Tomorrow’s Technology Today
Telematics is Driving Automotive
Communications into the 21st Century
Prepared for Motorola by
TechMarcom as a
subcontractor of Cunningham
Communications,
Motorola’s PR agency of
record, Fall 1999
This presentation was written for Motorola by Jon Boroshok of TechMarcom, Inc. , working as a subcontractor for Cunningham Communications, Motorola’s agency of record. All rights reserved.
Tomorrow’s Technology Today
Smarter Technology;
Smarter Cars
There’s more fun to today’s
automobiles than mastering sharp
turns at high speeds or rolling down
the windows and letting the wind blow
back your hair. Cars have become
“smarter.” Thanks to an automotive
wireless communications system
called “telematics” that incorporates
global positioning system (GPS)
technology, many carmakers can now
link motorists to services that provide
emergency calling, directions or other
location-based services. This new
technology is taking the automotive
industry by storm.
The emerging convergence of
computing and communications will
make our world much smaller, even
while on the road. Tomorrow’s “smart
cars” will be equipped with systems
that can provide real-time traffic
information and play music on
demand, enabling us to take our
world with us wherever we go.
Telematics
The term telematics originated in
Europe and remains widely used in
the automotive industry. It’s an
emerging market of automotive
communications technology,
combining wireless voice and data to
provide location-specific security,
information and entertainment
services to drivers. DamlierChrysler
was one of the first companies to
describe their communications
technologies as telematics systems
and customers quickly identified with
the new term.
The first systems deployed addressed
the need for added safety and
security in the car. Motorola
pioneered the telematics market in
1996 when it helped Ford introduce
the first emergency response system,
called RESCU.
Since Ford’s RESCU system,
Motorola has helped many carmakers
bring telematics to drivers worldwide.
It capitalizes on the converging
technologies that we’re beginning to
embrace and take for granted —
things like wireless communications,
GPS, embedded software and voice
recognition.
Motorola’s core technology
components are found in the
Telematics Communications Unit
(TCU), which is composed of
deeply integrated software and
hardware technologies, including
GPS, necessary for delivering
telematics services to drivers. The
TCU connects the car and driver to a
response center.
The breadth of services telematics
systems can offer motorists is limited
by the amount of data that the cellular
infrastructure can support. As
network operators move to global
packet radio service (GPRS) and 3G
technology, the amount of packetdata delivered services demanded by
drivers will only grow.
Consumer Benefits
In an emergency situation, a
telematics system automatically
notifies a response center when an
airbag deploys. This is especially
important when the driver is unable to
manually contact a response center.
In some telematics systems,
automatic notification to the response
center also occurs in a roll-over
accident — common on the fastmoving autobahns in Germany.
With telematics systems, drivers can
request information and quickly
receive help in emergencies or
This presentation was written for Motorola by Jon Boroshok of TechMarcom, Inc. , working as a subcontractor for Cunningham Communications, Motorola’s agency of record. All rights reserved.
Tomorrow’s Technology Today
problem situations. Telematics
systems in the future will extend these
capabilities even further and bring
greater levels of intelligent
transportation to all drivers.
Services available today include:

Vehicle management services —
empowering consumers to
remotely unlock car doors if keys
are accidentally locked inside

Car-theft notification and tracking
services that are triggered by an
embedded alarm system in the
vehicle

Convenience voice services —
offering users mobile yellow-page
inquiries

Convenience data services —
enabling motorists to access realtime stock quotes and current
news reports
Motorola and its telematics customers
recognize that these technologies
directly address the ongoing safety
concerns of motorists. These
telematics leaders believe the
inherent value of these technologies
— the real improvements they provide
in automobile safety and convenience
— necessitate their broader
availability in all vehicle classes.
road in North America and Europe.
The Strategis Group, an analyst firm
based in Washington D.C., and Frost
& Sullivan both predict that these
numbers will increase dramatically in
the next three years. Many experts
estimate the telematics market will
reach at least
$8 billion by 2003.
Motorola is developing personal area
network technologies that will — in
the future — allow seamless
integration between cars and portable
wireless devices. In addition,
Motorola will help enable wireless
delivery of entertainment on demand,
with all its attendant e-commerce
opportunities.
What can drivers expect to see
coming down the telematics highway
in the near future?

More information services —
ranging from more advanced
safety services to messaging to
entertainment — as high-speed
packet-data technology
proliferates

Strong collaborative networks —
set up by private companies,
public organizations and individual
consumers — to satisfy the
demand for new levels of driverautomobile interaction

Up-to-date travel guides, e-mail
and voicemail access, airline and
hotel reservations, and serverbased navigation incorporating
real-time road conditions

On-board safety, convenience
and entertainment services, as
well as countless, remarkable new
services that will extend the world
of automotive wireless solutions
What’s Next?
In the next few years, cars may carry
entertainment systems that will play
music on demand, provide route
assistance and accompanying traffic
information, deliver personalized
news, weather and sports or even
offer the capability to even read email.
To date, there are already over
150,000 telematics systems on the
This presentation was written for Motorola by Jon Boroshok of TechMarcom, Inc. , working as a
sub-contractor for Cunningham Communications, Motorola’s agency of record. All rights
reserved.
Tomorrow’s Technology Today
In the Future
The future of telematics cannot be
realized by one company acting
alone. We must strive toward a
telematics ecosystem that actively
involves consumers, automobile
manufacturers and technology
companies in ensuring that telematics
is adopted and embraced at the
mass-market level.
Automobile manufacturers such as
Ford, General Motors,
DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Nissan and
Renault bring years of automotive
manufacturing expertise and
experience to the development of
telematics. Technology companies
are able to leverage their experience
in developing and manufacturing
wireless data protocols and
communications, cellular network
solutions and remote wireless data
services. As a communications
industry pioneer with 65 years of
experience developing products to
improve the automotive experience,
Motorola is committed to being a
driving force in this emerging
automotive market.
The dialogue between companies and
consumers has yielded impressive
results to date. Consumers have
defined our efforts by outlining the
services they most want
— security, roadside assistance,
navigation and traffic, information and
entertainment.
The future of the telematics market
will depend on the industry’s ability to
make telematics products and
services available and economical for
mainstream consumers. Consumers
want one package that is easy to use,
affordable and provides a solution to
their needs. In order to deliver this
solution, automotive, technology and
service companies must develop a
service and pricing policy that will
drive proliferation of telematics
products in the mass consumer
market.
Who can you count on to bring the
promise of telematics to the world?
The same people who have been
changing the way we communicate
on-the-go since 1928. Motorola is
driving innovation with telematics —
the newest way to take your world
with you. Come to think of it — is
Motorola reinventing the car radio for
the Internet?
The information contained in this document is
summary in nature and may change at any time.
Please consult your local Motorola office for
confirmation of any of the contents.
Motorola and
Motorola, Inc.
are registered trademarks of
This presentation was written for Motorola by Jon Boroshok of TechMarcom, Inc. , working as a
sub-contractor for Cunningham Communications, Motorola’s agency of record. All rights
reserved.