IoT in Automotive: Solving the Biggest Industry Challenges

A report from Allied Market Research anticipates a massive surge in the scope of IoT implementation in the automotive industry, accelerating the value of this highly exclusive sector to over $760.3 billion by 2032, with an impressive CAGR of 22.6%.

Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the automotive industry. Connected vehicles equipped with sensors and software are ushering in a new era of predictive maintenance, enhanced safety features, and elevated driving experiences. IoT also catalyzes processes and improves production lines. 

With the need for vehicle production rising at a higher rate each year, manufacturers worldwide face intense pressure to deliver high-quality vehicles efficiently while managing the entire ecosystem of existing cars with an ever-increasing data stream.

The automobile industry must devise enterprising solutions to counter this challenge. One promising solution is to leverage IoT and custom software development to integrate seamless connectivity and transparency into its operations.

This blog discusses how IoT-powered digital transformation can solve some of the automotive industry’s biggest bottlenecks, fostering better vehicle production, maintenance, quality control, and delivery.

The Growing Influence of IoT in the Automotive Industry

Once confined to manufacturing and smart cities, the IoT revolution has taken the automotive industry by storm, opening doors to exciting new avenues and attracting investments from technology leaders globally. 

A study by Statista revealed that the global market for connected cars will reach a staggering $1.2 trillion by 2030. 

It’s rather obvious that the increase in connected car production creates an entirely new market to tap into. Sensors installed in vehicles collect all the data that goes out of the car, from engine performance to road conditions. Any data can be collected and utilized to create a better automotive experience, with optimizations being done on the weak points.

Therefore, by employing IoT along with advanced technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and computer vision, automobile manufacturers can provide truly intelligent vehicle experiences.

Here are the unique applications and use cases of IoT in the automotive sector that business leaders can look forward to:

Automotive IoT

Enabling vehicles to communicate seamlessly with external objects, pedestrians, and other vehicles drives digital transformation in the transportation sector and ensures greater road safety and smooth traffic. There are multiple ways of communication in connected vehicles:

• Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V)

Enables instantaneous data exchange between cars, sharing information like location, speed, and whether the car is autonomous or driven by a human.

• Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I)

Ensures smooth data transmission to and from roadway infrastructure elements such as traffic lights, road signs, RFID scanners, parking meters, streetlights, and cameras. 

• Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P)

Drives road safety and prevents accidents by bridging communication between cars, pedestrians, or cyclists.

• Vehicle-to-Everything (V2E)

Allows cars to communicate with every component of the overall traffic system, including drivers, other cars, road infrastructure, cellular networks, and pedestrians.

Autonomous Driving

As cars gain awareness of their surroundings through sensors monitoring roads, pedestrians, and environmental conditions, computer vision algorithms are rapidly attaining capabilities to navigate safely without human oversight. 

Cars could dynamically determine optimal routes based on traffic patterns and hazards while avoiding driver exhaustion during long journeys. Such self-driving capabilities depend on the vehicle’s ability to continually make intelligent decisions by processing countless data points.

Predictive Maintenance

Imagine your car knowing precisely which component requires service even before symptoms arise or lights start flashing warning signs. IoT connectivity makes this future of predictive maintenance a reality through continual vehicle health monitoring and performance pattern analytics to identify deviations from ideal vehicle behavior. 

Fleet Management

IoT streamlines fleet management by providing operators with complete centralized visibility, which was unimaginable previously by continually tracking GPS coordinates and component health metrics across fleets spanning thousands of endpoints. 

Location tracking allows dynamic route planning to minimize transit times for urgent consignments. Engine diagnostics help smoothen fleet maintenance operations by balancing schedules rather than following fixed timelines.

Optimized Car Manufacturing

Transitioning beyond operational improvements, IoT integration also holds immense potential to enhance manufacturing workflows right from the production line’s origin. IoT sensors can perpetually monitor equipment performance, throughput rates, and end-product quality metrics across distributed assembly line stations.

Contextualizing sensor data obtained through simulations and predictive analytics prevents bottlenecks by dynamically sequencing operations based on priority or urgency. It also flags quality assurance issues in virtually real-time to avoid further escalation. Such IoT capabilities will catalyze the evolution towards fully adaptive automotive production systems.

Resolving Production Bottlenecks with IoT

Automotive production lines routinely encounter bottlenecks such as unplanned downtime and suboptimal throughput. Key factors include improper machine configurations, labor shortages, inaccurate production scheduling, and a lack of real-time operational visibility and control. 

ECI Software reported that there could be over 2.1 million unfilled jobs in the US by 2030 due to a massive gap in manufacturing skills.

