The "Computer on Wheels": What a Decade of Progress Teaches Us About Connected Mobility

By Ted Guild, Connected Vehicle Lead & Amir Sayegh, Principal Product Safety Strategist

For the last 25 years, Geotab has been a global leader in connected vehicle solutions, helping fleet managers use vehicle data and insights to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

Recent advancements in big data and artificial intelligence have allowed us to provide even more value to our customers, shifting our products from offering reactive to predictive insights. We also launched Altitude by Geotab, a privacy-first commercial vehicle data platform that provides insights to government agencies and the private sector, helping them make better infrastructure decisions. None of this would be possible without connected vehicle technology.

While we've seen great success in the commercial sector, the promise of unlocking consumer vehicle data has been widely debated for the last decade with no real progress. To help unlock this value, we collaborated with Roland Berger and The Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA) on the new "Computer on Wheels: Unlocking the next chapter in connected services" report. 

The study, which revisits the state of connected mobility over the last decade, is a powerful moment to reflect on our collective progress. It shows that while the broader automotive industry has been working to overcome significant technological hurdles, our experience in the fleet space offers a valuable perspective on what works and what's next.

The report offers clear evidence of the industry's progress. In 2015, 84% of industry experts saw a "lack of connected vehicles" as a primary blocker to connected services. Today, that number has dropped to 0%. Another significant barrier, data transmission costs, was seen as a serious obstacle by nearly 100% of respondents a decade ago; now, only 35% still view it as a problem.

The report highlights a key remaining challenge: creating sustainable business models and achieving widespread customer acceptance. While the business case for commercial fleets is clear, this is not the case for the consumer sector. The number of experts citing a lack of functioning business models has only dropped from 90% to a still-substantial 74%, reflecting the ongoing hurdles that remain for consumer-oriented services.

From Proprietary to Profitable

In the past, one of the biggest roadblocks was a fragmented ecosystem of proprietary systems, each requiring custom integration. This created complexity and stalled progress. This is where organizations like COVESA and their focus on common data models and APIs become so crucial. The future of connected mobility won't be built on walled gardens; it will thrive on open, standardized frameworks that enable seamless data sharing and innovation.

Our work at Geotab has always been a testament to this principle. We’ve seen how leveraging a standardized, agnostic platform for vehicle data enables our customers to solve real-world problems and generate a clear return on investment. The report reinforces this approach, emphasizing that the most successful models are those that deliver immediate, quantifiable value.

The Next Chapter of Connected Services

The survey results from the "Computer on Wheels" report tell a compelling story: While a decade ago, technology was the primary barrier, today it is the key enabler . This isn’t a sign of failure but a clear signal of where the industry's focus must shift next. The conversation is no longer about if we can connect vehicles, but about how we can best make use of  the data in a way that benefits everyone—from OEMs to end-users.

For Geotab, our participation in this study was about sharing the wisdom we've gained from 25 years of experience. We believe that by working together with our industry partners, we can develop new data-driven services that are valuable, secure, and ultimately accepted by the market. We’ve seen what’s possible with fleets, and we are confident that the broader market is now ready to catch up.

The "Computer on Wheels" report is a valuable compass pointing the way forward. It's an invitation for the entire industry to move past the initial growing pains and embrace a more holistic, collaborative approach. The infrastructure is in place; now, it’s time to build the future of connected mobility.

Read the full "Computer on Wheels" report to get a complete overview of the findings and our vision for the future of connected services.