Smart car makers want to monetize customer data

The smart car industry is now taking off. More and more companies are creating (or buying) technological systems for their cars, making vehicles safer, more manageable and efficient. In 2017, according to the analytical agency Chetan Sharma Consulting , more cars were connected to cellular networks than smartphones. In particular, the American telecom operator AT & T connects more than a million cars every quarter.

Naturally, this is done for a reason, and in order to get new customers, profit, increase the efficiency of the machines. The operator Verizon plans to start earning more than $ 1 billion on a topic such as the Internet of things and telecommunications. It is believed that this year more than 98% of new cars will be equipped with a communication module.

In theory, data collected by car companies should help the entire car industry be more efficient. But for now, it's just an idea that is on the path to implementation. In this case, the drivers themselves do not know why and why someone collects their data. Recently, the company Solace published the results of its study of the market of connected cars. As it turned out, many owners of smart machines do not know why someone needs their data. In addition, these same people do not trust companies that collect such information.

A total of 1,500 people took part in the study. Of these, about 40 participants said they could not trust the technology, which in some situations would take control (for example, the driver is bad, or there is an emergency on the road). Moreover, younger drivers are more distrustful of technology than people of middle age category. Among the owners of cars aged 18 to 25 years, "incredulous" - 49%. In category 65 and older, only a third of survey participants do not trust smart technologies.

Another interesting fact is that many drivers prefer to depend on the work of the local vehicle systems - sensors, sensors, lidars. But these same people would not like to depend on the road on technologies that are based on the exchange of data over the mobile network. In addition, most drivers would not want their data to fall into the hands of anyone.

However, only a third of drivers know that cars can (and do) store the personal information of the owner of the car. And this data can be a source of profit for machine manufacturers. According to experts from the company Otonomo, by 2020 a substantial part of the profits of automobile companies will be formed from the sale of such data to third parties. True, in fairness it should be noted that it is not at all about providing access to customer bases, where there is a full name, a social insurance number, a credit card is registered. The data referred to above are information about the fuel level, operating modes, oil level, brake fluid pressure and all other technical parameters.

Big data in our time is interesting to many, and automobile companies, as well as gas stations - is no exception. Well, the sale of information is a highly profitable business with a margin of 80-90%. About this business, many companies can only dream of. And if you consider that millions of cars already contain information that third-party companies need, and tens or even hundreds of millions of cars will collect all this in the near future, the scale of the profitability of this type of business can only be guessed at.

Moreover, drivers will be happy to provide information (not all, of course), since in return automobile companies will offer them various bonuses and discounts. But before starting to sell information, automakers need to learn how to depersonalize them, as well as to unify them so that the data is compatible regardless of who sells them. And now the training is carried out by the efforts of various specialists. True, this process will not end soon.

In addition, there is another problem with information - it is cybercriminals. The smarter the machines, the more data they can provide attackers. And the protection of information systems of smart cars is unlikely to prevent a well-prepared person to do this. The fact is that the protection in question is at the initial level of its development. Cars can collect data, but they will not be used by representatives of the white business.

For this reason, the problem must be addressed to both automakers and car owners. The first is to develop data protection systems as well as standards that allow the impersonal data to be distributed. And the second one needs to know about the problem in order to understand what is to be prepared in the near future. Well, we must not forget about the need to develop and improve the legislative framework on this issue. Otherwise, information exchange can turn into chaos, and very quickly.