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What is the size of the market opportunity for connected vehicles?

Connected Vehicles and their data have the potential to be a multi-billion dollar opportunity. In 2020, the Connected Car market was valued at over USD 55 billion. Globally, it’s estimated that the Connected Car market could reach over USD 100 billion by 2028.

What are some connected vehicle data use cases?

Road Safety

Connected Vehicle data can be used for road safety applications to proactively identify unsafe intersections where a crash is likely to occur. Data such as braking, steering, and g-force can help identify patterns of behaviour that could be leading indicators, preventing potential deaths and injuries.

Freight Data

Connected Vehicle data can be used to inform freight modelling and freight origin-destination. Data such as latitude and longitude, acceleration, speed, stopping times, and distances between stops can help to identify where trucks are going, whether they are laden or unladen, whether they are genuine freight trips, and what routes are they taking to get between point A and B.

Origin-Destination

Connected Vehicle data can be used in origin-destination studies to understand who is travelling from A to B, where they go, how long they stay, what routes they take, and travel time. This can be applied for both private vehicles or fleet use-cases.

Asset Maintenance

Connected Vehicle data can be used to proactively improve asset maintenance. The data can passively measure changes in road surfaces using gyroscopic data, such as the roll, pitch, and yaw of a vehicle. This helps to identify and measure signs of deterioration before more serious damage occurs such as potholes, ingress, or cracking.

Read how Compass’ data was used to measure the road deterioration in Lismore caused by the 2022 floods to help prioritise maintenance and repair efforts.

Changes to road deterioration in Lismore caused by flooding

Transport Modelling

Connected Vehicle data can be used as an input into transport and traffic modelling such as freight and other fleet use-cases to gain more in-dept insights into actual vehicle behaviours and travel patterns.

Parking and capacity

Connected Vehicle data could be used to facilitate ticketless parking and identify carpark capacity. Using a vehicle's VIN and GPS location, drivers could park at any parking station or curbside parking spot without the need to retrieve a physical ticket to display in their windshield.

Autonomous Ready networks

Connected Vehicle sensors can be used to measure how autonomous-ready sections of our roads are, where it fails, and why it fails. The sensors can be used to create point cloud maps - a more scalable alternative to LiDAR.

EV Charging network planning

Connected Vehicle data can be used to plan EV charging networks based on origin-destination studies, popular rest stops, and popular routes. It can also be used to identify which charging stations are the most popular and locations where demand outstrips supply.

Local Area Traffic Management

Connected Vehicle data can be used to understand the effects of road projects or changes made to road infrastructure. This includes the impacts on drivers when speed limits are changed, roads are closed, 2-way roads are converted into 1-way roads, school zone analysis, the impact of adding new raised thresholds, and the impact on surrounding roads where these changes are made.

Read more about how Compass data was used to monitor the effect of changing a popular 2-way street into a 1-way street to improve safety for pedestrians

Data showing speed reductions post-trial.

Road User Charging (RUC) and Tagless Tolling

Connected Vehicle data could facilitate Road User Charging and Tagless Tolling. As the number of EV’s increases, Road User Charging is needed to recoup lost tax revenue traditionally collected via fuel purchases. Currently, EV drivers need to manually report their odometers and have their cars audited by the road authority to determine the number of kilometres travelled. There are a number of problems with this approach:

  • Manual processes are frustrating and time-consuming for both drivers and road authorities
  • No way to determine what kilometres are driven in one state versus another if the driver travels over state boarders.
  • Drivers are charged for all kilometres driven, regardless of whether that was on private property, public roads, or toll roads where a charge has already been paid.
  • Disadvantages people in rural areas who have more limited access to alternative public transport options.

Similar to the parking use case, connected vehicle data may facilitate the removal of toll gantries, e-tags, cameras and number plate readers, and creates a more seamless user experience by integrating payments for road use that is fairer and allows for policy flexibility.

Bonus: check out our Learning Hub for a full list of case studies

Click here to read Part 5: Challenges for Connected Vehicles