Big Data and cars 14.5 billion dollar in 2020

IHS Automotive has just released a report stating that the concept of connected cars will represent billions for the automotive industry. A raw estimate is that the automobile data systems will represent approximately 14.5 billion dollar in 2020. As a sidenote IHS researches note that this is only the amount that is directly related to the direct automotive industry however not included in this forecast is the revenue for companies and activities who have a spin off from this data. Inlcuding this it is estimated by IHS that this could run between $16 billion and $80 billion.

IHS expect that the following four categories will be of the most benefit directly for the automotive industry;

• Diagnostics 
• Location 
• User Experience (UX)/Feature Usage
• Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS)/Autonomy data

The below graph shows the buildup of data for the automotive industry between the year 2010 and 2020 and it shows a rapid growth that is predicted;

Even though this are impressive numbers it is in no comparison to what the actual revenue could be when we take into account the non-direct automotive revenue. This will not only bring new revenue to already existing companies however it will also fuel new companies to build new solutions and services. Interesting question to ask is however, who is the owner of the data collected. Most likely this will be the car manufacturer as this is somehow to be inserted within a contract with the owner. However, in an ideal world the owner of the car should be the owner of the data and should be able to opt for sharing this data, most likely anonymously, witth the rest of the world.

If the automotive industry could come up with a way that all car data could be shared openly accessible and free this could potentially even more fuel new innovations and could provide a hughe momentum for the adoption of systems like this.