Improving connected car experiences can clear the road for CSPs to take the lead in development of smart cities

Commercial context

The connected car industry is growing rapidly – in China alone, it will double in size over the next eight years – with immense opportunities for CSPs who can play a part in supporting it. But the connected car market is a complex business, requiring detailed collaboration between numerous stakeholder organizations (including OEMs, CSPs, IoT services and devices providers, insurance companies, and civic authorities) which are themselves highly complex. This complexity calls for a mature ecosystem based on open standards, which can work in concert from trusted common datasets.

Connected platforms based on mobile connectivity are the beating heart of the connected car market – and as the expansion of 5G and AI continues, the opportunities for CSPs grow with them to take the lead in development of smart cities and ecosystem, exploiting the rich real-time data generated by the innovations they support. With each new way CSPs find of adding value to digital experiences among drivers, they and their partners can enhance their understanding of related industrial and technological segments, via data analytics – enabling them in turn with knowledge vital to fostering sustainable urban growth that can benefit them, their partners, public, governments, wider verticals, and the environment.

The solution and its applications

The Ultimate connected car experience enhancing digital lifestyle Catalyst has been helping to make this possible by building a rich set of connected car services, which make major contributions across the subdomains of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-network (V2N), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), vehicle-to-device (V2D), and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V). By using cutting edge technologies such as 5G, AIOps, DT4DI, and cloud, as well as TM Forum APIs and the TMF Value Operations Framework, the team has been able to target defined customer segments for the connected car industry. In doing so, it has also devised a centralized customer-centric connected car business experience management platform to capture and process connected car experiences from the resulting datasets, which can help pave the way for a complete topology for diversified connected car business, such as traffic management, construction site management, remote control, smart roads, smart trucks, in-vehicle entertainment communication, and smart lampposts.

To take one example, a CSP might support deployment of smart lampposts which besides helping to limit energy use and acting as communications infrastructure for other IoT functions, can help civic authorities gain vital statistics for future road planning, including accommodation of Level 4 autonomous vehicles. Using AI and advanced analytics, the data can also be used for predictive assessments of potential issues a road user could face, and trigger proactive resolutions. Other use cases on the road itself include connecting ambulances to transmit patient condition data and calculate the fastest route to hospital, so preparations can be made in advance, and coordinating autonomous trucks in extreme weather to minimize safety risks.

But beyond the direct use of connected vehicles, the platform can support trusted engagement by a wide range of professionals for related activities – from operations managers tasked with service quality monitoring, to account managers basing business development strategies on in-car persona data, the collation and analysis of connected car data in this way is essential to ecosystem maturation. This is aided by smart cognitive modelling, which is a key component of the platform – helping aggregate experience data to improve future experiences, and enable users of complex emerging applications to assess their value in advance of deployment.

As Sun Jianjun, General Manager at China Mobile Guangdong explains: “the intelligent connected car business experience operations system constructed is based on ‘foundation models’ thinking, utilizing highly generalized business ‘big’ foundation models and ‘small’ models in the field of intelligent connected cars. The Smart Cognitive Modeling Framework consists of the business intent intelligent cognitive capabilities, data-driven business decision-making and value closed-loop service process. The system is also supplemented by the systematic evolution of talent culture, organizational governance, value co-creation and other elements. Overall, it helps operators to provide intelligent connected car business experience management, proactively ensure the connected car business experience, efficiently handle connected car customer complaints, and ensure ecological cooperation in the connected car value chain.”

Wider value

Pilot results to date have been striking, and clearly illustrate the wider value of the project – as Mohammed AlSalim, GM of CCEx & DT at project participant stc Group explains, “the solution used to manage smart trucks for major construction projects yielded estimated value gains of 10 million USD. This project is however at its heart about more than just direct applications – its ultimate aim is to make CSPs a key player in a complete ecosystem and the connected car industry, rather than simply a utility provider, and forge a central role for them in the development of smart cities.”

By enabling CSPs to act as the fulcrum for a wide range of connected innovations, the Catalyst helps them make the shift ‘from telco to techco’ – in other words, an essential and active partner to the entire connected car and wider smart city ecosystem. As Geng Xiangdong, Dean of China Unicom Software Research Institute and Derek Chen of HKT, both agree: “this Catalyst demonstrates how champions and ecosystem partners can work with governments to achieve safer environments for smart cities with connected vehicles.” And by achieving that vital goal, CSPs will be in prime position to lead the way on a range of broader smart city objectives too.