he answer lay in a small black box located beneath the dashboard. This Sim card-enabled device instantly sent Ms Chandler’s location and the force of impact to her insurance company, which then phoned for an ambulance.
The connected car is already saving lives. Now big business is wondering what else it can do. Insurers, telecommunications companies and advertisers are all racing to tap the commercial potential presented by vehicles that can reveal their location, speed and more.
Some possibilities are fun: a music streaming service could suggest tracks based on the picturesque stretch of country lane the car is navigating. Advertisers, for years confined to radio jingles and roadside billboards when marketing to motorists, are salivating at the prospect of beaming tailor-made adverts to the car’s captive audience.