Amidst a very challenging automotive environment rife with mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies, and rumors of more to come, OEMs continue to enhance existing embedded and hybrid telematics services and/or launch new ones, driving global penetration rates in new cars to 12 percent in 2010 and 43 percent in 2014.

“OEM telematics is gaining momentum across the globe. With GM’s OnStar and Ford’s SYNC to be joined by telematics solutions from Toyota and Chrysler launching later this year, the US remains the most competitive market,” says ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte. “At the same time Toyota and GM will expand into the Chinese market, while government regulation in Brazil and the EU will drive uptake in Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe.”

Safety and security features such as emergency calling (eCall), breakdown assistance (bCall) and remote diagnostics remain the most popular, but connected infotainment such as off-board navigation, online local search, concierge services, and Internet access offered by OEMs such as BMW are enjoying increasing interest.

While embedded aftermarket solutions offered by companies such as LoJack and OCTO Telematics remain popular in specific markets for stolen vehicle tracking and PAYD insurance, new affordable portable and converged consumer telematics are bringing features such as geofencing, speed monitoring and basic diagnostics to a wider audience.

ABI Research expects that by offering multiple safety, cost and entertainment benefits to different stakeholders such as governments, car manufacturers and dealers, and end-users, consumer telematics will become a standard automotive feature in developed regions by 2015. However, this evolution will require the removal of barriers such as high cost and long development cycles. Standardization initiatives such as the Next Generation Telematics Protocol (NGTP) and the adoption of open source automotive software development platforms supported by the recently announced GENIVI consortium will help.

ABI Research’s new “Consumer Telematics” examines consumer telematics features, trends, drivers and barriers, including a SWOT analysis for each hardware form factor.