Commentary

Telematics: could the Toyota sticky accelerator bring the mainstream media and consumers on-board?

March 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Today’s New York Times has an Op-ed piece by Robin Chase, the founder and former chief executive of Zipcar. Mr. Chase puts forth the proposition that a simple solution to getting out ahead of potential safety issues such as the current Toyota accelerator problem is real-time access to vehicles’ “black boxes” via wireless applications. In the Op-ed piece, he states: “Aberrant engine and driving behavior would leap out of the carmakers’ now-large data set, allowing them, if necessary, to conduct recalls much earlier. And, in exchange for your contribution of anonymous data, carmakers could send you driving benchmarks aggregated from your peers…”. As I and others have presented multiple times at various » Continue reading

Rising Truck Heists an Opportunity?

February 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article entitled “Heists Targeting Truckers On Rise”. The story outlines the increase in trucking freight theft since the current recession started. Being that most decisions to implement telematics systems are driven by ROI models I have been pondering the concept of reduced insurance rates for transporting freight if security and tracking technology is implemented on the trailer. At the Telematics Update Fleet & Asset Management conference this past November in Atlanta I asked some of the insurance industry participants if they had been looking into this sort of offering. All of them responded that they were currently focused on » Continue reading

Time to Ease the Development Process

December 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

A long time, respected colleague of mine, Stefan Gudmundsson of Telit, has a published a feature article in the current addition of M2M Magazine. This article provides an excellent roadmap for any company that is considering developing its first M2M application. Stefan has done an excellent job of integrating both the design and business requirements of an application in to a simple to understand primer on the topic. Anyone who is just starting out in M2M would do well in taking this primer to heart as it will help in cutting through the current buzz or hype and potentially save you much expense and heartache downstream.

To be happy it is great to be healthy. How can medications help up? With the Internet » Continue reading

Cash for Clunkers: a Missed Opportunity for Telematics, Stimulus, and a Smarter Nation?

September 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Despite the ecological value of incentivizing the swapping of low mileage cars for higher mileage cars, there has been some questions over the economic value of the Cash for Clunkers program. Many are wondering if the program only served to pull forward manufacturing demand that would have soon developed anyway. I have been kicking around the following questions: would there have been more value in the program if there were additional incentives for purchasing cars that had telematics systems? Besides the obvious personal and societal advantages regarding safety and security, could cars equipped with telematics potentially be more efficient because of better routing afforded by these devices and their value added services? Could the telematics systems be used to gather real life data » Continue reading

Notes from Telematics Detroit 2009

June 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Having just gotten settled from my return from the 2009 Telematics Detroit event, I have some observations: 1. This year’s event appeared to be the biggest yet. I don’t have the official statistics, but the room where the main event was held appeared to be at least twice as large as in previous years and it was pretty much filled for the keynote sessions. 2. Due to the well known challenges going on in the automotive industry I didn’t really know what to expect attitude or “buzz” wise. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the vast majority of attendees were very positive. It seems that the broad area of telematics – in this case encompassing safety and security, infotainment, and navigation systems – is providing some positive momentum in the industry. 3. The audience continues to » Continue reading

Insight to the public perception of municipal telematics and M2M applications.

March 18, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Yesterday’s NY Times’ Green Inc. blog had a posting by Laura Shin recounting the deployment of “Big Bellied, Text Messaging Trash Cans” in Somerville, MA. It’s heartening to see a mainstream media story that in a straight forward manner provides an overview of the many benefits of an M2M application (the texting trash cans) integrated with a telematics application (the management and routing of garbage trucks). What I think is really important about this posting is that it provides the perspective of politicians and government employees involved as to what they are trying to achieve and how they believe it is working out. I am also pleasantly surprised by the readers’ comments appearing » Continue reading

u-blox buys Neoseven: A traditional commodity model for GSM/GPRS?

March 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment

GPS and mobile communications are essential capabilities of any telematics solution. For a couple of years now, the manufacturers of wireless modules have been offering converged GSM/GPS modules. They have had trouble maintaining margins on the price of the converged package because everyone in the industry has knowledge of the market prices for the individual components and the wireless module companies have done a poor job of communicating any increased value that is provided by the converged offering. Last week, u-blox, the GPS solutions provider announced that it was acquiring Neonseven, an Italian based company that provides » Continue reading

Is the US stimulus plan a catalyst for growth in the telematics and M2M space?

February 19, 2009 by Leave a Comment

As I have been saying for some time now, the global economic crisis could very well be a good, albeit tumultuous, period for the telematics and broader M2M space. Telematics and M2M are all about efficiency and productivity. Efficiency and productivity increases are exactly what are needed by industry and enterprises to help them maintain profitability and survive during these times of shrinking economic activity and potential deflation. The February 17th edition of The Wall Street Journal had an article by Michael Totty with the title: “Smart Roads. Smart Bridges. Smart Grids." The article makes the case that since the government is making huge infrastructure investments as part of the stimulus » Continue reading

Vehicle Payment Assurance Industry Establishes Association

January 28, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Last week I attended the latest meeting of the Payment Assurance Technology Association’s board of directors that was held in conjunction with the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) show in New Orleans. This sub-segment of telematics is currently in a phase of rapid growth due to demand created by the global credit crisis. I love being associated with this group because to me it’s a concrete example of the ways in which telematics and M2M technology can be deployed to solve broader business and social issues. I provide a description of the association and industry below. The Payment » Continue reading

Expectations for technology to save the auto industry?

January 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The January 3rd edition of The New York Times had an opinion piece written by a Computer Science professor and a Product Manager from Google. They suggest four ways that technology can help Detroit to save itself. At least three of these ideas could be considered telematics or an extension of telematics related technology and are not new ideas to those of us in the telematics industry. I have two reactions to stories such as these: 1. Joy; in that people from disciplines outside of telematics are now realizing the potential benefits that we have been speaking about for roughly a decade now. 2. Concern; because we now have the government and mainstream media heavily » Continue reading

Next Page »
Top