Car manufacturers expect that the increasing use of computers and telecommunications will cut accidents, unravel traffic jams, guide drivers through unfamiliar terrain and curb pollution. And they hope telematics, as this convergence of technology is known in France, will become a burgeoning new business that will also overcome the environmental backlash against cars. It is estimated that the world market for vehicle navigation devices will rise to $8,000m by 2000 from about $1,000m next year. The reduction in carbon emissions, estimated to be up to 50%, will result from reduced traffic congestion. Full vehicle control systems could be ready early next century when people will have to drive cars manually only in cities and rural areas. Using telematics, a car would be driven to the nearest main road, the destination punched into its computer, which would lock on to the cable system under the road and then the car would drive itself across the highway network, depositing the occupants close to their destination. German manufacturer Bayerische MoternWerke AG is the only European company so far to offer a device for this fledgling technology – its latest ‘7’ series saloon offers a navigation system. It costs less than $2,000 and was developed by Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands; it uses satellites and guides the driver with instructions from a speech synthesiser. Although it is the Japanese that lead the industry, most European car makers will have limited telematics technology on the market by 1996. At the conference, Italy’s Fiat SpA demonstrated a Croma family car with a computerised route planner. Dr Ing HcF Porsche AG’s 911 Carrera has a system that stops it getting too close to the car in front and warns if a car is too close at the rear. Mercedes was demonstrating a big S class saloon with route guidance and computer enhanced vision. And Renault SA is working on Carminat, on-board computer maps, in joint ventures with Telediffusion de France, Philips and Sagem SA, and Lyonnaise des Eaux.
