Mobility Insights: How connected car data optimizes mobility and incentivizes greater sustainability

The true value of connected car data comes from the insights you are able to extract from it. These insights can be used to optimize infrastructure in a city, or improve a connected car service or product, for example. Mobility insights can be particularly interesting to many different stakeholders, as they provide data on how, when and where cars move. With that in mind – how can mobility insights benefit your customers, and promote sustainability? That is what I will discuss in this article.

How to turn connected car data into useful insights

At WirelessCar, we collaborate with car makers/OEMs in order to create digital products and solutions that help them unleash the power of their connected cars. In a nutshell, it is all about making raw car data usable (such as by cleaning and anonymizing it), and then truly useful to car makers and their customers.

By looking at data on how a car (or fleet of cars) is actually used, we are able to reach new insights on what actions we can take in order to strengthen the car maker’s operations and business offers. These analytics will largely be descriptive, as they describe events and actions that have already happened, and how the car maker can learn and benefit from them.

In a longer perspective, however, this paves the way for predictive or even prescriptive analytics, meaning that certain patterns and actions can be foreseen and acted upon proactively. This largely thanks to ever better data sets and machine learning, which lead to more and increasingly specific insights.

When do mobility insights translate into valuable connected car services?

How do we know if an insight is worth pursuing; that valuable connected car services can be built or enhanced from it? Shown below are the four main parameters that we take into account as we evaluate insights together with car makers, and what these insights can mean from a mobility and sustainability perspective:

Mobility insights provide the pieces for solving the greater mobility puzzle

Insights from connected car data can benefit car makers (and their customers, in turn) in so many ways, not least in the areas of mobility and sustainability. Perhaps most importantly, mobility insights enable car makers and drivers to better understand the details of the bigger mobility picture. Herein lies the true potential of what connected car services can do to meet the demands of the market, and contribute to more sustainable mobility solutions.

One example of data that can be used for mobility insights is the position of the car. If this information is available and used within the larger ecosystem (with consent from individual drivers, of course) it can help facilitate and encourage Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Another example is the position of an electric vehicle plus its State of Charge (SoC). Based on this information, we would be able to suggest where and when to charge the battery. This can be done in a way that is optimal both for the fleet or individual car on the one hand, and for the power grid and charging stations on the other.

How mobility insights facilitate electric vehicle optimization for EV drivers and owners

If we look at the position of an electric vehicle and its SoC, what optimizations can there be for the individual EV driver and owner? Here are some examples from different parts of the lifecycle:

Before the car is purchased: What is the right car for the driver?
By looking at a car owner’s driving patterns, mobility insights can show whether an electric vehicle would be the best option for the driver when he or she wants to buy a new car. If yes, the battery size could be prescripted, as he or she may not need as big a battery as they may think.

When the car is parked: Drivers can actively contribute to an increased vehicle utilization rate
By predicting when the EV will be parked – thus not used by its owner or main driver – it can be used for other people’s mobility needs. The battery may even be used to contribute to the power grid, through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.

How the car is handled: Informing drivers on where and how to charge their electric vehicles
When an electric car battery is handled with care and charged appropriately, it lasts longer and helps increase the residual value of the car. By observing and predicting trip patterns, weather conditions, charging infrastructure availability, among other things, you can recommend drivers on where and how to charge their car batteries. You can suggest how many times and to what extent they should (ideally) charge their battery. You can also suggest slow charging and describe its advantages over fast charging.

When the car is passed on to the next owner: Prolonging the lifetime of the car
By knowing how the battery has been handled and where the car has been driven historically (harsh or mild temperatures or weather conditions, for example), we can estimate their health. Having this clear, data-driven knowledge of the car’s health can help increase its residual value, thus hopefully prolonging the lives of many existing cars.

Mobility Insights as a WirelessCar offering

WirelessCar is currently working with mobility insights together with some of our customers. Mobility Insights is a Discovery offering of ours where we work closely with car makers in order to help them get the most out of their connected car data.

Together, we turn these insights into ideas that can then translate into new, ever-greater connected car services. It is a very concrete way of combining our skill sets and experiences. Moreover, it gives us a very strong platform from which we can build the digital products and solutions that will shape the sustainable mobility of the future.

Curious about our work in this area? Do you want to know more about what we can do together with your company, and your car data? Email me at Natalie Lucca. Make sure to check out our approach to sustainability and to read our other blog articles on car data and sustainability as well: What is the climate impact of the software-defined car? and How do digital services based on connected car data contribute to sustainable mobility.