These factors hamper efforts to meet rising consumer demand amid supply chain volatility. However, the growing accessibility of IoT sensors and connectivity now enables resolving these issues through data-driven manufacturing optimization. By providing enhanced visibility into issues and system vulnerabilities, IoT lays the foundation for corrective actions to maximize productivity.

Establishing a Data-Driven Production System

Effective optimization relies on monitoring critical metrics across the production environment. Industrial IoT devices like sensors, cameras, and controllers now make this viable by collectively tracking:

• Machine Health: Fluctuations in vibration, temperature, and pressure can indicate deteriorating asset conditions and potential failures that may cause downtime.
• Throughput Flows: Assembly station cycle times, movements, and inventory levels pinpoint constraints hindering optimal workflow.
• Quality Trends: Inline gauges, object-recognition cameras, and testing data provide insights into developing defects that require attention.

Boosting Productivity & Responsiveness

Leveraging IoT-powered custom software solutions promises significant benefits:

• Downtime Minimization: Diagnosing gradual asset degradation early prevents a majority of unplanned failures causing halts.
• Improved Changeover Efficiency: Data-driven machine adjustments slash setup times compared to trial-and-error techniques.
• Contextual Line Optimization: Simulation helps construct dynamic schedules, optimizing throughput velocity and production sequencing.

How IoT and Custom Software Will Shift Gears For The Automotive Industry?

Moving forward with the same inefficient legacy production lines will only create issues for automotive companies, preventing them from achieving sustainable, stand-out innovation and digital transformation. 

By building a robust network of interconnected machines, devices, and sensors, an IoT-powered production line not only collects data but also fosters seamless data transmission across the board.

The data is then transmitted to a central platform via either Bluetooth, cellular networks or WiFi. Custom software takes this data from the central platform and uses it to generate insights and automate processes.

How Custom Software Powers Automotive IoT?

While IoT devices generate valuable data and transmit it across vehicles and network components, custom software solutions extract and harness those insights to accelerate IoT implementation. Let’s explore key focus areas:

• Data Analysis

Dealing with the data generated by numerous sensors across the network can be quite difficult. Custom analytics software deals with such complexities by leveraging machine learning and complex correlations across vehicle health, production quality, performance, and driving patterns. These insights enable better predictive modeling and timely notification when human intervention is required, putting your production lines on co-pilot. 

• Process Automation 

Static programs fail to keep up with dynamic automotive workflows and operations. In contrast, custom IoT-powered software solutions drive intelligent automation across processes like inventory tracking, material management, and quality testing with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the overall cost and time-to-market.

• Real-time Monitoring 

Stakeholders struggle to draw conclusions from an unorganized dashboard loaded with insights that lack context. A custom-designed IoT software provides you with an easily navigable dashboard that clearly presents IoT data to foster better monitoring across different processes and system components in the automotive production chain. 

Enterprises Increasing Stake in IoT

The fusion of IoT and custom software isn’t just limited to concepts. It can be realistically implemented at a commercial scale and revolutionize the automotive and transportation industries. 

Considering its exciting prospects, automotive enterprises globally are investing billions into this technology to build exquisitely connected vehicle interfaces.

• Tesla: Tesla is one of the first automotive companies to launch self-driving technology at a commercial scale with its very own “Tesla Autopilot” feature. Despite garnering criticism for its inaccuracies and extensive need for human intervention, this technology is now much more refined. It uses camera-based vehicle vision and artificial intelligence to ensure an end-to-end autonomous driving experience.
• BMW: BMW and AWS recently signed a deal, signalling the automotive giant’s intention to extend its cloud computing, IoT, and AI capabilities and integrate next-gen driver assistance features in its new connected vehicles starting in 2025. BMW also initiated a partnership with Qualcomm to enhance its hardware capabilities. 
• General Motors (GM): As we move from 5G to B5G and 6G, potentially in the next decade, we may witness a significant change in customer expectations, especially in the automotive sector, and General Motors (GM) knows that very well. This is why they’ve increased their investments and future reliance on technologies like IoT and AI. 
• Ford: Ford is one of the first automotive companies to understand the significance of IoT in the industry and released an IoT agenda, claiming to be completely unrecognizable by 2026. With its ingenious connected car strategy, Ford aims to revolutionize the future of mobility and become an essential part of tomorrow’s smart cities.

What does the future hold for IoT in the automotive industry?

The effective use of sensors and enabling seamless integration and connectivity across vehicles elevates the overall driving experience. As IoT integrates further with custom software and analytics, it will radically transform automotive technology and business models over the next decade through systems that are

• More Efficient 

IoT will optimize manufacturing productively by orchestrating assets, supplies, and inventory flows using predictive analytics. Modular custom programming will rapidly reconfigure assembly systems to switch output across models. Overall effectiveness gains can fund the transition towards software-defined factories.

