ACtion Magazine - March 2014 - (Page 21)

The 'Internet of Things' Get ready for the next wave of 'smart' devices - including the cars coming into your bays. By Angie Kilbourne, AAM Y ou can't read any technology blog or tech news lately that Opel, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo and Jaguar, according to the company. doesn't talk about the newest 'big wave' in the evolution Google recently announced a deal that brings the Android operof the Internet: the Internet of Everything (IoE). The Web ating system to Audi vehicles. These revelations simply point to has moved beyond connecting your computers, phones and tablets what you and your fellow service technicians have already known and is poised to start streaming to your refrigerator, thermostat, all along: The way you service vehicles is going to change - and automatic garage door, and yes, the automobiles on the streets, as soon. According to the Wall Street Journal's Neal Boudette and well as street lights and trafﬁc lights. Not really big news, you say? Daisuke Wakabayashi, "With 80 million new cars and light trucks Well, maybe you are right. But the direction IoE is heading will sold each year automobiles represent a signiﬁcant new opportunity have major impacts on all of us for years to come - consumers for Internet-based software and services." and service providers alike. Just as the number of sensors exploded in vehicles over the past Connecting appliances, vehicles two decades, so too, experts say, will the prolifand other devices to the Internet is eration of computer chips in cars and light-duty This will mean giving devices trucks. Boudette and Wakabayashi also reportsimple for today's manufacturers. It's the interconnectivity of all these dethe ability to autonomously ed plans by General Motors and Audi to build vices that appears to be the stumbling vehicles with fourth-generation chips, allowing configure themselves and a direct connection to the Internet without using block that is holding back this march of technology. Online technology a smartphone as the intermediary. Phil Abram, connect to each other. news outlet Business Insider recently GM's chief technology ofﬁcer, stated during a reported that the biggest obstacle is a recent conference call that the automaker plans common protocol for storing data and connecting the IoE and all its to equip nearly all of its 2015 models with the ability to provide a devices together. In other words, someone needs to develop a com- continuous wireless broadband connection. mon language for all these devices to speak to each other, much But without that common language to speak with each other, like HTML was developed so computers could use the Internet and the IoE appears to be in a holding pattern - for now, at least. share information. But don't get too comfortable; the automotive service and repair Reporter Christopher Mims of the online news outlet Quartz industry has ridden this wave before, hasn't it? You've already takes it a step further, pointing out that this common protocol or dealt with the sea-change in diagnostics and service information language is crucial to the future of IoE: "Accomplishing this will that came and ﬁrmly established new ways of working in today's mean giving devices the ability to autonomously conﬁgure them- automotive service bay. Well, it's time to bring out that surfboard selves and discover and connect to each other, all of which simply again because it appears the service industry will be tooling up isn't possible now." - and training up - to meet the challenges of tomorrow all over Apple's iOS is being built into vehicles today, including again. ❆ Honda/Acura, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan/Inﬁniti, Ferrari, Chevrolet/ " 2014 CES: The Wave of Things to Come The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a dazzling display of toys and dreams-yet-to-be-realized. But John Chambers, CEO of tech giant Cisco Systems, delivered some powerful statements in his keynote address: "The Internet of Things will alter the trajectory of virtually every person on the planet, consumer and professional alike," said Chambers. "It's bigger than anything that's ever been done before in high tech. I predict that within a decade, the impact of the Internet of Things will be ﬁve to 10 times greater than the whole Internet has been up until now. In fact, Cisco believes the Internet of Things will generate more than $19 trillion in new revenue by 2020." "The exponential growth in our ability to capture, analyze and manage data for both machine-to-machine communications as well as human machine interactions is driving this revolution," Chambers continued. "We will be able to get the right data to the right device at the right time to the right person or machine to be able to make the right decision. This will both disrupt and re-energize industries; it will lessen the degree of separation between consumer and OEMs; and it will make manufacturers more directly accountable to a better-informed service, repair and customer base." March 2014 * ACtion 21

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ACtion Magazine - March 2014

Coolant pump replacement
Computer controls for Air conditioning replacement
Outlook
Freeze Frame
Leonard's Law
Virtual View
Service Port
Last Watch
By the Numbers
Cooling Corner
Industry News
Association News
New Products

ACtion Magazine - March 2014