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78 Big Data Analytics for Connected Vehicles and Smart Cities Connected and Autonomous Vehicles 79

new players (and old players) offering solutions that make use of information
technology to link the driver to a range of services and to link the driver to the
automotive manufacturer.
It is also interesting to note the deep interest from insurance companies
and actuaries focusing on using connected vehicle data to develop more realistic
insurance rates based on vehicle position and driver behavior. Some people also
believe that the connected vehicle can act as a stepping stone to the autonomous
vehicle and consider it the job of telematics to cover both connected and au-
tonomous vehicles. It could also be imagined that insurance companies’ interest
in the connected vehicle is in part driven by the desire to understand driver and
vehicle behavior as the autonomous vehicle emerges.
In the meantime, some in the automotive industry are perplexed by the
idea of technology shaping the future of the automotive industry, due to their
concern that information technology companies will eventually lead the auto-
motive market. This has been compounded by Google’s recent announcement
that it will develop its own autonomous vehicle and by the presence of both
Apple and Google in the connected vehicle market. In particular, Google’s in-
tentions seem to be regarded with a degree of suspicion. However, considering
the discrepancy between how much time we spend in the car and how much
money is spent on in-car advertising, I view Google primarily as an advertising
company and its entry into this market as nothing more than a logical extension
of that activity.
One of the most interesting aspects of the current connected vehicle mar-
ket is the number of participants who have emerged in the middle ground be-
tween the driver and the automotive manufacturer. Some of these participants
are relatively new while others have been in the business for 10–15 years and
support early initiatives such as General Motors’ OnStar service [17]. These play-
ers are information technology, consumer electronics, and telecommunications
companies providing cloud-based services to the automotive manufacturers.
They include the following companies:

• Wirelesscar;
• Airbiquity;
• Covisint;
• Racowireless;
• Sprint Velocity;
• Verizon.

An indication of the extent to which the private sector has developed and
embraced the connected vehicle was found in some statistics from Airbiquity.