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Just “yesterday” automotive enthusiasts were pin striping, adding chrome, and adding lift kits to ensure everyone understood their “style”. Many remember this era as the heyday of personalization for the automotive industry. They ain’t seen nothing yet!

A Glimpse of Tomorrow (not years from now)…

“Good Morning Driver,

You are about to pick up Mr. Greggory Garrett.   He goes by ‘Gregg’.

Because you have not yet installed our Autonomous Profile aftermarket device for your vehicle, we need you to play the role of integrator. Please adjust your vehicle settings to Gregg’s preferences:

• Temperature: 71°F (outdoor temperature is below 54°F)
• Vent Setting: Floor only.
• Music: Set to Passenger Control
• Seat Heat: On level 2
• Windows: Turn Locks off. He prefers the ability to control the windows. (Child waiver signed)

This ride is marked as casual, and previous drivers have indicated he enjoys discussing sports.   Our records show that he is in his home town.

Thank you,

Dispatcher

PS – Please remember to fill in our autonomous vehicle ownership survey.”

The Beginning of the Future

Earlier this week, Uber and Spotify made an announcement that passengers who book transportation through the Uber app will be able to control what they listen to during their ride. (https://get.uber.com/spotify/)

Many major media outlets have covered this story, and rightfully so….

• Two progressive technological companies partnering for mutual gain.
• Two disruptors, now disrupting together.
• Extend the entertainment experience from one device, to another.

We are pretty excited about this announcement for a number of reasons. It begins to demonstrate so much of what we have advised on for a number of years! Here are three highlights…

A Connected Experience, NOT simply a Setting

This small first step toward “cloud based profiles” should signal to the automotive industry that digital personalization has to be more than a feature for a single vehicle. Connected consumers will demand that the settings that make their life run smoothly must be shared.   This sharing will need to be unlocked from embedded devices and allowed to be moved from vehicle to vehicle, and well beyond. (Author’s note: We will expand upon this thought in a full piece in our next Throwback posting in 2 weeks.)

CRM Needs to Include Usage Information

Albeit a small first step, Uber understands that passengers are more than a customer ID and a credit card. How a customer uses a product or interacts with a service is part of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) practice of the future. This will be critical information for how to communicate with customers in the future and ensure the experience is “THEIRS”.

Does your CRM system have a place to record, apply, and learn from how your customers are using your product? If you don’t know, run… DON’T WALK, RUN!… to your customer relationship leaders and verify they have a plan!

Getting Ready for the Autonomous Vehicle

The ultimate connected vehicle may be the one that drives itself. When car sharing and autonomous meet, profile information will be everything. Uber drivers will no longer need to receive the setting notices (Spotify or beyond). The vehicle will get the settings automatically. Not only in-cabin settings, but also driving preferences:

• Activity based Route Selection – Fastest Route, or the one with the least amount of braking. (Perhaps you are eating or drinking and don’t want to spill.)
• Driver Mirror Mode – You used to drive yourself a lot, and you never did enjoy how the cabby drove. Your connected vehicle has been studying your driving style for years. It can be loaded to your autonomous vehicle to help ease adoption anxiety.
• And many more…

Think connectivity is a passing trend? Think it is a small feature in your product? Think again! It will disrupt your industry.

Comment on our blog, or tweet us @CGSAdvise and let us know what ideas this “Throwback” may have spawned!

Enterprise innovation leaders and entrepreneurs recognize that some of the best ideas are created as derivatives of other ideas. We refer to this as “Idea Spawning”.   Similar to upstarts “pivoting” several times prior to locking in on an offering or business model that the market can appreciate, ideas often need refinement to find their real value.

It is the concept of Idea Spawning that has encouraged us to launch a sporadic “Throw-back Thursday” campaign. We highlight ideas that have been derived from old concepts. Some of these will be our own ideas that we have previously shared in publications, journals, webinars/conferences, whitepapers, or our blog (available at https://www.cgsadvisors.com/). Other ideas will be from outside sources that we feel deserve attention.