Transporting us from one place to another is fast becoming just one of the things that a car can do for us. Connectivity is something that we expect from most cars today, in the form of an available Bluetooth connection. Some cars also offer a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot enabling occupants to connect to the Internet via the 3G/4G mobile networks. But these are comparatively narrow definitions of connectivity and for further advances in autonomous driving there will be more ways that vehicles can connect with each other and communications networks. The UK recently announced that it would permit autonomous "driverless" cars on its roads from January 2015, in the form of a trial in three cities, which have yet to be identified.

Customer research and technology development is under way and the driving trial is not expected to begin until 2017. Volvo Cars and Volvo Trucks were also involved in the European SARTRE (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) project, completed in 2012, which was trialling a system where up to four car drivers could opt to join a convoy behind a truck and hand over control of the vehicle to the electronic convoy while they checked emails, made phone calls or carried out other work. The vehicles were driven autonomously at speeds of up to 90km/h and sometimes just four metres apart.

Mercedes-Benz recently announced that it has also been carrying out preliminary trials with an autonomous driving system based on its Actros heavy truck. The vehicle used radar, GPS and Wi-Fi among its communication systems. The vehicle will be on display at the IAA Hanover truck show in September.

Connectivity is going to be an important issue before autonomously driven vehicles become a reality. Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica carried out research into connectivity in January this year to produce its second Connected Car Report. Opinion research was carried out in Brazil, Germany, Spain, the UK and US to find out what drivers want from connected cars and what they think about them.

Telefonica lists a number of areas where connectivity could play a role. These include instant diagnosis of vehicle problems and remote access to a car via smartphone or tablet computer. This could be to activate the air conditioning or heating, or to be notified if the car has been moved without authorisation.

Safety is going to be a key aspect of connectivity before autonomous driving could be a daily possibility. The Telefonica Connected Car Report suggests that among those that responded to the survey 73% thought that safety and diagnostics features were the most important. Some 60% of respondents expressed a preference for being able to use a smartphone or tablet to check the condition of their car before setting off on a long journey. A similar percentage thought that connectivity would give them more control through understanding when the car had a problem. 44% of respondents thought that such knowledge would help ensure they were being quoted the right price for repair work.

According to the report, the body representing mobile phone network operators, the GSMA, reckons that safety and security applications such as eCall, which will automatically alert the emergency services if an accident happens will be the most common services supported by connected cars. GSMA believes that 41.7 million new cars will be fitted with such systems in 2018, compared with 7 million in 2012.

Fuel efficiency also proved to be an important feature in car purchase decisions according to the Telefonica research, rating as the top preference in all the countries surveyed. Connectivity could offer benefits in the kind of information given. According to the Connected Car Report: ‘Drivers have been able to view their fuel consumption for many years, but with connectivity, the feedback is dramatically improved. Drivers can arrive at a destination and their vehicle will tell them exactly how much fuel they have used and how much the journey cost them. More than that, the vehicle can then start offering advice about how to lower that fuel consumption via a change in driving habits, be that lower speed or less braking. This is a wholesale move from one, infrequent data point to real-time, actionable feedback and another powerful way for consumers to take control of their vehicle to make driving cheaper.’

The question that car manufacturers are currently trying to answer is how should connected services be delivered? Should they be built into the vehicle or should they be designed for compatibility with smartphones, using systems like Google’s Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Neither choice is easy. The vehicle manufacturer either has to develop a system that is compatible with a range of phones and operating systems, or choose to support selected systems. If they choose to design compatibility into the vehicle the system will need to be easily upgraded as other compatible systems develop. And if the manufacturer chooses to support particular systems such as Android Auto or CarPlay, there is a risk that other phone users will be excluded.

Although the mobile phone networks will play an important part in future car connectivity and autonomous driving, other systems will be necessary too. Current systems such as active cruise control rely on radar sensors to keep vehicles a set distance apart and trigger either braking or acceleration to control speed. These will be necessary technologies for autonomous driving. Vehicles will also become part of the communications chain in autonomous driving with data being passed from one vehicle to another, giving information about traffic ahead. There may also be data passed from roadside transmitters to vehicles and from vehicles to roadside transmitters carrying similar data. These transmissions may use the mobile phone network or Wi-Fi. It will need co-ordination between manufacturers to ensure that systems are universally adopted to ensure that they can be used both by drivers who usually drive the same vehicle and those who regularly drive a range of vehicles.

It is certain that whatever systems are adopted, cost will be added to vehicles or driving. If there is a trade off between that cost and added convenience, for instance reduced fuel consumption and improved safety and the costs are transparent, it will be easier for drivers to accept.