Marketing Getting ‘Smarter’ with ‘Smart’phones

Consider this - The average person looks at their phone 150 times a day, or once every six-and-a-half minutes of every waking hour.

A smartphone is much more than a calling and texting device. It is a gadget that provides a world of mobile browsing and applications. Businesses have been capitalizing on text message marketing already in today’s mobile phone era, but there are many new ways they can take advantage of the growing number of smartphone users in the United States. These include creating mobile applications, QR (quick response codes), or mobile websites.

Here are some of the heartening findings:

-> 1 of every 7 minutes of media consumption is via a mobile device.

-> 80 percent of mobile users are satisfied with their ability to access the internet on their mobile device.

-> Smartphones are used everywhere: 95% - "downtime"; 82% - at work; 81% - shopping; 80% - at home; 65% -commuting to work.

But what are users doing on their smartphones? Mostly, and unsurprisingly, it's quick-hit stuff: looking up maps and directions, social media, and getting news updates. Fifty-five percent say they seeking local listings (e.g. movies and restaurants), which appears to remain the low-hanging fruit of marketing opportunity to these users.

Word-of-mouth marketing has much more potential. Seventy-four percent of users say they use social networking apps to share photos, news, videos and recommendations. Overall, most prefer emailing or texting to calling. And there's plenty of what the study calls "media meshing," or simultaneous use of mobile with other media, and a push-pull effect that drives users to mobile, the web, other media, and back again.

Thanks to the exponential growth expected to take place among smartphone users in 2012, smartphone marketing is a very viable option for businesses to take when looking to reach a wider market, as has already begun to take place. Mobile apps are an effective marketing tool, but are not the only option a business is limited to. Companies can also start their own mobile website and use QR codes in advertising campaigns to link smartphone users back to their website or to special web offers. Smartphone marketing is all about generating interest among customers, and with a little creativity, it is simple to create a marketing tool smartphone users will be excited about.

Smartphones and tablets are what so often serve as enablers when it comes to QR codes. So the more smartphones there are populating the world, the more people there are within reach of mobile marketing content. With this changing and rapidly evolving aspect of marketing, there’s plenty to learn and plenty to consider. There’s also plenty to revolutionize, which is something we see on a continual basis with QR codes. Great ideas are coming to life and then seeing themselves replicated by following their success. All of this can be due to adjusting attitudes toward mobile marketing.

The Smartphone is very different to other media because rather than being a casual observer, flicking through a magazine, opening a mail piece, half hearing a radio advert or glancing at a sales brochure, the Smartphone user actually craves the content their Smartphone delivers.  So when the advertiser’s message is blended with this content, it goes straight into the consciousness, deeper and more persuasively than ever before.

For many their Smartphone has become their drug of choice.  They cannot go more than a few minutes without a fix.  And the shards of information delivered are tiny moments of satisfaction embedded in the brain, creating interest, desire, perceived need.

Brands that master mobile marketing don’t think of it as yet another channel; they recognize that it’s part of an integrated, multi-channel brand experience. Those that get this right have the potential to build strong, enduring relationships with their customers through rich, personalized brand experiences. Brands that miss the mark will put revenue, loyalty and hard-earned brand equity at risk.

5 Mobile Trends that will govern the market in the future:

1.  Augmented Reality
Look in the mirror and what do you see? Today’s weather? Your day’s appointments? Then you must have the latest mirror from Cybertecture, a Hong Kong firm that’s making tomorrow’s smart homes a reality today. We may not all have money to burn on a high-tech mirror, but brands are certainly looking at ways to capitalize on this technology and make it the norm. Brands such as Starbucks are already seeing strong revenue from their mobile AR program.

2.  The New Biotech
When I say biotech, I mean data comes from everywhere, including from within. Companies like FitBit and Nike are finding new ways to record and utilize that data. For now, they seem to be focused on helping athletes (and wannabes) build better workouts, but it’s only a matter of time before brands begin to look more closely at how such data might be used to develop new customer relationships. As these technologies gain traction and developers look at new ways to leverage information, one day soon we could see insurance companies providing discounts to individuals who share their device data.

3.  Consumer-Controlled Media
One of the most interesting trends we’ve seen is the fragmentation of ownership. Technology has empowered the masses, and they’re leveraging that power in new ways. If brands want to remain relevant to their audiences, they’re going to have to engage in these contexts and in a media landscape where the traditional publishing model no longer exists. In this not-too-distant future we will watch all of our programming online in whatever form that takes.

4.  Multi-Platform Marketing
Search marketing produces high click through. Rich media delivers deeper engagement. Social marketing offers communication. When it comes to online marketing there are a plethora of options for reaching consumers, engaging them and creating conversions. But, using only one marketing platform could keep campaign ROI lower than using multiple platforms and pairing different types of advertising.

