In 1983, Chrysler Corporation introduced the “talking car” to America. Called Electronic Voice Alert (EVA), the car provided drivers and passengers with in-vehicle messages such as “please fasten your seat belt,” “don’t forget your keys,” and “your washer fluid is low” in English, French, and Spanish. This technology was pretty advanced stuff at the time, but unfortunately, owners were soon searching for EVA’s off switch or pulling fuses after enduring “a door is ajar” notification one too many times.

It took almost 10 years before OEMs began to seriously engineer speech technology back into their vehicles.

A regulatory trigger

In 1994, the Federal Communications Commission established requirements to provide location information for emergency calls originating from Wireless phones. This seemingly simple mandate to provide the 911 caller’s location set off great debate about costs and privacy. It also jump-started critical thinking on how location information might be exploited for commercial purposes, a concept embraced by multiple industries, including the automotive sector.

Thus, the word “telematics” was born, a term with European roots that incorporates the study of human-computer interfaces.

Vehicle telematics is driven by a network of wireless carriers, telematics service providers, content suppliers and aggregators, and automotive manufacturers all working together (see Figure 1). They are continuously evolving systems and services to fulfill their individual business models and deliver an ever-broadening range of Safety, communication, navigation, and infotainment products to consumers through powerful mobile devices and embedded in-vehicle systems.

The connected car