i3 - January/February 2019 - 22

or many people, their two
most expensive possessions are a home and a
car. Now technology is
bringing both together, one as an extension of the other. In an accelerating
trend, smart homes and connected cars
are converging - and the pairing promises new lifestyle benefits.

AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE

According to a recent study by ABI
Research, annual shipments of smart home
devices are expected to soar to 467 million
in 2023, from 252 million in 2018, a figure
that itself was 55 percent higher versus
2017. More than 70 million homes worldwide have at least one smart home device,
ABI says. By 2022, ABI predicts they will
grow to more than 300 million.
Moreover, ABI forecasts 500 million connected cars on roads worldwide by 2022.
And, at least initially, voice control functionality offered by virtual assistants such
as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Google
Assistant will be the common factor.
"Extending smart home voice control
into the connected vehicle is part of an
ongoing integration that will pull
together home and vehicle personalization," says Jonathan Collins, research
director in the smart home practice at
ABI, based in New York. Smart home
systems will "be the gatekeeper for a
whole range of applications."
"We certainly place automotive as one of
those formerly detached verticals that
increasingly will need connectivity into that
smart home platform," he adds.
The reason is two-fold, Collins says: to
offer more value to consumers and to
develop new revenue streams for automakers. The auto industry's evolution to
mobility as a service (MasS) using
shared self-driving cars only amplifies
this integration, he says.
Tim Smith, global auto mobility director
at ustwo, a creative digital services firm
based in London, is more interested in "the
sensor-based interaction with your home"
and being able to synchronize the separate

environments. For example, Smith says, if
biometric sensors in the car detect that the
driver is cold and anxious on his way
home, the vehicle may automatically warm
the cabin, start playing relaxing music and
turn on ambient mood lighting. But it may
also raise the home's smart thermostat to
a warmer temperature, set room lighting
to a soothing level through smart light
switches, and start playing the same
soundtrack through smart speakers at
home - all during the drive.
"So, if we speculate in five to ten years the
car will have a plethora of these sensors,
there's a wealth of information that we can
apply to the car-home connection," he says.
Automakers could soon begin implementing their own technology innovations outside vehicles, Smith adds. "For
the first time, the car is now becoming a
smart piece of tech." But automobiles
stand out since these consumer electronic machines function as an environment and have "user's undivided
attention." As a result, he says, it's plausible that an automaker's own embedded
voice assistant might be the first one
some consumers encounter, and that
they'd want it at home as well.
Smith says ustwo is working with five
automakers on concepts for new user experience (UX) technologies. Four revolve
around voice assistants and car-to-home
connectivity. One's outcome may be unveiled
in pre-production form at CES, he says.

VOICE IS VITAL

Elizabeth Halash, connected vehicle thirdparty API supervisor at Ford Motor Co. in
Dearborn, MI says that thanks to voice
technology being able to reverse-connect
the home to the car, it "has finally caught

Cars

with smart
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

i3 - January/February 2019

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