5.  Innovation Without Borders
Brands and products are no longer geographically confined in the way they once were, and neither are marketing campaigns. Big brands are increasingly tapping into local talent and culture, testing new approaches in one market, and re-purposing them elsewhere.
Coca-Cola took the best of gamification, Shazam, and the second-screen experience and ran with it in China. Tesco is testing out interactive mobile shopping experiences in Seoul that the U.S. is not quite ready for, technologically or socially. It is clear that in the near future, brands will pitch locally but think globally.

Well, there can’t be a success mantra for the businesses but you can always try to be efficient in your efforts. Marketing is one of the most vital functions which can help in the making of businesses. But it is essential to use the right marketing mix to meet the marketing objectives. With the rampant increase in the number of mobile subscribers, mobile is emerging as one the most important modes of marketing.

Here are ten ways to utilize the full brand-building potential of smart mobile:

1.)    Provide insider information

2.)    Build a brand community

3.)    Make the transaction seamless

4.)    Establish vital customer relationships

5.)    Deliver customer service

6.)    Maintain the consistency

7.)    Be Creative

8.)    Follow Up for the feedback

9.)    Keep it Concise

10.)  Target the right audience

Decoding the ‘waow’ factor of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, Smartphone, cell phones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers and other business partners. Internet Marketing is a major component of digital marketing.

Digital marketing is a marketing process which leads to the development of any organization or brand by using a variety of digital channels such as email, social networks etc.

Digital Marketing can be defined as promoting of brands or products and services using all forms of digital advertising. Digital marketing uses Television, Radio, Internet, mobile and any form of digital media to reach customers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner.

Apart from using many of the techniques and practices contained within the category of Internet Marketing, digital marketing extends beyond this by including other channels that do not require the use of the Internet. Due to non-dependence on the Internet, the field of digital marketing includes a whole lot of elements such as mobile phones or cell phones, display / banner ads, sms /mms, digital outdoor, and many more.

This could be a classy birthday greeting sent to the customer’s Smartphone, a personally relevant coupon sent by SMS to the customer or a weekly newsletter than includes updates and specials. Customers and affiliates are interested in receiving these good news messages from you, and we’re here to help you deliver the messages to them and advance your business simply and effectively – no prior knowledge required.

Two different forms of digital marketing exist:

In pull digital marketing, the consumer actively seeks the marketing content, often via web searches or opening an email, text message or web feed. Websites, blogs and streaming media (audio and video) are examples of pull digital marketing. In each of these, users have to navigate to the website to view the content. Only current web browser technology is required to maintain static content. Search engine optimization is one tactic used to increase activity. It was observed that consumers prefer special sales and new product information, whereas "interesting" content was not useful.

In push digital marketing the marketer sends a message without the consent of the recipients, such as display advertising on websites and news blogs. Email, text messaging and web feeds can also be classed as push digital marketing when the recipient has not given permission to receive the marketing message. Push marketing is also known as spam. Push technologies can deliver content as it becomes available and can be better targeted to consumer demographics, although audiences are often smaller, and creation and distribution costs are higher.

Internet Marketing

Online advertising, also called Internet advertising, uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. It includes email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and mobile advertising. Like other advertising media, online advertising frequently involves both a publisher, who integrates advertisements into its online content, and an advertiser, who provides the advertisements to be displayed on the publisher’s content. Other potential participants include advertising agencies who help generate and place the ad copy, an ad server who technologically delivers the ad and tracks statistics, and advertising affiliates who do independent promotional work for the advertiser.

Delivery methods

Search engine optimization  

Social media marketing 

Email marketing 

Referral marketing  

Content marketing 

Native advertising 

5 Latest Marketing Trends to Watch for :

#1: Smartphone Device Adoption Has Reached critical mass population

Research by eMarketer shows the amount of time people spend on a mobile device is growing at 14 times the rate of desktop usage. The same research indicates thatmobile is becoming a more prominent channel for commercial transactions.
In the second quarter of 2012, mobile sales accounted for 15.1% of total B2C retail eCommerce sales, compared to only 1.9% for social eCommerce sales.

What this means for marketers is that a mobile-first strategy is the new priority.
The significance of location-based marketing, which has been around for a couple of years, will only continue to grow in importance.

Finally, with a growing number of users downloading apps on their smartphones, a focused app strategy will help ensure that your brand remains forceful and relevant.

The advantages of digital marketing are astronomical. Here is what  I observe the 10 benefits of Digital Marketing v. Traditional Marketing:

1.    Level playing field:  Any business can compete with any competitor regardless of size with a solid digital marketing strategy. 

2.      Reduced cost: Your business can develop its online marketing strategy for very little cost and can potentially replace costly advertising channels such as Yellow Pages, television, radio and magazines with Google Ads, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc.

