It's not often environmentalists and car lovers will be sickened with fear at the same time, but if predictions from the Forrester Research group's latest report come true, neither group is going to be very happy in the near future. Why?
Forrester predicts there will be 30 million vehicles on the road by 2005, which is hardly going to please the greens, but car drivers will not enjoy the thought that the increased number of cars will be carrying a transmitter that could inform their insurance company of their every move.
Forrester's latest report predicts that the majority of the 30 million vehicles on the roads will have telematics fitted, which means they will be constantly wirelessly connected to the outside world. There are advantages to this Orwellion snooping.
The American research group claims these cars will be capable of producing real-time traffic data, which supporters of telematics claim will make traffic jams a thing of the past. It is unlikely that any technological development can over-ride the burden of this significant increase in vehicle numbers.
Having a 'spy in the cab' is nothing new to truck drivers, but driving and owning a car is seen as a basic human freedom in the western world and is likely to shock road users across the globe. -It's a fundamental privacy issue," Tim Dickson, director of The Privacy Foundation said, -individuals should have control of the collection information and control over how it is used and this is personal information."
Frightening as the prediction is, the technology is not that far away. GPRS satellite navigation systems already exist in cars and pin-point where they are, and security systems can track a car accurately once triggered. -Sure it might be possible, but I think it would be fiercely fought," Dickson said.
The Forrester report also found a number of other interesting facts about the world we are about to live in:
- Exports as a result of online trading will grow to US$1.5 trillion by 2004, this will create a new Internet trade balance. With greater immediacy financial policies and central banking will, they claim, become finer tuned.
- Security spending is going to have to increase by 55 percent in the next two years according to Forrester's research and will reach US$4.5 million in 2002.
- Women are going to dominate the online shopping market and if retailers are going to survive on the Web, they must make alliances with traditional brands and increase their word of mouth recommendations and offer experienced women shoppers better products.
- If global companies are going to play a serious part in the networking industry they are going to have to develop vertical strategies and target business drivers. If they fail to spot these and value-added services they will be overtaken by the current leader France Telecom.
- The whole organisational structure of companies is going to have to change as a result of new models created by e-business. Companies are going to have to become flat in structure and interconnected, with the ability to change corporate direction and shape rapidly.
