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Transportation Communications IBM Network Technology

Consumers Expect Their Cars To Become Mini Data Centers (networkworld.com) 146

Posted by Soulskill from the hype-train-has-done-its-work dept.
coondoggie writes: Many consumers expect self-driving cars to become common in the not-too-distant future -- cars that diagnose problems without human intervention, cars that adapt to a particular driver's behaviors and react to its environment. Those are some of the conclusions from IBM's 'Auto 2025: A New Relationship – People and Cars' research involving 16,000 global consumers who were asked how they expect to use vehicles in the next ten years. IBM found consumers have the expectation that cars will soon communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure around them, integrating easily into a broader collection of traffic. More than a third of consumers said they'd be likely to allow collection of their driving data to support these services -- a notable figure, given that IBM is partnering with Ford to do exactly that.
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Consumers Expect Their Cars To Become Mini Data Centers More

Consumers Expect Their Cars To Become Mini Data Centers

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  • Just want to drive (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LQ ( 188043 ) on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @08:56AM (#51292425)
    I don't want any data interaction with my car. I just want to drive from A to B.

    • Might i suggest a completely unloaded and dreary Toyota Yaris for you then!

      I can do without the dvd player, but just give me a music hookup and I'll be fine.

    • I bet you use your phone to make phone calls as well, like some sort of Luddite.

      • yeah everyone knows the new way to make phone calls, surf the web and turn on light switches is with smart trousers (smart pants for you americans).

        All i have to do is lift my foot to my ear to take a call or make a switching like gesture with my ankle when i walk into a room to turn on the light... and most intuitive of all, i just have to roll around on the floor and flail my legs in the air wildly to surf the web.

        I'm sure this is just the beginning, think of all the "smart" things that you can get techno

    • And I want... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @09:50AM (#51292685) Homepage

      And *I* want you not to crash in me/my car/bicycle/motor if *I* happen to be between your A and B.

      Therefore, I want you car to be overstuffed with as much electronics as possible that can automatically break and avoid me in case you're distracted/busy texting/tired and not very concentrated/completely wasted, etc.

      (That's why I'm happy that features like "CitySafety(tm)" and other such Forward Collision Avoidance Systems are becomming more common place. It used to be only on high end expensive cars like my father's Volvo, now it's even available on the cheapest VW Up! on my local car-sharing).

      Driving is a dangerous activity. Driving causes way much more death than terrorism, illegal aliens, or any other of the bogeyman currently waved by the media.
      Together with Cancer and Cardiovascular diseases, Driving is among the 3 leading causes of death. (Exact details vary depending on age. Youngs a more likely to die in a car crash, older are more likely to die of cancer or heartstroke).

      I'm all for putting as much technology as possible to reduce risks of car crashes, and risks of me dying because I happened to be between your A and B point right at the moment you where distracted by the boobs on the model on some yogurt advertisement rather than paying attention in front of you.

      • Get off your cross (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 )

        "Driving is a dangerous activity. Driving causes way much more death than terrorism blah blah liberal crap snipped.."

        Perhaps we should ban cars and see how life goes for you on your pedal bike when doctors and nurses, emergency workers, police, people who work the shops, guys who fix the roads, drive the buses and trucks plus 1001 other assorted activities can't get to work. You see I know this doesn't fit your standard issue left wing drivers-are-evil argument, but unlike cancer, terrorists and "the bogeym

        • "Driving is a dangerous activity. Driving causes way much more death than terrorism blah blah liberal crap snipped.."

          Perhaps, you shouldn't have snipped all the liberal crap, because you missed parts such as :

          Therefore, I want you car to be overstuffed with as much electronics as possible

          or

          I'm all for putting as much technology as possible to reduce risks of car crashes

          or even the begining :

          And *I* want you not to crash in me/my car/bicycle/motor

          2 out of the 4 transportation mean I've cited are powered by internal combustion engines. (Well, partly. The car sharing service I get my cars from also feature Renault's Zoé electric cars. But they are all *motorised* transportation whatever the motor).

          Thus...

          Perhaps we should ban cars and see how life goes for you on your pedal bike when...

