It was born at last year’s CES Mobilisights, a company that promises to revolutionize the automotive sector using data from Stellantis connected vehicles. One year after its launch, again in the context of CES 2024 in Las Vegas, we interviewed the CEO of Mobilisights Sajiv Ghate to understand how the company is evolving and what services become available to customers. And also try to guess where it might go in the future, perhaps using car data to design smart cities and do research with aggregated and anonymized data.
Mobilisights and the importance of vehicle data: interview with the CEO
Connected cars have enormous potential. In fact, networked cars allow us to collect data on how users drive, which roads they use – but only if users actively agree to do so. In this way they can access different types of services, for example saving on insurance if they drive safely. And companies can manage corporate fleets with precision.
Mobilisights has a great competitive advantage thanks to exclusive access to connected vehicle data produced by the models 14 iconic Stellantis brands. An ever-growing quantity of cars: the vast majority of Stellantis’ new cars are connected, and the percentage continues to rise. This privilege has allowed Mobilisights to develop tailor-made solutions for different needs. And to grow quickly in the last year.
At CES 2024 Mobilisights celebrates a successful first year – but it’s only the beginning
In its first year of operation, Mobilisights has taken the steps to become fully operational. CEO Sanjiv Ghate explains: “We are celebrating the our first anniversary of the launch of Mobilisights, which happened right here in Las Vegas last year. An opportunity to look back at what we have done, but also to take a look at the future.”
Ghate continues: “This has been a year of great progress. We have formed a considerable team, we are fully operational. We are very active in two regions, North America and Western Europe,” where the company works with fleet managers and Stellantis to provide additional services to customers. “But we are building a global platform and a global suite of products. So we are ready and determined to grow.”
Mobilisights has no intention of slowing down its pace of growth. “One of our goals for 2024 is to look at growth opportunities in terms of our customer base, although we already have several dozen. We are working to have other partners who can use data from connected cars to provide useful services to drivers”.
The potential of data
Ghat e Sebastien Fraysse, head of sales in the EMEA area, explain to us that the data collected by Mobilisights enables different types of services. For example, fleet managers in Europe and North America can benefit from data packages to monitor consumption and optimize operations in real time, improving rental efficiency. Mobilisights actively collaborates with numerous partners in the sector, including cui Free2move, Geotab, Guidepoint Systems, and many other innovative companies.
For those who drive, there are many other benefits. “Insurance is the most requested use case. But we are also working with companies that provide roadside assistance, and then there are all the use cases related to electric vehicles.” Data streaming for the effective management of electric vehicle charging will become increasingly important, especially in our Europe which wants to become increasingly green.
Fraysse explains that “Our role in Europe is to connect the dots between Stellantis vehicle customers and the partner ecosystem. Something that keeps us very busy: we are present in Italy, in the United Kingdom, in France, in Spain”.
Consent first of all
Among the questions we had written down for the managers, there was a section entirely dedicated to privacy. But Ghate anticipated us, immediately explaining that: “Everything is obviously based on consensus. You explicitly consent to the use of data for each of the use cases we follow.” Ghate explains that the direct contact with the consumer is managed by the service provider. “The consumer gives his consent to Stellantis and partnersexplicitly: if you do not actively accept for each feature, we do not analyze the data”.
Privacy is a fundamental value in our always connected world. But whoever is willing to provide the data can obtain several advantages. “The main advantage lies in vehicle health monitoring, but it can also be useful in the event of loss or theft of the vehicle. But equally, the customer can go to an insurance agency and, after having expressed his consent again, we make the data available for monitor the way you drive: this could guarantee access to discounted rates. And then we saw that it has an intrinsic advantage: those who have this type of insurance tend to do it safely. A win for everyone on the street, not just the customers.”
Companies that manage fleets can instead understand the efficiency of the chosen solutions, can evaluate fuel consumption and understand the most followed routes. All without “the friction of dongles and extra hardware: Stellantis connected vehicles take care of it,” explains Fraysse. Which he underlined as they are also working on use cases on predictive maintenance, for both fleets and private individuals: you will know when to go to the mechanic and how long the vehicle will remain stationary. And your mechanic will also know what he needs: he will order the parts in time, he will know how to manage the work.
Beyond CES 2024: The Future of Mobilisights
For the future, Mobilisights has clear ideas. “We are making the teams grow a lot. We expect one hundred new hires in 2024. We already have teams in Europe and North America, but we recently opened a new office in Bangalore. We’re a growing team there. We have North American hubs in Detroit, ChicagoEuropean hubs, especially in Italy, a Turin and Paris, and then Bangalore”. Connected vehicles will also increase. “Today we cannot say that 100% of Stellantis vehicles are connected, but commercial fleets and the majority of consumer cars are. We are very close”.
When we ask Ghate and Fraysse how they see Mobilisights a five years from this meeting at CES 2024, despite the difficulty of predicting a complex market, it seems that the objectives are clear. “We want to grow geographically – we are already doing so. And then we will increase the product portfolio – we have already built a scalable platform ready for any new use case” Explain loss.
But the most interesting prospect, perhaps, concerns what can be done anonymizing data to draw analytics. “We strongly believe that data from vehicles can truly improve decision making in many different verticals. The one thing we want to make sure is that everything is driven by user consent.”
The sky is the limit in these cases: from those who want to design smart cities, to governments who want to understand how to manage traffic, to companies who install charging stations. “The use cases we work on today benefit the user. But by anonymizing the data and drawing analytical conclusions, we could help institutions and associations understand how to improve society” explains Ghate.
Fraysse adds: “One of the use cases closest to our hearts is that of safety: we can help governments make roads safer, and manufacturers to build vehicles and accessories that improve safety.
In short, despite a successful year, Mobilisights returns to CES 2024 with really interesting prospects. If you want to learn more about this reality, you can do so on the official website.
