This paper presents an overview of the telematics domain, with specific focus on the Indian Market. Telematics service areas broadly includes V2X (vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure) and safety communications, fleet management and monitoring, vehicle security, diagnostics, emergency and roadside assistance, automatic crash notification, service appointment scheduling, toll collection, vehicle insurance. Navigation, infotainment and in-car communications are also closely related areas. An emerging trend is that V2X telematics may be delivered using smartphones and networks such as 4G. The primary reason is cost advantage in utilizing smartphones as the platform to bring services to vehicles. Smartphone based applications and web portals can be used to enable remote access features. In fact, if Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decides to eventually share the 5.9 GHz DSRC band, telematics may in fact rely much more on standard telecommunications infrastructure. Thus, a good strategy in the near future may be to reduce reliance on DSRC equipment in vehicles and use smartphones and standard 4G and other telecommunication infrastructure to provide useful telematics services, especially for emerging markets such as India.
For India, where road and vehicle safety are major issues and opportunities for customized value added services abound, a detailed analysis of the trends in telematics is required. In terms of telematics services, India is significantly behind other BRICS countries such as China and Brazil. This paper presents some insights into technologies and services that are likely to take off in India in the near future. A user survey has been conducted to gauge the market preferences for Telematics services in India.
