Digital transformation of the automotive industry will bring in-car digital health

The automotive industry is set to converge with healthcare, wellness and wellbeing, says business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

Next month, the company will host an Intelligent Mobility industry event to explore how the rapid pace of digitisation is shifting the focus of the automotive industry from component hardware to software and solutions, accelerated by consumers’ evolving expectations and demands for new and innovative services.

One of the many cross-segment opportunities expected to emerge is the integration of digital health in the car, with built-in, brought-in and beamed-in/cloud-enabled applications of health, wellness and wellbeing.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the first step will be the integration of specific devices, such as air condition humidifiers, heart rate sensors in seat belts, wearables and health apps.

On the next level, the vehicle dashboard or an augmented reality enabled windscreen could be used to display health data such as passenger statistics or warnings.

At the Intelligent Mobility event, Olivia Price-Walker, principal consultant at Frost & Sullivan’s Visionary Innovation Group, will offer insights and best practices on the role healthcare, wellness and wellbeing will take in the cars of the future.

She commented: “Today, you might not find your car and your health have much in common but in future both will share key characteristics — they will be highly digitalised, personalised and individualised — so why not combine them? This can be interpreted as an extension of OEMs’ long-existing focus on the passengers’ safety. Providing the vehicle owner with convenient and easy to manage built-in, brought-in and cloud-enabled applications will be crucial.

“By 2030 the world of healthcare will be unrecognisable — today’s data giants IBM, Amazon, Google will be our healthcare providers. Our cars, homes and workplaces will be our hospitals. Most of the world will be genome sequenced and precision medicine will be revolutionising accurate healthcare treatment. Healthcare will be democratised, data based, automated and driven by consumers themselves. As new players flood this market it is time for the mobility industry to make their move.”

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