Historically, innovation within the navigation industry came primarily from Japanese or European vehicle manufacturers. The first in-car navigation system was launched by Honda in 1983, whilst more recently companies like Mercedes Benz and BMW led the implementation of new features such as Hard Disc Drives (HDD) and advanced routing. Over the last five years, however, vehicle manufacturers in the US have rapidly caught up and are now offering consumers more advanced features on a greater proportion of their models compared to Europe.
The next evolution within the navigation industry is shifting navigation from being an unconnected and inflexible onboard unit, towards becoming a connected and upgradeable platform.
This evolution in navigation is changing the sources of innovation. Vehicle manufacturers and Tier-one suppliers no longer have a monopoly on innovation, and there are a growing number of 3rd parties (content providers, smartphone suppliers, network operators etc.) that are beginning to play a bigger role in determining the future direction of OE navigation.
In the short-term SBD believes that this US navigation industry is better positioned (compared with Europe) to make this shift towards connected and upgradeable navigation systems.
Whilst individual vehicle manufacturers in the USA face an easier task in innovating and being first-to-market with new navigation services, in the longer-term the automotive industries in both Europe and USA will need closer collaboration in order to avoid developing solutions that are not future proof.
Standardisation activities and collaborations in Europe have not always been successful. However, the stakes are high enough that SBD believes European vehicle manufacturers will eventually agree on the right technologies, partnerships and business models for connected and upgradeable navigation. Once this happens, SBD believes that the US navigation industry will converge towards using the same approaches as those developed in Europe.
For more information on Benchmarking the navigation markets in the US & EU, contact Juanita Appleby on jappleby@sbd.co.uk
