Intelligent Transportation Systems Telematics Safe and Fun Driving.pdf

Editor: Alberto Broggi University of Parma, Italy broggi@ce.unipr.it I n t e l l i g e n t T r a n s p o r t a t i o n S y s t e m s 10 1094-7167/02/$17.00 ? 2002 IEEE IEEE INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS Europeans have coined a term for this exciting field: telematics—that is, the use of computers to receive, store, and distribute information over a telecommunications system. The automotive industry quickly adopted the term to describe any system that provides location-based ser- vices for a vehicle over the wireless telecommunications network. In other words, telematics now generally refers to any automotive system that combines wireless technol- ogy with location-based services. With more than 40 million vehicles sold worldwide each year and more than 935 million cellular customers by the end of 2001, the automotive telematics market is poised for explosive growth. Strategy Analytics estimates that by 2007, approximately 55 percent of all new cars will have a telematics-capable terminal, as compared to approximately 7.5 percent in 2000.1 As Figure 1 shows, the revenue for the world market of in-car telematics ter- minals is expected to increase from $5.5 billion in 2000 to $19.9 billion by 2007. Meanwhile, telematics systems should increase from 4 million units in 2000 to 27.4 mil- lion units by 2007 (including both original-equipment- manufacturer and aftermarket units). In the US alone, according to a Strategis Group study, revenues from auto- motive telematics equipment and services are projected to rise from less than $100 million in 1999 to over $5.3 bil- lion by 2005.2 The number of subscribers will likely grow from under 0.2 million at year-end 1999 to more than 17 million by 2005. All these market studies indicate that telematics systems have a promising future and should be economically rewarding. Mayday systems A typical example of an automotive telematics system is a mayday (or emergency call) system.3,4 This system instantly connects vehicle occupants to a ser