At
CTIA Mobility Week a week after AT&T announced it latest connected car platform, AT&T ‘s Ralp de la Vega along with a panel of AT&T connected car fans, discussed how important connected cars are to the Wireless industry.
de la Vega noted that Strategy Analytics estimates that nearly 10 million 4-wheeled smartphones in the form of connected cars will be on the road in a few years. He also reported that AT&T studies show people prefer a shared family data plan that lets them to share data for many devices, and customers want to be able to add their cars to their rate plans.
AT&T is planning more 4G LTE cars for its $10 a month add-on plans. Audi announced its 2015 Q3 will be equipped with 4G LTE following the path of the A3 announced earlier this year.
Audi was the first automaker to offer a Mobile Share data plan option to AT&T wireless customers who would like to add their vehicle to their existing smartphone or tablet data plan.
Mary Chan from AT&T reminded the panel and audience that GM will offer 4G LTE in more than 33 models through its OnStar service. She added that OnStar from AT&T will be available in Europe in select countries.
Arun Bhikshesvaran, Ericsson’s CMO, said that according to an internal study, about 50 percent of those surveyed would switch brands for a connected car.
Seventy-two percent of people would delay a new car purchase one year to buy a connected car by their preferred automaker.
The best feature of data connections for auto makers is over-the-air-updates noted Tesla’s CIO, CIO Jay Vijayan making the process low maintenance because owners don’t have to come in to the dealer for updates.
To make sure that it would work seamlessly, clear easy voice commands are important, noted Mike Kennewick, co-founder and CEO of VoiceBox, is working on to make sure people interact safely with cars.
Also on the displayed right next the speakers in the panel were a Chevy Corvette and Tesla S.