Telematics

Telematics is the data that a phone, a car, a truck or a machine sends over a mobile network about where it is and how it is being driven or used. A telematics device is usually a small box with a GPS receiver, motion sensors and a SIM card. Many new cars and phones already have these parts inside. Insurers use the data to price policies, and companies use it to run their fleets of vehicles.

Here is how it works in general. The sensors measure the vehicle's location, speed, braking, turning and engine readings. The device sends these readings over the mobile network, every few seconds or minutes. Software in the cloud collects the readings from every vehicle. It turns them into something useful: a map of where each vehicle is, a score for how safely it is driven, or an alert when something goes wrong. A person then acts on it, such as a fleet manager, an insurer or a mechanic.

Take, for example, motor insurance priced by how a person drives. Usage-based insurance uses the sensors in the driver's phone to score harsh braking and speeding, and a careful driver can pay a lower premium.

Consider a school with forty buses. A telematics device in each bus reports its position, so the school and the parents can see where each bus is, and a fleet management system plans the routes.

Say a truck carries vaccines across the country. Cold-chain monitoring reports the temperature inside the truck, and raises an alert if it rises above the safe limit.

Carmakers also receive telematics from their own cars, through each car's SIM card. A connected car platform uses it to lock the car from an app, track a stolen car and spot faults early.

How is telematics different from industrial IoT? Both are devices that send sensor readings to software. Telematics is about things that move, such as vehicles, so location and driving matter most. Industrial IoT is mostly about machines that stay in one place, such as pumps and motors in a factory. The data from both raises the same questions about consent and privacy, covered in data protection law.