          I've never advocated banning cars (nor motors, btw, the other powered transportation I've cited).
          My point is simply that driving i

      • ...This is exactly why I ride a motorcycle. No extraneous bullshit distractions. I will admit, it's EASY to pick out the drivers who desperately need this kind of tech in their rides. It's also disturbing at how many of them there actually are.

      • And *I* want you not to crash in me/my car/bicycle/motor if *I* happen to be between your A and B.

        Statistically, you are safe from that happening. These new cars won't protect you from that. They are designed to protect you from yourself. However, if they are able to be user programmed to take on your own driving persona and aggressiveness, then it is unlikely they will succeed at protecting anybody.

        Therefore, I want you car to be overstuffed with as much electronics as possible that can automatically break and avoid me in case you're distracted/busy texting/tired and not very concentrated/completely wasted, etc.

        But why should I have to pay for your peace of mind? If you want that protection, then you should pay for it. Of course, most of this paying for it would be in the form of insurance premiums. But there,

    • The one data collection service that makes sense to help get from A to B is traffic flow data. Participating in that can help us all. I use google maps traffic function almost daily and it helps me avoid congestion so I get to B faster and I don't make that congestion worse.

      Otherwise, if I need data or information I'll use my phone.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I just want to get from A to B. I'm perfectly happy letting someone or something else do the driving.

    • If the drive from A to B is interesting, sure. But if you somehow have to navigate I5 from the I805 split to downtown San Diego or Commonwealth Ave in Boston on a daily basis, being in control loses its charm after a while. Much better to spend your hour(s) in traffic answering eMail, working on your screen play, or listening to Grieg or Coltrane or Kris Kristoferson. Let the car handle the tedious details, and consult you when something like a 147 car pileup goes wrong. "Sorry to interrupt you master,

  • Mini Data Centers? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Phics ( 934282 ) on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @08:56AM (#51292427)

    I think consumers expect their cars to become Cell Phones or Tablets, not Mini Data Centers....

    • I got the impression from the summary that cars would need to be mini data centers to support the sorts of features that consumers expect from their cars, not that consumers want to drive around in a mini data center. Also: my wife bought a GMC last year; it already is a phone/tablet. They even wanted to sell us a phone plan with monthly minutes and its own number for a system that can already connect with our phones.

    • What people want is different from what the industry wants.
      The industry wants to expand, hence the push for a lot of crap being put in the dashboard, as if anyone wants to use Windows when driving.

      But now the automotive market has been identified as non-saturated with IT crap, so the industry will fill this niche.

      A consumer which is ready to splash over 10K on a car is much more likely to accept to spend a few hundred extra for the in-car entertainment system, which is esentially a tablet, while one looking

    • To the average person, what's the difference?

  • More than a third of consumers said they'd be likely to allow collection of their driving data to support these services.

    I find myself surprised the percentage is not even greater, given that is the precise trade-off for joining the facebook or carrying a cellular phone.

    • Not so many people actually think about the information they are giving away by using Facebook or a smartphone or any other online service though.

      • Not so many people actually think about the information they are giving away by using Facebook or a smartphone or any other online service though.

        True. Most folks don't give it a second thought, and too many of the ones who do are in the camp of, "Well, if you have nothing to hide..."

    • I'm surprised it's not even greater, because you can get whatever answers you want if you design the survey, and they have a vested interest in making that number high. Maybe they want it to grow over time as they release more "features" to show what the tipping point is?

  • I've got good news! (Score:3)

    by freak0fnature ( 1838248 ) on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @09:00AM (#51292443)
    Does it save me a bunch of money on my car insurance?

    • Does it save me a bunch of money on my car insurance?

      That sounds very rational, but the insurance lobbyists would likely prevent it.

      I'd like to prosthelytize further, but I'm off to divest my retirement account of the stock of steering wheel manufacturers.

      • Insurance guys are already just fine with putting a black box in your car that records all your movements and adjusting your premium according to how risky your driving profile is.

        Any insurer that doesn't get on board with charging less for auto-cars that have a lower risk of crash is going to be undercut by someone else.

        • Insurance guys are already just fine with putting a black box in your car that records all your movements and adjusting your premium according to how risky your driving profile is.

          Any insurer that doesn't get on board with charging less for auto-cars that have a lower risk of crash is going to be undercut by someone else.

