“If I asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse.” – Henry Ford

As Henry Ford transformed the automotive industry, he realized that most are resistant to change, and we, as consumers, do not always understand the capabilities and potential in innovation. Lucky for us, Ford had that vision and forged ahead, and made history through innovation.

Ford’s quote about consumers wanting a faster horse still transcends into the 21st century and applies to our lives more than ever in 2014, as we are moving in a new direction of automobile innovation. Evolving further then the assembly line, and that of the Model T, technology is transforming new cars into vehicles that will be able to communicate and hopefully, create safer highways and byways. The hope is that as our driving population increases, through technology, the number of fatal crashes decreases. In the United States, the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 33,561 deaths caused by fatal crashes in 2012 – that is far too many and the connected car can help.

So what is the connected car?

The connected car is a loaded term describing all the technological advances happening inside automobiles – from using cloud technology to transfer information, to a car keeping diagnostics and sending to a dealership for accurate repairs.

The vehicle-to-vehicle communication takes the connected car deeper and the concept uses a radio beacon to transmit a vehicle’s position, speed, and other information between cars. Cars would share this information in a two-way free flow and a vehicle’s computer would alert the driver to an approaching accident, hoping to avert the disaster. The goal is to overcompensate for human flaws such as our decreasing attention spans and distracted driving, will help drivers avoid blind spot issues, and therefore, decreasing the frequency of crashes.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx stated, “By helping drivers avoid crashes, this technology will play a key role in improving the way people get where they need to go while ensuring that the U.S. remains the leader in the global automotive industry.”

In an interview with Gigaom, Bill Ford (the great-grandson of Henry Ford and current chairman of Ford Motors) stated, “Those communicating vehicles could not only help each other avoid accidents, but could allow drivers to select optimal routes based on prevailing traffic conditions.”

Elaborating on this concept, Ford painted the picture of a future where cars would connect to traffic management infrastructure that could coordinate the activities of all vehicles on the road and a city’s other transportation infrastructure including pedestrian crosswalks to bike lanes. In response, cars could be spaced optimally for traffic flow, and vehicles heading toward similar distant destinations would form “platoons,” separating them from soon-to-be-exiting traffic. That snapshot of more organized travel patterns could absolutely be the future of transportation thanks to connected cars and a more data-driven infrastructure.

But, can we be too connected?

The downside really comes back to the issue of having too much technology and it’s evasive properties hitting our daily activities too hard. From a “big brother” effect to cars connectivity malfunctioning, would these connected cars and a regulated transportation infrastructure be too much? It may be too soon to tell.

There might be push back from consumers who are already on edge about companies and the government knowing too much about us. The connected cars could be tracking and storing data, which would be available to various agencies and more interestingly, insurance companies.

Since it’s predicted that vehicle-to-vehicle communications could prevent up to 80 percent of accidents (not including those involve drunken drivers or mechanical failure) this should result in a reduced cost for insurance for drivers – good for consumers, but not great for the industry in terms of premiums.

But, there is a caveat and a way for insurance companies to use this data to their advantage. With a connected car, insurance companies can track individual driver data and potentially adjust rates based on driver behavior (how the car is driven and when/where it is driven).

Progressive, using their Snapshot program, has already tapped into tracking driver behaviors. The company assures you that they don’t want to know where you go or how fast you get there, they insist they just want to know the amount of driving you do, how hard you hit the brakes, and what time of day you travel. However, if you look closer, there are some discrepancies in the fine print.

If you read their privacy policy, it can be hard to understand in terms of tracking speed. Overall, they explain that they do track vehicle speed, but it does not reveal whether or not you were exceeding the speed limit at any given time. However, with their data sets, it is very easy to determine your speed at a given time, and if you submit a claim stating you were driving at a speed lower than the limit, but the data states otherwise, Progressive has the ability to deny your claim.

Another myth with Progressive’s Snapshot is with GPS technology. Progressive claims that the device does not contain GPS technology and does not track GPS location, but they do have a telematics device. This device is a type of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and combines GPS, mobile computing and cellular communication. This technology cannot pinpoint your exact location like a GPS, but it can use wireless carriers for a pretty accurate estimate of your location.

For more on Progressive’s Snapshot, read this blog post, which gives some in-depth information about the program and ultimately, advises you to steer clear.

What the future holds



As automobile makers continue to unveil improvements and technology packs in their new models, the key will be transparency and proving the efficiency of these advancements. Consumers will be weary of use, but if they understand that the intentions are [mainly] pure, adoption might be quicker than anticipated. Most likely, all cars in the future will be connected and the information will be flowing all the way to the government, but what each entity does with the data is what will really matter. Let’s hope they all use it to make our roads safer.