By Rahul Goel
With the increasing penetration of connected technologies, the Indian automotive infotainment market is witnessing massive growth. It is expected to see multifold growth by 2030.
The term automotive infotainment or in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) refers to all the information and entertainment components in a vehicle including Human Machine Interface (HMI), media connectivity, telematics, radio/audio/video, and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). In other words, the automotive infotainment systems serve the purpose of enhancing the in-vehicle experience of the users through various cutting-edge information and entertainment solutions. In the digital age, automobile buyers are looking at more than just an attractive and stylish exterior. They are now more interested in new functions in their cars to take their digital life on the road, making way for the automotive infotainment market to open up.
In the past few years, India is also levelling up its in-vehicle infotainment game taking into consideration the growing demand for a comprehensive automotive infotainment solution. In fact, the Indian automotive electronics market is on the verge of a technological revolution, thanks to the impressive smartphone penetration in India.
According to Canalys, the Indian smartphone market witnessed a 12% growth in 2021 despite a tough start due to the second wave of Covid-19. Moreover, experts say that the demand for smartphones in India will continue to increase in 2022 as more and more people are migrating to smartphones. The increasing smartphone sales, coupled with cheap internet accessibility, are pushing automobile manufacturers to accommodate the integration of smartphones with in-vehicle infotainment systems.
As a matter of fact, as Indian customers are now giving preference to in-vehicle digital experience, India’s automotive electronics market is expected to reach $18 billion by 2017 at a CAGR of 17% according to a report by Counterpoint. The same report says that the sales of automotive electronics will see a 3 times growth during the period of 2020-2027.
The car manufacturers are prioritizing the development of innovative automotive infotainment systems for their automobiles to meet the changing landscape of customers’ buying behaviour. These advanced in-vehicle infotainment offerings are no longer limited to luxury cars only. Even the entry and mid-range vehicles, today, are equipped with state-of-art infotainment systems to provide buyers with futuristic driver assistance. vehicle safety, connectivity, entertainment, and comfort.
Modern manufacturers are offering features like pre-trip planning, parking recommendations, predictive navigations, and cloud syncing in order to make the in-vehicle digital experience more appealing to the users. Users can now easily pair their smartphones with the in-car infotainment systems via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to access smartphone features like managing calls, viewing contact lists, accessing call logs, and viewing messages. In addition, the rising usage of telematics, on-board diagnostics (OBD), electronic control unit (ECU), and anti-lock braking systems (ABS) will drive this market in the future.
In the age of tech-driven solutions, rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have already changed the face of human-machine interaction. The automobile industry is also leveraging AI-driven high-tech components to offer an enhanced and personalized in-vehicle experience to its users. Many players in the automobile industry have conceived AI-powered in-vehicle infotainment systems looking at the growing demand for comfortable and safe automated vehicles. One such AI-backed solution is gesture recognition technology which will replace touch screen technologies in the future to improve the efficiency of infotainment systems.
This way, the drivers do not have to depend on touching any buttons while driving. They will be able to change music, make a call or obtain any information using hand gestures. Manufacturers are also making efforts in designing highly accurate and precise voice recognition and control technology for cars. In the present market, there are a few vehicles with this technology but to a very limited capacity. The latest advancements in AI, ML, and natural language understanding technology (NLU) will make future in-vehicle infotainment systems equipped with superior voice and accent recognition capabilities. Moreover, infotainment systems with V2X will bring automated driving and intelligent mobility to the mainstream.
The global outbreak of the COVID-19 has left a severe impact on the overall supply chain of the automotive industry. It, further, has affected the overall growth of the industry in 2020 and at the start of 2021. However, as the auto industry has been recovering since mid-2021 with the roll-out of vaccination, the Indian manufacturers are realizing the importance of keeping up with the market expectations. Indian auto buyers are now looking for advanced infotainment features at an affordable price. In this scenario, the future in-vehicle infotainment systems must be able to adapt to the changing market requirements by embracing emerging technological trends.
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(Rahul Goel is the Founder of Woodman.)
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Autofintechs.com. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thought to represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.)
