AAA Avid About Telematics
AAA Facts
By Brad Smith
April 10, 2000
Wireless Week
AAA, whose membership encompasses more than one-fourth of the nation's homes, is about to add its considerable presence to the growing interest in telematics.
Eyeing a tiny market that is expected to quadruple in size this year and reach 11 million users by 2004, the 43 million-member organization plans to announce this week a new telematics subsidiary called Response Services Center LLC. The subsidiary, headed by wireless veteran Daniel Dickerson, formerly with Orbcomm USA and Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln RESCU development team, plans to offer services in the fourth quarter.
Vice President Marshall Doney says the initial focus will be on roadside and emergency services. The AAA also wants to become an Internet portal for travel information.
The first users in the fall will be fleet vehicles, with broad consumer availability in three to six undisclosed markets during the first quarter of 2001. The initial deployment will be based on GPS service with aftermarket in-vehicle systems but will extend to mobile phones and networks once E911 phase II location technology is broadly available.
AAA wants a piece of a telematics revenue stream that the Strategis Group predicts will climb from $40 million in 1999 to more than $1.7 billion in 2004. Strategis analyst Stephan Becker estimates that one-fourth of the 12 million current model year autos in the United States will have telematics as an option. General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Ford have established emergency telematics systems and plan to provide Internet connections.
AAA's Response Services Center will open this month in Columbia, Md., where computer operators will receive and interpret GPS data from members and then dispatch the appropriate 911 emergency assistance, road service, travel information, anti-theft tracking, remote door unlocking and other travel information through its 86 local affiliates.
AAA already responds to more than 30 million member requests for emergency road service and it makes sense to extend that ability wirelessly. Although the early services will focus on security and safety, Dickerson says AAA wants to extend all of its information into vehicles via wireless.
"The issues of safety are very big for our members," Dickerson says, "but we're interested in taking the information superhighway and making sure it is connected to the real, physical highway."
With a possible audience of 43 million, he'll get a lot of attention.
