Written by: Rishi Mohan Bhatnagar, President at Aeris Communications
Often, we hear businesses using IoT, and do you know how this reflects in our daily lives? Companies are developing various used cases where IoT is delivering electricity, providing clean water to residents in remote areas, ensuring traffic management, or monitoring care to deliver treatment to medical patients. Moreover, IoT is also being used to record the safety of industrial equipment and worker behavior, and to maintain connectivity between vehicles and their drivers. According to a McKinsey and Gartner.com IoT forecast 2021, the number of businesses that use IoT technologies has increased from 13 percent in 2014 to about 25 percent today.
A recent case where IoT showcased its prowess to retrieve a stolen electric scooter (eScooter) in Odisha came to light, where the IoT sensors that track vehicle activity saved the day for one of the scooter’s owner.
A female thief disguised as a doctor stole an EeVe Xeniaa electric scooter by Omjay EV Limited from an unsuspecting owner in Ranpur village, Puri district of Odisha. When the owner discovered that his eScooter was missing from the location where he usually parked it, he suspected theft. Fortunately, his eScooter was already equipped with IoT technology and had been fitted with AerTrak, the vehicle telematics IoT solution from Aeris Communications. This solution provides mobility services, such as access, location, inventory, alerting, reporting, and maintenance.
The owner without delaying any further time, immediately immobilized the vehicle, which led to cutting off the ignition of the eScooter, thereby making it impossible for the thief to move the vehicle any further.
The owner in the meanwhile rushed to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint of vehicle theft. With the help of live location tracking feature, the police and owner identified the eScooter location and arrived where it had stopped to retrieve the vehicle and catch hold of the thief.
The Potential of IoT
The data shows that during the year 2021, a total of 36,177 motor vehicle theft cases were reported in Delhi alone. Out of these a majority of the vehicles stolen were two-wheelers as they are easy to break while cars have more high-tech security systems that are difficult to crack.
Odisha incident is a perfect example of how the benefits of IoT technology not only helped the eScooter owner retrieve his property before it was lost or sold in another city. Such positive outcomes of using technology in mobility is also helping electric vehicle dealers showcase the added benefits and the value proposition of buying eScooters. These IoT enabled eScooters are equipped with live tracking, location monitoring, and keeping a history track helps the safety and security of both the vehicles and their operators.
According to the State of IoT—Summer 2021 report, it is projected that by 2025, there will be more than 27 billion IoT connections around the world. This shows the potential that new-age technology has and the growing market opportunity. Automotive manufacturers and technology providers see the merit in integrating IoT into their products to enhance the customer experience. It is because of cutting-edge features like those offered by Aeris AerTrak Platform, such as live tracking, secure park alerts, and geofencing, to name a few, that businesses can ensure the safety of their vehicles.
With IoT, India is ready for a digital transformation that not only makes lives of consumers convenient but also benefits large enterprises in leading the way to great expectations. IoT is undoubtedly a gamechanger in the automobile industry.
