ with it’s built in GSM technology collects the data from car and then sends it to the Cloud for processing. After processing the data is available to users on web or smartphone apps.

Raksha

Raksha focuses on the area of safe driving. The aim of the company is to provide solutions during emergencies that can occur while travelling on road. Raksha’s efforts are in the direction of creating a comprehensive and integrated system for effective emergency and health care needs.

Ather Energy

Started by Tarun Mehta, CEO and Co-Founder and Swapnil Jain, CTO and Co-Founder, Ather Energy, electric two-wheeler start-up has built India’s very first Smart Electric Scooter, the S340. This is an innovative product which took almost 3 years to develop and it focuses on bringing the power of data and intelligence to the automobile industry. 

Trak N Tell

Trak N Tell is a start-up which has developed Intelli7. Intelli7 is basically a GPS-based unit which aims at understanding the structural dynamics of a car and accordingly adjusts to panic and threat situations by providing prompt actions. Basically the developers have combined intuition with technology by using Telematics

Savari Networks

Savari Networks is into creating software and hardware sensor solutions with an aim to make transportation more safer, efficient and predictive. They cater to OEM automotive car manufacturers, the automotive aftermarket, smart cities, and pedestrians with their products. With more research and learning, today Savari leads the industry in V2X technology.