Maruti-Suzuki India limited, the country’s largest carmaker, on Wednesday showcased their new telematics offering to customers called ‘Suzuki Connect’ which is available to all customers of vehicles sold through MSIl’s Nexa channel.
The solution which involves a ‘tamper-proof’ telematics control unit (TCU) inside the vehicle will be available for Rs 9,999, inclusive of all costs and taxes for three years starting Tuesday. Speaking at the launch, RS Kalsi, Senior Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, MSIl, said that the opportunity for telematics is huge in India. “Globally, the telematics industry has been growing at 18 per cent annually and is currently estimated at $55 billion (Rs 38,000 crore) and expected to grow to $103 billion by 2022. Technology is one of the pillars on which we have built our Nexa brand and this offering reinforces that.”
Explaining how the system works, CV Raman, Executive Director, Engineering, MSIl said that the TCU will monitor several parameters of the car which would then be transmitted over a ‘secure and encrypted’ system to the owner’s smartphone through a ‘Suzuki Connect’ application that is available on both Apple’s AppStore and Google’s Play Store.
“The owner can establish all sorts of parameters through his or her phone and can get alerts when the car goes outside a defined area, what we call ‘geofencing’ and even overspeed alerts”, Raman said. Users will also be able to track their car live, which Maruti officials argued can be used to monitor drivers when they are taking a child to school or a senior member of your family.
The information from the vehicle can be shared on up to five devices. In case of an accident where the airbags deploy, the app will instantly send an alert to all the devices with the location of the incident as well as alert the MSIl Call Centre which will contact the nearest Maruti-Suzuki service station for assistance.
The ‘Suzuki Connect’ solution will also be useful to monitor your driving habits and styles and will rate every drive. In addition to that, the system will also monitor car metrics, giving advance notice of necessary services and warning if any component needs urgent replacement.
However, Raman clarified that the data is secure and held with MSIl on their servers as well as undergoing intensive testing as the product was developed in-house. “We have intensively tested the product driving over one million kilometres in 42 cities.”
While telematics have become very popular with large commercial fleets of trucks and buses, its adoption has been limited in the private space. Several automakers have released applications with service reminders and even maps software, however, Maruti is the first non-luxury manufacturer to introduce a telematics option in India.
Mapping services company MapMyIndia did launch a telematics solution last year called ‘DriveMate.’ However, adoption of the service has been slow. Kalsi believes that the telematics market can grow at 25 per cent annually in India over the next few years and that an affordable service like this will help popularise the concept.
Raman added that as a dealer option, fitting the TCU will take just 30-40 minutes for most Nexa cars and it can be retrofitted on existing vehicles as well.