62% of the world’s new cars will have factory-installed telematics in 2016; a dramatic increase from less than 10% in 2010. That’s the prediction in a new report from ABI Research. Vehicle telematics describes a combination of in-car telecommunications and IT that can be used for anything from satellite navigation to voice control.

Dominique Bonte, ABI Research practice director, said “Several factors are driving the uptake of OEM telematics, the most important being an automotive industry that is emerging from a painful recession and finding renewed dynamism. At the same time soaring interest levels in the adoption of open platforms and the integration of smartphones and telematics applications into vehicles represents nothing less than a renaissance of both the consumer and commercial telematics markets, borrowing the hugely successful application store paradigm from the mobile industry to improve time-to-market and industry innovation, and most importantly to reduce the costs of telematics services for end-users. Initiatives such as the open source GENIVI infotainment platform and Nokia’s Terminal Mode standard are creating high expectations and result in industry wide cooperation.”

The company says concerns still remain about the long-term viability of what is a highly-fragmented telematics ecosystem, with Telematics Service Providers and automotive Tier 1 suppliers potentially being squeezed out of the value chain by the developers of new ‘connected’ navigation and software products. Other barriers include delays to telematics legislation - both the EU’s eCall and Brazil’s SVT stolen vehicle tracking projects are not moving as quickly as expected – and new safety risks caused by increased driver distraction.