Telematics is being used between vehicles and to third parties for sending and receiving information. It is enabling automotive companies to offer new services such as driver assistance, increased safety and greater convenience. As more and more people hear about telematics there are many questions such as what is telematics in a car?, what is telematics navigation?, what is telematics used for? and things like what is telematics box in car? or what is telematics unit?
Telematics enables cars to send data to satellites, sensors on the road, or even send data to an automobile shop with a breakdown of the vehicles problems. There are many exciting uses of telematics that deliver a wide range of uses and benefits:
Traffic Reports
One of the more common uses of telematics is the use of real time traffic reports in cohesion with satellite navigation. This is enabling drivers all around the world to more carefully, expertly navigate around traffic in less time than ever before. These real time traffic reports on your sat-nav will enable you to find the fastest route not based on distance alone, but also accounting for traffic delays.
Improved Service and Maintenance
Another amazing breakthrough that has been accomplished using telematics is that your service dealer can be notified of when you need an oil change, and set up your appointment automatically. They can also be made aware via your cars computer of any necessary repairs or replacements and they will be fully prepared for all your cars needs before they even see your vehicle. It saves you a lot of time, and hassle.
You will no longer need to worry about routine maintenance because your vehicle can tell you when you need repairs done, and fit them into your personal calendar.
Nowadays there are even advanced systems which tell you specifically which problem your vehicle is experiencing when you see the “check engine” light turn on. Whenever your vehicle experiences a problem, the data is sent to a remote service center. There, a highly trained technician looks over the entire data set and identifies the problem your vehicle is experiencing.
Next the service center calls you and notifies you of the problem, along with how to fix it. You can know exactly what the problem is, what parts you will need to fix it, and how sophisticated it is to fix the problem. It is even possible to have a technician sent out to your location on the road to fix the problem for you, within 6 to 10 minutes of experiencing the problem.
Theft
Another scenario is should your car be stolen or lost, you will be able to locate it quickly through your telematics gps. Should any of your car’s alarm sensors be tripped it will automatically start tracking its location with your service dealer. Your service dealers systems will continue to track the location of your car, allowing for its quick and easy recovery.
Internet Access
You can also use telematics to access internet services from your vehicle While full web browsing is not available yet, you can take advantage of many services such as email and the news. Through your vehicle’s telematic network you can connect to wireless internet.
Insurance Policies
Telematics is often used for insurance policies that are based specifically off of the way that you personally drive. What you can do is outfit your car with a piece of telematics technology that enables your insurer to measure how safe of a driver you are. The better the score you get, the lower your insurance premium will be. Through telematics technology, you can prove your capability and skill as a safe driver, and lower your insurance premium.
Never again will you have to pay an unfair, inflated insurance premium to compensate for the bad drivers who are insured at your insurer. Telematics insurance is all about how you drive, instead of playing the odds between safe drivers and unsafe ones. If you are tired of paying a higher premium than you deserve, telematics technology will solve that problem once and for all.
Telematics enables drivers and fleet managers to have a birds eye view on a single vehicle or a host of them, and assess risk information. If you have a teenager and want to ensure they are driving your car safely and responsibly, or that your employee is taking care of the company truck, telematics offer a host of great benefits.
Reducing Bad Drving Behaviour
Inthinc Technology is using Telematics to reduce speeding by up to eighty eight percent and reduce accidents by seventy five percent. The telematics act as a “driving conscience” to the driver by providing verbal notifications of unsafe behaviours.
Drivers are alerted for speeding, not wearing seatbelts, and reckless behaviour. When any of these naughty behaviours are found, the drivers receive verbal reprimand from the computer. The behaviours are also reported to an on-line database wirelessly where they are given a driving score from 1.0 to 5.0. Employers can then check how well or poorly the driver is doing.
Speeding is cut down dramatically from the devices, and seatbelt usage can improve by up to ninety seven percent. This new application of telematics is not just reducing insurance claims, its saving lives and preventing real accidents from happening.
The advanced accelerometers in telematic devices enable managers to detect a wide range of behaviours such as:
> Hard Braking
> Rapid Acceleration (putting the pedal to the metal)
> Seat belt usage (or lack thereof)
> Time spent idling
> Number of stops
> Use of company vehicle during non-work hours
> Tailgating drivers
Ultimately telematics puts the ability to monitor driver behaviour in the hands of the manager without needing to physically be there.
Increased Efficiency And Management
Fleet trucks and delivery companies are using telematics to provide better and stronger data for their operations. This unique approach to management is enabling fleet owners to use predictive demand and management.
This will one day enable fleet owners to know within a certain degree of accuracy, how things will play out before they occur. Doing so will enable them to make better decisions before the events occur, in anticipation of the events.
