Connected cars are the next evolutionary step in autonomous vehicles, and many manufacturers are already exploring options that help keep their vehicles communicating with each other. Globe News Wire states that the connected car market is likely to reach $43 billion in 2019. Those numbers may be an overestimation in 2020 because of obvious reasons, but the market will recover with time. Connected cars are likely to make massive waves in the automotive industry. To date, auto manufacturers, just like Go Mini’s portable storage pods, still rely on individuals to do things like maintenance for their vehicles. Still, with software for the connected car industry, the manufacturers themselves could remain abreast of any individual car’s status. here, we examine what connected vehicles will do to the auto industry.

Increased Safety

At present, most vehicles go through safety testing to ensure that they don’t lead to passengers’ deaths in the event of a crash. However, safety tests are only necessary if a human being pilots the vehicle. Connected vehicles will utilize machine to machine (M2M) communication to directly interface with other cars around them. Elements like cruise control and emergency braking will take into account other vehicles in the car’s vicinity so you won’t need help from the best personal injury attorneys. Since these algorithms can typically respond faster than humans can think, their reaction times will be quicker. The result is a safer, more reliable journey because of connected car software.

Convenient Navigation and Pathfinding

Already, humans use GPS navigation to find where they’re going on the ground. While some cars come with built-in nav systems, most drivers use their own phones for directions, according to CNN Money. Software can tap into GPS satellites and use route-finding algorithms to plot out the most efficient route. Live-data on traffic can help to streamline these results for the fastest possible journey. However, to utilize these advances, the vehicle would need an LTE sim card that allows it to access a wireless network for triangulation and fine-tuning of GPS results.

A Changing Paradigm

While these benefits will come about as more cars become autonomous, other advances will make vehicles look and act uniquely in the future. While M2M is currently the standard for determining what’s happening around a car, new advancement will lead to replacement technology. The latest advances in vehicle communication utilize a method known as Vehicle-to-everything (V2X). V2X deals with not just surrounding vehicles and their movement but also their behavior. It also allows cars to deal with road infrastructure and other hardware to calculate routes for maximum efficiency.

The Automotive World is Changing

Even though autonomous cars haven’t become mainstream as yet, they are also undergoing their own evolution. Automotive manufacturers have all invested in technology that will make self-driving vehicles a reality shortly. Some generous estimates put it at between five and seven years before seeing cars that drive themselves on the road. Connectivity technology has also drastically improved, and 5G wireless offers even better connection options for these autonomous entities. While it’s far from certain when self-driving cars will become common, there’s no question that they will be a significant part of the present and future.