The automotive industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by location-based services, autonomous driving, and enhanced safety, and growing importance of technologies such as cloud computing, big data and location awareness. In the last three years alone, there have been over 1.2 million patents filed and granted in the automotive industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Cloud in Automotive: Remote trip monitoring.
However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.
Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
290+ innovations will shape the automotive industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the automotive industry using innovation intensity models built on over 619,000 patents, there are 290+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, EV discharge prediction, manufacturability analysis, and AI-assisted CAD are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Vehicle head up displays (HUDs), gesture-sensing AR/VR interfaces, and instrument cluster dashboard are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing. Among maturing innovation areas are HUD dashboards and remote trip monitoring, which are now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for cloud in the automotive industry
Remote trip monitoring is a key innovation area in cloud
Trip monitoring or fleet monitoring is a means to track the movement of a company's mobile assets, usually using a GPS tracking unit equipped to the vehicle or equipment being traced. The GPS unit often transmits the equipment or vehicle position utilising a built-in cellular or satellite connection.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 40+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established automotive companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of remote trip monitoring.
Key players in remote trip monitoring – a disruptive innovation in the automotive industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to remote trip monitoring
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
Itron is a key player in the remote trip monitoring innovation area. It is developing its long-term collaboration with Microsoft to quicken cloud adoption and the next generation of consumer and grid edge solutions for the utility and smart cities industries. The collaboration brings together Itron’s top energy management solutions and Microsoft’s top cloud solutions to convert how end users view and manage their energy, and how utilities meet the demands of a rapidly changing industry. Itron’s collaboration with Microsoft aims to improve solutions that deliver unique insights and advantages for utilities, communities and enterprises to reach their goals, including grid resilience, customer engagement, operational competence and decarbonisation. Panasonic, Honda, Senseware and Kudelski are some of the other key players.
To further understand how cloud is disrupting the automotive industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Automotive.
GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
