Adobe Helping Carmakers Analyze Owners Behavior While They Drive

Adobe Helping Carmakers Analyze Owners Behavior While They Drive
adobe helping carmakers analyze owners' behavior while they drive
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  • adobe analytics is announcing a new data analysis platform for automakers today, which will link together data car companies are already gathering from in-car telematics, the vehicle's infotainment system, and carmaker apps and websites.
  • adobe says the service will allow car companies to identify trends and make marketing and product planning decisions based on customer behavior. in other words, it lets them find out a lot about you.
  • the tool will be available to carmakers this fall and can pair with other tools already available from adobe analytics.

    modern cars produce an absolutely astounding amount of data every day. a 2017 study from mckinsey suggested that cars are now sending up to 25 gigabytes of data into the ether every hour. if you've ever tried to lower your insurance rate by plugging a recorder into your obd-ii port only to receive a haranguing email every time you use appropriate braking force to avoid an accident, you already know that. but insurance companies aren't the only one who are interested in your data. automakers care, too.

    adobe says it already counts the world's 10 largest automakers, including bmw, ford, nissan, mercedes-benz, toyota, and the volkswagen group, as clients for their analysis products. the new platform, called customer journey analytics for automakers (as distinct from similar services adobe is already offering in other industries, such as retail), will aggregate data that car companies are already collecting and organize it in a way that can provide insights about customer behavior.

    the data will come from several sources, including telematics information like vehicle location and speed; data from the car's head unit, which includes information on how drivers are using the car's infotainment system; and data from outside sources such as a carmaker's smartphone app or website. gathering the information together provides carmakers with an incredibly detailed look at the ways people are using their cars.

    adobe helping carmakers analyze owners' behavior while they drive

    the platform can show specific paths that individuals are following during their daily drives. did you once forget to put your car in park and have to jump back in the car after turning it off and closing the door? that's in the data. following frequent user paths could help product planners find problems in their product. if 90 percent of users are closing a carmaker's smartphone app before completing a task, for instance, it could be a sign that the app isn't designed well or that it's suffering from a widespread glitch.

    adobe helping carmakers analyze owners' behavior while they drive

    during a demonstration of the software prior to today's launch, adobe analytics director of product management colin morris explained how carmakers might make use of the insights adobe's tool will provide. maybe toyota will find out that a disproportionate number of tundra drivers are listening to mötley crüe on spotify and decide to buy ads on spotify's mötley crüe channel. or perhaps ford will realize that some of the buttons on its center console are going untouched and move those functions into a touchscreen, saving money on parts. and if you're driving your lease car like you stole it? "[the carmaker] can see that ahead of time," says morris, "like, oh man, let's not give [that driver] the same lease terms."

    adobe helping carmakers analyze owners' behavior while they drive

    adobe says that all the data in its platform is anonymized using obscured vins and user ids, but whether carmakers can attach data points to specific users will depend on each company's end user license agreement (eula). in some cases, just using a car or its software systems constitutes agreeing to the eula. morris says adobe encourages car companies to "lean in" to privacy protections. "even if 30 percent of your users opt out because they don't want their data passed, the sky is not falling for these brands. you've still got plenty of insights on your trends," morris says.

    source:caranddriver.com