• Data-Driven 

Granular data extracted from IoT systems feed simulation platforms and digital twin models, allowing for data-driven planning. Production schedules, vehicle design options, and inventory sources will leverage robust forecasting based on historical patterns, macroeconomic conditions, and emerging events.

• Safety-Centric 

Precise positional coordination between connected vehicles, riders, and infrastructure enabled through IoT and blisteringly fast wireless networks promises to significantly reduce the risk of accidents. Vehicles can also leverage custom health monitoring software and predictive maintenance capabilities to drive unreal reliability. 

• Customer-focused

A reliable technology partner can further bolster the overall in-vehicle experience by integrating sensory ambient interfaces along with inventive cloud capabilities to customize recommendations on media content, destinations, and driving mode preferences based on the driver’s identity, mood, and evolving preferences. 

Key Factors to Consider When Building an Automotive IoT App

If you haven’t already considered having an IoT solution for your automotive business, then it’s about time that you perform this crucial transition before getting left behind by your competitors. Here are some key factors to keep in mind when realizing IoT-powered automotive transformation:

1. Define Your Goals

Jot down all the goals that you want your IoT application to achieve. This will help the development process and ensure that your solution meets the criteria you set out for it. 

2. Choose the Right Technology Stack

Once you’ve noted down all your expectations from your app, it’s time to choose the technology that goes into the application. From selecting the appropriate sensors to the best connectivity protocols and the right software tools, every small detail must be catered to for a successful IoT and custom software implementation. 

3. Data Security and Privacy

Since your custom software and IoT sensors will collect tons of data in real-time, ranging from vehicles to production lines, implementing robust security protocols in the development cycle is extremely important. 

Cubix for Your Custom Automotive Software Development

The future of the automotive industry depends on the advancements in connectivity we’ll make in the near future. We can expect a significant improvement in connectivity and experience faster data transfers with the advent of B5G and 6G. 

But for now, IoT and custom software can join forces to help manufacturers bring their concepts to life and build connected vehicle experiences, making transportation safer, more efficient, and seamless.

Gain an edge in the market by embracing these technologies and get on the right track with production efficiency, quality control, and enhanced customer satisfaction. Let’s see how a top-tier IoT and custom software development company can help you out with this:

Gearing up – How Cubix Can Help?

At Cubix, having worked in the industry for 18 years, we understand the challenges and opportunities the automotive industry offers. Knowing these challenges, we offer a list of custom software development services tailored to your needs. Let’s see how our experienced developers can help you:

Our team of experienced developers can help you:

• Develop custom IoT applications: From designing to developing, our custom software developers can integrate IoT into your existing infrastructure and utilize the data gained from IoT sensors and devices to optimize operations.
• Implement data analytics solutions: Data can’t be harnessed if stakeholders don’t understand what it truly means. Cubix provides advanced data analytics solutions that can help you gain valuable insights into vehicle telematics. 
• Ensure data security and privacy: Cubix understands the importance of confidentiality and privacy, emphasizing the need for a robust security measure that protects all the information collected through the IoT automotive ecosystem. 

Is your business positioned right next wave of technology in the automotive sector? Are you ready to unlock your production’s true potential? Contact Cubix to start on the journey to an IoT-powered future and revolutionize your operations with bleeding-edge solutions tailored to your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the biggest challenge facing the implementation of IoT in the automotive industry?

Balancing growth and innovation with privacy and security will be critical for automotive companies. As vehicles evolve into data hubs for personal and performance metrics, consumers must be assured that their information, car controls, and onboard features remain resilient, secure, trustworthy, and ethical. 

How does IoT benefit the automotive manufacturing industry?

IoT sensors across assembly lines ensure continuous defect monitoring and predictive maintenance, increasing quality, reducing costs from recalls, and increasing production system reliability.

What is the role of IoT in self-driving cars?

IoT plays a pivotal role in self-driving cars, powering accurate real-time navigation capabilities through integrated wireless traffic information, vehicle-to-vehicle networks, and smart city infrastructure.

How does IoT work in cars?

Vehicles employ integrated sensors to monitor essential systems like engine performance, remaining tire tread, and cabin air quality. IoT networks transmit this data to the cloud, empowering predictive maintenance scheduling, instantaneous software fixes, and emergency assistance.

How do cars connect to the internet?

New vehicles come with integrated LTE wireless modems that enable smooth internet connectivity along with high-speed, low-latency, and secure remote system access.