Telematics
I came across a new term the other day, and had to find out what it meant. The term is "telematics," and its the combination of the words "telecommunications" and "informatics." The idea is to send, store and retrieve information on a remote, most likely moving - as in vehicular - object.
It could be a GPS system, or it might be telemetry information about a test flight. But more and more, it refers to road vehicles, and is connected to such things as LoJack devices (vehicle tracking devices that will report on a stolen vehicle), fleet information (where are the vehicles in a fleet, what is the status of the vehicle, how is it behaving, how fast is it going, and so on), rental car information,and so on. Status will be a great development for fleet owners, as they now will know when a vehicle needs non-scheduled servicing, or has a dangerous condition developing.
Trailer tracking and container tracking are also up and coming uses of telematics. And we're all familiar with mapping a route via our mobile GPS options, but soon an onboard system will be part of every car, as will safety communications along the lines of OnStar, which allows a driver to communicate with a live operator for assistance, directions, or emergencies. The OnStar system can even detect when a car and/or driver seems to be in trouble.
Testing is already under way on driverless cars - cars that literally sense the road and follow a route, and can drive themselves, particularly on highways or other roads where stop and go are not the normal conditions.
And we've all heard about the possibility of devices that would take a measurement of a driver's blood alcohol before starting up a car.
Well, all of that is telematics. And now you, and I, both know more about it!
It could be a GPS system, or it might be telemetry information about a test flight. But more and more, it refers to road vehicles, and is connected to such things as LoJack devices (vehicle tracking devices that will report on a stolen vehicle), fleet information (where are the vehicles in a fleet, what is the status of the vehicle, how is it behaving, how fast is it going, and so on), rental car information,and so on. Status will be a great development for fleet owners, as they now will know when a vehicle needs non-scheduled servicing, or has a dangerous condition developing.
Trailer tracking and container tracking are also up and coming uses of telematics. And we're all familiar with mapping a route via our mobile GPS options, but soon an onboard system will be part of every car, as will safety communications along the lines of OnStar, which allows a driver to communicate with a live operator for assistance, directions, or emergencies. The OnStar system can even detect when a car and/or driver seems to be in trouble.
Testing is already under way on driverless cars - cars that literally sense the road and follow a route, and can drive themselves, particularly on highways or other roads where stop and go are not the normal conditions.
And we've all heard about the possibility of devices that would take a measurement of a driver's blood alcohol before starting up a car.
Well, all of that is telematics. And now you, and I, both know more about it!
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