It will enable businesses to better account for unknowns such as traffic and weather changes that can all too often throw rocks in their operations.
Making Roads Safer
Driver monitoring through live cameras installed inside their cars are enabling companies to make roads safer. There are even new innovations that are enabling telematics to work with andriod systems for easier integration into digital technology.
Through these systems thousands even hundreds of thousands can be encouraged to drive safer and follow the law more closely. It is encouraging widespread safety and better behaviour on the roads. Which means a safer place for everyone.
With the better driving and the improved driving instructions, drivers are able to avoid both traffic and dangerous conditions. These all add up to better driving and fewer accidents. Accidents are a huge cost to companies in the forms of increased insurance costs, lost employee time, damage, and lawsuits.
Accidents are a huge cost to any organization, no matter how small it may be. It not only affects the moral of the driver, it also interrupts the companies logistics. Through less accidents many companies have experienced substantial savings and improved productivity.
Less Fuel Consumption
The advanced telematics systems which calculate routes based on the traffic and weather conditions enable companies and individuals to cut down on their fuel consumption. Not only do you save in the form of decreased fuel costs, but you also gain more time and reduce stress.
Nobody likes to get stuck in traffic or to battle it out on slippery road conditions. Telematics enables both individuals and companies to avoid those nasty conditions and save money at the same time. Some companies have saved millions of dollars in fuel costs through telematics for better fleet management and route choices.
Carbon Footprint
Companies and individuals that are green conscious are able to reduce their vechicles carbon footprint through greater efficiency and lower fuel consumption. Calculating these things in your head is very difficult because the optimum solution is based on a number of variables.
Figuring all of this on your own would take a PhD in mathematics, but you don’t need a PhD if you have a telematics system and a computer that calculates these variables for you automatically and tells you how to reduce your impact on the environment through better driving efficiency.
GPS Navigation
Telematics enables you to know the exact location of where your vehicle is at any point in time. It makes navigation and logistics fantastically easier, and helps to prevent against abuse. If you are lost in the woods you will know how to get out every-time by following your GPS.
If your running a fleet of lorries you will be able to find the best route for them, and ensure they are following their routes. You will be able to spot abuse of company transport and to improve customer service.
Being able to see exactly where everything is at any point in time is enabling many managers to save a lot of money and time, through making better management decisions. Employees feel more obligated to follow the rules, and the game plan you set out.
Voice Recognition
Telematics technology is enabling drivers to control their car using their voice. From typing an email by dictation to telling your car to turn down the stereo, telematics is adding a greater level of convenience and safety.
You wont need to risk an accident in order to answer your phone, because you can just tell your car to answer the phone with your voice. You will no longer need to shuffle through your iPod to get your favourite song, because you can just instruct your car to play your favourite song for you.
With the increased wireless communication you wont even need your iPod soon because you will be able to sync your car to your music collection at home through the telematics network. You can even control your favourite android apps by talking instead of endangering yourself and others by taking your eyes off the road.
Remote Control of your Vehicle
Through telematics you can remotely control many different aspects of your vechicle, and one day you may even be able to drive it from your home to your office, remotely. As driving technology improves there are more features every year that owners can exercise control over.
From turning on or off your car alarms, unlocking or locking your doors, to control of your vehicle’s electronic devices. You can take advantage of a wide range of your vehicle’s features without actually seeing your car. This means if you forgot to lock your doors at home and your now going to Bermuda, you can lock them from abroad. Or if your child needs to get into your car and can’t, you can unlock the doors for him or her with the push of a button, no matter where you are.
You will even be able to password protect your car, enabling you to shut it down and disable anyone from accessing it unless you enter in your password.
Collision Signalling
If the worst should happen and your car gets into an accident it can automatically notify the authorities through the telematics communication service. This requires absolutely no human intervention which has great implications for accidents.
Should the unfortunate happen and you are in an accident in a place that is remote, or late at night and no one sees you – the authorities will still be automatically notified. It also means that there is less of a delay between when you experience an accident and when someone arrives on the scene to provide assistance.
This can lead to greater chances of having your life saved, or experiencing less injury by getting help faster. It means less time for you, your employees, or your family members to get the vital help they need at the most critical moment.
Ultimately telematics is an incredible technology which offers a huge range of benefits to its users. The most important uses of telematics has got to be its ability to increase safety on the road through better driver behaviour. It also improves driving efficiency, reduces the time to get to a location, saves money, and makes navigation easier. It reduces insurance premiums, saves lives, and ultimately, makes the road a better place. Get started in telematics today and see what it can do for you. We hope this has been concise enough of an explanation and will be of use when someone asks what is telematics used for?
