Digital Lifescapes

Intelligent fleet tracking of commercial vehicles requires online connectivity tools and management software, which enables fleet managers to track driver behavior, as well as vehicle location and route. Asset tracking solutions enable enterprises to track cargo from dispatch to final destination -- with increased transparency and more accurate delivery dates. Commercial logistics is the activity of transporting those goods to customers and involves the tracking of related assets. The Fleet Tracking and Logistics market is now driven by the introduction of new technologies. Edge computing brings computation and some data storage closer to the location where it is needed, therefore improving response times and reducing communication network latency. Fleet Tracking and Logistics Market Development Edge computing is the fusion of cloud-based storage and local computing, where the cloud stores centralized data assets, while locally-connected devices can perform the real-time comput...

Some technology sector M&A activity is relatively immune to market disruptions. The robotics industry received significant investment in 2019, reaching $46 billion. A total of $17.8 billion went to acquisitions and a further $29 billion went into investments, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Most of the funding was focused on autonomous passenger vehicles (APV’s), surgical robotics, and warehouse automation, with significant new growth for field robotics and drone services. Robotics Technology Market Development "Despite not having commercialized their technology, autonomous passenger vehicle developers like Waymo, Cruise, Zoox and company have continued to amass enormous funding from the corporate and VC world," said Rian Whitton, senior analyst at ABI Research . Surgical robots also received significant new funding, and have already been commercialized to a considerable extent, with Intuitive Surgical selling over 5,000 Da Vinci ro...

In-vehicle technologies and telematics, in particular, will transform the automotive industry. The term ‘connected cars’ refers to devices installed in the vehicle which allow Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication or machine-to-human interaction. M2M is communication between two single machines with no human interaction. In terms of vehicle telematics, this allows data to be sent from the vehicle to another location and used for vehicle conditioning or to monitor driver behavior. Connected Car Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, over 62 million vehicles will be capable of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication by 2023 -- rising from just over 1.1 million in 2019. This adoption represents an average annual growth rate of 173 percent over these 4 years. Juniper believes that V2V solutions will enable low-latency communications between vehicles, notably for the purpose of driver safety. The new market analysis found that th...

Growing applications for Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technologies will transform commercial vehicle fleets. Moreover, the active fleet management systems already deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in North America was 5.8 million during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2015, according to the latest market study by Berg Insight. Increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 percent, the fleet management systems installed base in North America is expected to reach 12.7 million units by 2020. In Latin America, the number of active fleet management systems is expected to increase from 2.3 million in Q4 2015, growing at a CAGR of 12.8 percent to reach 4.1 million in 2020. Fleet Management Systems Market Development The top fifteen providers of fleet management systems in the Americas now have a combined installed base of more than 4 million active units in the region, and the top five vendors account for 2.5 million units. The leading sol...

Converged devices, such as media tablets, are driving the telematics market with global shipments forecast to reach more than 5 million units by 2020, according to an ABI Research study. Moreover, the introduction of these devices creates the emergence of new business model opportunities and more data applications. The key advantages of utilizing converged devices, such as tablets in commercial vehicles, include the ability to employ automated vehicle inspection in rental car fleets, signature capture for delivery truck fleets, as well as aggregating crowdsourced data and generating customer community feedback. "The adoption of converged devices opens the door for entire application ecosystems and the emergence of dedicated commercial telematics application marketplaces," said Dominique Bonte, vice president at  ABI Research . Case in point: telematics service providers (TSPs) will accumulate crowdsourced data as a means to provide drivers with updated information on r...

The introduction of new applications will give greater meaning to the esoteric concept of mobile machine to machine (M2M) communications. As an example, the number of new cars shipping globally with factory-installed safety and security telematics is expected to grow from 11.5 million in 2013 to 50.8 million in 2018, with a CAGR of 34.5 percent. "Traditional safety and security telematics services such as eCall, bCall, stolen vehicle tracking, and remote diagnostics continue to be rolled out across the globe. Recent announcements include VW’s Car-Net in the US, GM’s Onstar in Mexico, and a host of domestic and foreign car OEM offers recently having become available in China, said Dominique Bonte," vice president at ABI Research . However, the high expectations surrounding telematics mandates -- such as the EU eCall, Russia ERA GLONASS, and Brazil CONTRAN stolen vehicle tracking legislation -- have not materialized due to successive delays, mounting uncertainty and critici...

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or ADAS, are technology-based solutions designed to help the vehicle operator. At the end of 2012, the global market for ADAS was estimated to be $16.6 billion. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, they now forecast that the ADAS market will increase to more than $261 billion by the end of 2020 -- representing a CAGR of 41 percent. "ADAS systems are increasingly being offered by mass-market OEMs such as Ford and Volkswagen," said Gareth Owen, research analyst at ABI Research. While the majority are offered in bundles and sold as optional driver-assist packages, a growing number of OEMs are starting to fit some ADAS systems as standard equipment. ADAS is also becoming more sophisticated. For instance, in May 2013 Volvo will start offering a system that can stop a vehicle if a pedestrian or cyclist is in its immediate path. A key catalyst driving the adoption of ADAS systems in Europe over the next five years will b...