          I guess there are always enough idiots out there that still drive like an idiot even while they have the device installed. I know I was even more careful while I had the device in my car. It pissed me off several times to see "hard braking" show up on my profile just because some idiot cut in front of me without adequate room to squeeze in.
          But I guess part of the driving profile is checking for the behaviors of the other idiots that you end up sharing the road with. It all needs to be taken into consider

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tx ( 96709 )

        "I'd like to prosthelytize further, but..."

        You're trying to convert people to believe in artificial limbs?

        • "I'd like to prosthelytize further, but..."

          You're trying to convert people to believe in artificial limbs?

          Of course. I has to park the steering wheel money in another investment, didn't I?

  • More than a third... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Or, looking at it another way, Nearly two thirds would NOT be willing to allow this collection of data.

  • My newest car has over a dozen computers in it and it's almost twenty years old. Cars are already mini data centers. That they are not moving internet traffic around doesn't change that. PCM, TCM, ABS and climate control all regularly exchange data.

  • Adapt to what drivers behaviors? The car will be the driver!

  • Leading questions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @09:31AM (#51292571)

    Alternate reality summary:
    "After asking a series of highly leading questions, IBM shockingly discovers that what it is planning to do is exactly what consumers want."

    Consumers were assaulted with an endless stream of buzzwords, and a response inculding glazed eyes and/or drool were taken as indications of approval. A spokesman for IBM gushed "Phew! We didn't know if we knew what we were doing, but now we have discovered that we're right, we can push ahead with, um, what we were pushing ahead with. Go IBM!"

  • Bullshit (Score:2)

    by c ( 8461 )

    Consumers expect their car (or, rather, any random car they plunk their ass into) to become a peripheral for the mini data center they already carry in their pockets.

    If auto manufacturers are coming up with a different answer, they're asking the wrong questions. Or, more likely, the questions intended to elicit the answer they want to hear.

    • Once we are at the point of self-driving cars, ownership becomes moot (for a lot of people anyway). You now have a taxi service that can eliminate one of the most expensive components, the driver, and allow me to nap gently without having to worry why we are taking the extreme scenic route. Parking structures can be reduced significantly as well as road congestion. I have little need for a personal car once public transport is on-demand and cheap. That will require Big Data to coordinate all of those demand

  • Tired of all this "everything must be connected". I have to reboot my entertainment system in my car couple of times a week because Bluetooth stop working, XMRadio is no more able to connect to satellite, ... And they want to let my car take decisions for me? No thanks! I simply need a car to go from A to B : 4 wheels, steering wheel, radio, ...

  • I want my car to get me from point A to point B reliably and safely. Beyond that, it's nice if it has some form of GPS (mine doesn't) and the ability to make & receive phone calls (I can receive them, but making them is more trouble than it's worth). That's about the extent of the bells & whistles I want in my car.

  • Consumers Expect Their Cars To Become Mini Data Centers

    So how did you phrase the question in order to get the response you wanted?

    I also note that they used the word "expect" and not "want."

  • "Great, I was hoping to have at least ONE hand free to drive..."

  • In a utopia that neither you nor I exist, data and cars would be secure from hacking and bad design. Fly by wire is one thing. Abdicating all responsibility to a complex mechanism based closely on the IoT is a whole other thing.

  • I know plenty of people that commute into Manhattan to work. They get a lot of work done on the train in and out, so much so that some get paid to commute.

    I'm thinking I should mount a hotspot in my car to solve the streaming problem and just do it for $10/month or so.

    Uber clearly should be looking at self-driving cars as the solution to their most pressing problem - drivers.

    And urban areas should see self-driving cars as a huge advantage, increasing the effective capacity of highways.Now we need electric

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Viol8 ( 599362 )

      "And urban areas should see self-driving cars as a huge advantage, increasing the effective capacity of highways."

      Hah, yeah, right. Lets see how these autonomous vehicles cope outside the wide straight roads of north america. European cities for example - narrow twisty roads with illegal double parking , only enough room for 1 vehicle at a time on a 2 way street, junctions where no one ever lets you in unless you push in, mopeds cutting you up, roundabouts, the list goes on. And asia? Even worse.

