Today’s car buyers expect more in-vehicle content services and applications when they splash out, backed by the high-speed connectivity that enables them. Carmakers are rising to the challenge, finding new ways to stand out. But they also face three major hurdles in delivering the connected experiences customers a fast-evolving marketplace demand.
The Rising Cost of Data
For years, carmakers could predict costs around a vehicle’s lifecycle. As vehicles becomes more software-defined, the cost of data usage is creating new challenges – especially when it varies by country. Data costs depend on the mobile network operator (MNO), customer preferences, and even cultural differences, making it difficult to completely manage global connectivity services,
This is where Explore3 comes in. Our solution provides carmakers with full visibility into how the data is being used, helping finance teams predict data costs. With Explore3’s dashboards, data usage can be tracked across fleets and regions, from high-level to granular, right down to individual devices or models. This allows carmakers to more easily predict data costs and reduce financial surprises.
There are other benefits too. Armed with this level of visibility, carmakers can better understand which services are popular across regions – whether drivers prefer Amazon Music or Spotify – and personalise driver experiences by creating customised service bundles.
Ultimately, the carmaker has an overall better understanding of the uptake of services they launch in the vehicle, and with concrete data on service usage, finance teams can better negotiate deals with service providers.
Optimising Support Services
As connected services grow, so do customer queries – meaning elevated contact centre costs. Like any helpdesk, the key to avoiding long customer service queues is anticipating problems before they happen in the first place. With Explore3, carmakers can monitor service performance in real time and identify issues early.
By setting thresholds for service performance that trigger alerts, technical teams can take a proactive rather than reactive position, solving problems before the customer even becomes aware of them. Explore3 dashboards allow carmakers to dig down into data on content and service usage, seeing what’s happening across different fleets, regions, or car models.
Delivering global connectivity with local solutions
One of the biggest hurdles for carmakers that embed connectivity in newly manufactured vehicles is getting them registered on local networks within their destination markets, especially when each country has its own set of rules and regulations.
Cubic3 is well known for taking the pain out of this complex process. We simplify this process with our Cubic3 Cloud platform. With our connected software embedded at the point of manufacture, the vehicle is pre-configured with the correct profiles for the destination market.
This allows vehicles to automatically connect to local networks and everything from software updates to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) can be managed remotely. Cubic3 Cloud also ensures compliance with local regulations and taxes, making it easier for carmakers to offer seamless global services.
As more vehicles become connected, automakers face real challenges in managing data costs, handling, customer support, and global connectivity. Tools like Explore3 and Cubic3 Cloud give carmakers the visibility and control they need to tackle these issues head-on. While the market for in-car connected software and content services is still evolving, one thing is clear: visibility into the ecosystem is the carmaker’s best chance of staying ahead of the curve.
