Look Who's Talking!!

Look Who’s Talking!!

About 3 years ago, Ford began offering a system to dealerships that reads the dealers’ inventory, checks supplies of vehicles and makes recommendations about vehicles- type and make which have to be stocked up in order to maximize profits. Ford Motor Co. has achieved a great deal by mashing together large databases and analytical algorithms to create probably the next big thing. 

Your car knows a lot about you, and it is talking!

Automakers are exploring ways to use information from cars on the road to improve the driving experience, car design, fuel efficiency, financing among many other things. Some of the key aspects highlighted in this development are discussed below.

Data collected from cars as they are being driven in different topographical zones can be used to interpret road conditions and warn other drivers in cars about potential hazards. We live in an era of instantaneous communication and this is very easily implemented.

Cars also send their location to a traffic management database system that changes signals based on real time and very situation responsive rather than having the same routine on a loop the whole day. This could vary based on rush hour, accident occurrences, ambulance on the road and so on.

Payment data which is collected by dealerships, banks, credit unions and so on are linked to current car values allowing dealers to reach out owners at the best time for them to trade in their vehicles. The car can have the capability to display on the dash the current going rates and the best available deals on future models.

Data on driving patterns which the car spits out to them after considerable amount of driving is sued to help car companies make better decisions on the sizes of batteries needed and the handshake between hybrid and driving on the internal combustion engines. For example I know the current Ford Taurus hybrid has a leaf on the dashboard and it changes color (green and red ironically) to display how environment friendly the driver is driving. This data can also be used to detect charging patterns for electric cars and help automate charging cycles to ensure customers get the best energy rates.

A lot is already being done by automakers and all this requires tremendous knowledge of Data Mining and also key factors such as cloud storage, data cleaning and visualization techniques are constantly being implemented in order to fully interpret the meaning of all this data gathered form millions of car users across the globe. The can not only help the automakers operate profitably but also make the planet safer and take a more green initiative to motoring.

References: The Wall Street Journal –Big Data edition