Cardwave and the automotive market

We think of in-car navigation systems as a standard feature today, but go back twenty years and the market was dominated by portable devices that people could move from car to car. Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) were sold widely by high street tech chains and online, and there was a competitive market.

Three core elements made PNDs successful: A good database of maps, accompanied by turn-by turn navigation capabilities; a size small enough for portability, but large enough to provide a screen that was easy to view and able to display plenty of information; and a solid communications connection to get positioning data that enabled the turn by turn navigation.

The US owned GPS system provided the last of these (and it still does), hardware makers the second. The software and mapping data was provided by a combination of mapping specialists, software specialists and – crucially – map update providers. This data was uploaded to the PNDs via on-board flash memory card readers.

Even as navigation moved into vehicles, delivered via built in screens rather than PNDs, updates were still required, and supplied by flash memory or optical discs – initially CD, and later DVD.

Why the history lesson?

Well, Cardwave has had many customers over the years, spanning many industry sectors as well as the not-for-profit arena. But it is fair to say that when we started out we were pretty much alone. We pioneered the flash memory services market, and our biggest customers were in the automotive sector. We were the first company worldwide to focus exclusively on services to this sector, and in doing so played a key part in the development and expansion of the personal navigation market.

When in-vehicle navigation systems started to become more popular, car makers wanted to build the capability in to cars rather than expecting drivers to use third party devices. At this point, it was vital that car makers could source hardware to be built into their cars at the time of manufacture, and that they could guarantee the map and software updating that users of PNDs were accustomed to.

But at that time, cars were primarily mechanical, and car makers were unschooled in incorporating digital, computer based systems into the build. Outsourcing provisioning to a third party – like Cardwave – gave car makers big advantages and allowed them to be at the cutting edge of in-car navigation without incurring burdensome cost or risk.

Into the future

The nature of in-car navigation is changing, with over-the-air provisioning becoming more widespread, but reducing demand does not mean our commitment to customers is reducing. Not every car is connected to the internet, nor will it be for many years to come. We have customer contracts extending into the mid 2030s.

There are also new opportunities emerging as the automotive sector continues to evolve and vehicles become more computerised and more software reliant. For example we are seeing enquiries from customers who want to update their vehicle software prior to entry to the EU market.

We are experienced at software provisioning on flash memory beyond the automotive sector, and so this kind of workload does not trouble us. For example, let’s look briefly at two of our customers from the marine sector – Raymarine and OneOcean.

We provide Raymarine with its LightHouse Charts software in many different SKUs, with individual licensing codes for each flash memory card, and we do the packaging and fulfilment, providing an end to end service. We provide OneOcean with quarterly updates of its software to vessels in around 200 different variations, as well as additional updates as required, and can do this on a 24-hour turnaround time as required.

There are parallels across the marine and automotive sectors, as well as in other sectors, in terms of customer requirements, our offer, and how we demonstrate our commitment to customers.

For the automotive sector, the key benefits of outsourcing to Cardwave include:

Reduced BOM. Car makers can rely on our technical expertise rather than having to develop their own, and can remove the Build Of Materials costs for provisioning their navigation systems from each car model’s development costs.
Market expertise. Because we have worked with most of the major car brands, we are in a strong position to understand the market, and have been able to help with brand building as well as specifying product needs – which we have been able to deliver.
Quality Management assurances. Our Quality Management systems are strong and we can meet the demands of every sector we work with. Automotive has its own requirements, including compliance with the requirements of the IMDS (International Materials Data System).
Environmental standards compliance. It is increasingly important for businesses to have accreditation to show they meet environmental and compliance standards. We have been ISO14001 accredited for more than 15 years, and ISO 9001 accredited for more than 17 years. We regularly review how we can better reduce our use of materials like plastics, and in general be a more environmentally aware company, in the light of changes in the practices of both our suppliers and those we supply to. Our excellent supply chain and the support of our manufacturing partners means that we can be relied on by our automotive customers as well as those in other sectors – an important factor in the increasing need for supply chain compliance.
A trusted partner. We pride ourselves in being a trusted partner. Sometimes this can mean advising a customer against a particular course of action. In one example, we encouraged an automotive customer to move away from a product choice because we felt it was not of the right technical standard, and would cause the customer issues down the line. When, for that customer, the questionable quality of SD host units it had bought outside of our contract started to fail, we were able to explain and advise.

In conclusion

The automotive sector has come a long way since the early days of PNDs, but it came a long way before PNDs entered the picture, and it will continue to develop and evolve. The increasing integration of software into how cars function, the growth and development of electric vehicles and all the software associated with that, and potential developments we can’t even imagine yet, are all part of a pattern of change and evolution.

At Cardwave our skills base sits alongside many year’s experience and excellent customer relations to make us the perfect fit for automotive firms going forward.