  • So, they want their car to be like home appliances, which used to last 30 to 40 years, but now last only a year or two. Not because tha machinery breaks down. No, that is still good for at least 10 years. But the electronics which controls the machinery can't seem to survive in the harsh environment created by the machinery it operates, and gives up after a year or two. It can be fixed for only 99.8% of the price of a new unit.
    So now we want cars that will brick themselves after a year or two, not because

  • Why the hell are they talking to? not one person out there expects or wants this.

    My cellphone does more than ANYTHING the car makers can come up with. What I want is the car to use fully open and well documented standards that my devices can easily pull information from.

  • Can't even build a highway in 20 years (Score:3)

    by stabiesoft ( 733417 ) on Wednesday January 13, 2016 @11:04AM (#51293113) Homepage

    In my area, they can't build a highway in 20 years, how in the world will they build a "intelligent" one in 10? The cost of upgrading all the roads and cars in the US to this new V2V driverless world will be in the quintillions. Why not just go with the Jetsons prediction and we will all be in flying autonomous cars with a robotic maid for our every whim by 2025? Saves the cost of all that road buildout.

  • I get the hype over cars that can tell you what's wrong or that may be able to self drive. However, until all cars are self-driving and no human can thwart the system, I'll take my chances doing my own driving. In addition, I don't care how often the car tells me it's time for brakes or tires or whatever, until I actually drive the thing into the service department and shell out the cash to repair it, it does nobody any good. That's what's scary. How long before the car shuts itself down or the government m

    • How long before the car shuts itself down or the government mandates repair rules and demands everyone upload their telemetry to the DMV for safety inspections?

      Already happens in heavy trucks. If your emissions are out of compliance you'll run at reduced power output.

  • The term "data center" has a fairly specific meaning. If the TFA used that term in referring to all the gee-whiz things that one might want in their cars technology suite, the author should have his tech reporter credentials revoked.

  • I expect my car to go where I drive it. Primary expectation.

    Beyond that, I'd like things that make that experience easier and more pleasurable. Climate control, some sort of audio entertainment capability, GPS is nice, and while we're at it... heated seats.

    And for the record, totally happy with the radio/GPS etc functionality being provided by my smartphone which can be bluetooth slaved into the car.

    Beyond that... I really don't want them to do anything to the car.

    I don't like self driving cars because I kn

  • I already have a car that can self diagnose. It just has a problem telling me what's wrong I get this check engine light what's wrong chevvy? Is the gas cap loose? "purrr" Has one of the spark plugs gone bad? "purrr" Is one of the half dozen filters clogged? "purrr" is there a pressure leak in the fuel system? "purrr" Does the oil need to be changed? "purrr" Has timmy's fallen down a well? "purrr"

    I suppose I will have to take it back to the parts store again and have them hook up their $2000 code reader and

  • I guess I'm not a consumer. I'm okay with that.

  • I don't want a smart car. I want ONE smart device that rules my car, my house, my friends... I do not want to learn and master five ecosystems. My life is already complicated enough.

    Also, IBM found a false dichotomy in its "developing vs mature country" division. Actually it should be "drives a car vs doesn't drive a car". Anyone who already drives doesn't want a perpetual argument between car and phone and smart street signage and home server.

    This is the problem with Apple Play now. My car offers map

    • If you want something that tells you what's wrong with your car, your house, your friends, you .... then get married.

  • Your car is not a lifestyle, it is transportation. You keep adding shit to cars that distract the driver from driving more and more and more, and you all wonder why some people are such poor drivers? Get all this crap out of your cars and just drive!

  • I'm just waiting for the outbreak of self-driving cars, delivering explosive payloads and not making martyrs.

  • It's the sharing of the data that I have a problem with. Getting the data to avoid collisions or using the GPS to map out my route is great. But I don't want that going to the car manufacturer, whoever made the OS for the car's main computer, or the maker of the on-board entertainment system and whoever they decide to share or sell it to.

  • "The Machine Stops" by E.M Forster, ( http://archive.ncsa.illinois.e... [illinois.edu]), and "The Revolt of the Pedestrians" by David H. Keller. Extreme scenarios to be sure, but entertaining reading, and entirely relevant to the current discussion.

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