Will Reliance Jio create another disruption—in connected cars?

Connected vehicles can communicate with systems in both directions: They can send and receive data across networks. This will be great news from the point of view of traffic management, security, safety, remote diagnostics, over the air (OTA) updates and insurance. Key components of connected vehicles are the Internet of Things and 5G. In fact one Gartner report says that the market share of 5G-connected cars could well touch 94% in 2028. This brings us to Reliance Industries, which could be India’s major 5G player by then.

Path-breaker Reliance Jio is unveiling its connected vehicle ecosystem at AutoExpo 2020. Reports say that Jio is working on Artificial Intelligence, telematics and scalable IoT solutions and in talks with fleet management companies and vehicle manufacturers. Its vehicle tracking IoT-based device include real-time tracking alerts, transmission of data to government servers along with route and driver management. Currently it offers a 4G LTE eSIM IoT module. The dashcam information can be recorded and the data analysed accordingly.

The Tata Group is launching its own ecosystem of electric vehicles, which will include charging stations and batteries along with a battery recycling plant. They will present a mobile app to check the availability of chargers. It’s much easier to make EVs smart, as Tesla has shown. It will be interesting to see what Tesla does to the Indian car market if and when it makes an entry here. Tesla chief Elon Musk had said some time back that he could not import cars into India due to high duties. It will be a game changer even if Tesla opens manufacturing units here.

The AutoExpo also saw the launch of other electric and concept vehicles. MG Motors unveiled the Marvel X connected SUV with integrated Internet capabilities. Mahindra & Mahindra launched its electric car, the eKUV. An ABI Research report said that the world could add 10 million connected cars in the year 2020 itself. India has a very small part of that pie, but that could change in the years to come.

But is the industry ready for disruption?

But a question to be asked is whether the traditional car industry is ready for such a change. There haven’t been that many earth shattering changes since Ford presented their assembly line model. Now there is talk of cars switching from fossil fuels to electric models quickly on a large scale. Then there’s the question of cars becoming smarter and also embracing technologies like 5G fully when it’s implemented.

Will there be an enmeshing of both urban mobility and telecom mobility? Will the likes of AirTel also be forced get into tie-ups or will Jio achieve a monopoly in the telecom/urban mobility space by the end of the decade? Reliance could have a slice in almost every pie and achieve total domination.

Of course, then what of Maruti Suzuki, which has a stranglehold over the car-dealer-servicing market in India. If they decide to enter the connected vehicle market in a big way, could they dominate if they chose a totally different telecom provider apart from Jio and AirTel? They have already launched their Suzuki Connect. The connected cars market will also be influenced by the American players, especially like Tesla as mentioned before.

Then there’s also the China angle. When it comes to telecom mobility and things like 5G, China is proving to be a clear market leader. China is looking to be a leader at everything and by and large has succeeded, but it’s one failing has been the auto industry where after US and Europe, even Japan and South Korea made a headway. If the car on its own has not meant global domination for China, will it be the combo of connected car + IoT + 5G? The mega project Tesla Giga Shanghai will produce Tesla Models 3 & Y along with their battery cells. This is bound to give a fillip to Chinese smart auto makers.

So can China dominate the Indian market too? Well, the cloud and IoT power the connected vehicles market, so don’t discount the role the IT industry will play, where America still dominates. It is quite difficult to predict which combination of diverse players and which combination of technologies will dominate the auto industry market by the end of the decade both in India and across the world. But a disruption seems to be in the offing whether the car players are ready or not.