3.    Simple to measure: Unlike traditional methods you can see in real time what is or is not working for your business online and you can adapt very quickly to improve your results.  For measuring traffic to your site you can use Google Analytics to measure specific goals you want to achieve for your website or blog.

4.      Real time results: you don’t have to wait weeks for a boost to your business like you would have to waiting for a fax or form to be returned.  You can see the numbers of visitors to your site and its subscribers increase, peak trading times, conversion rates and much more at the touch of a button.

5.      Refinement of your strategy:   Basically anything that you capture in your customer journey can be reported on and honed for greater success at the fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. 

6.      Brand Development: A well maintained website with quality content targeting the needs and adding value to your target audience can provide significant value and lead generation opportunities. 

7.      Far greater exposure: your business can be seen anywhere in the world from one marketing campaign, the cost to do this using traditional methods would be considerable. 

8.      Viral: how often do your sales flyers get passed around instantly by your customers and prospects?  Online, using social media share buttons on your website, email and social media channels enables your message to be shared incredibly quickly, just look how effective it is for sharing breaking news.  If you consider the average facebook user has 190 friends of which an average of 12% see their liked posts – your one message has actually been seen by 15 new prospects, now imagine a number of them also like and share your message and their friends do the same?  Mind blowing isn’t it. 

9.      Not Intrusive: I know most people hate receiving sales mail shots or phone calls at inconvenient times on stuff that they have little interest in.  Online people get the choice to opt in or out of communications and often it is relevant because they were the ones searching for it in the first place. 

10.   Greater engagement: With digital marketing you can encourage your prospects, clients and followers to take action, visit your website, read about your products and services, rate them, buy them and provide feedback which is visible to your market.

Nothing in this world is perfect. Same goes with Digital Marketing. Digital Marketing – 10 general shortcomings

1.  Lack of understanding what image they are trying to project: You need to understand this from the start and have a style behind the image, along with substance to back it up.  It also needs to resonate with key audiences.  Most are not consciously sculpting how they are perceived or creating any reason they should get noticed in the first place.

2.  No path to acquire and grow an audience: It’s not enough to figure out ways to gain attention from random people for fleeting moments.  You need to find a way to market to target groups consistently over time. 

3.  No cohesion of content: Lack of consistent voice/personality behind content will never allow you to build cohesion and have your ideas/perspective reach critical mass.  You need this in order to condition others to share your ideas.

4.  Placating executives by executing their bad ideas: If this is happening to you – stop, now.  No one wins when you’re creating things merely because someone up top is forcing down a one off idea here-and-there they feel might work (especially if they have limited  experience with digital marketing).  If it doesn’t play into the strategy, it doesn’t matter who it comes from.  If you see this happening put a stop to it. 

5.  Having to dumb things things down for the team: If you have to consistently do this, you need a new team.  There are far too many others fluent enough in modern marketing strategies, it’s unnecessary to waste time doing this.  If you have to dial down ideas for internal comprehension, it means your competition is already running circles around you.

6.  No plan to actually reach anyone in the first place: If you built it, they will come is a flawed approach to marketing.  And yet I still see examples of this frequently.  If you don’t have a consistent plan to reach people and tactics to execute on this daily how do you expect to be found?

7.  No difference from others: The importance of accentuating your differentiation point can’t be overstated.  Uncover something to stand out and then don’t be afraid to drive that point home consistently.  Building a brand is tough, but you make it impossible if you can’t be different enough to get tagged to something that is all your own.

8.  No forming of relationships/alliances: Digital alliances are an underused element in marketing.  So many opportunities to work and grow together remain untapped.  Bring alliances/relationships into your strategy – especially if you’re small and agile – and you can encourage mutual growth.

9.  Misunderstanding the importance of content: Many businesses don’t understand the importance of organically growing out digital archives of content over time – it benefits both search and social.  Additionally, looking at the content produced by most, the first thing I notice is a lack of fresh thinking.  This shows the value of content is underestimated or misunderstood.

10.  Trying to reach the wrong group : You want to reach a certain group – great.  But in some cases (mostly B2B, but some B2C) the group you want to influence is too shielded to reach in any kind of efficient way.  There is another path.  Find a different audience that is more accessible and a proxy to your target.

New payment system : Your Face

No more swiping cards! A new technology that allows customers to use their facial features instead of swiping a credit card to purchase goods has been developed by a Finnish company.
The technology provided by Uniqul, works by recognizing the customer's face and then linking it to the individual's bank account . So instead of swiping a credit card to purchase goods, the customer gazes into a camera.
Uniqul claims its service is secured with military-grade algorithms , 'The Australian' reported . Uniqul's Ruslan Pisarenko said the technology — which is due to roll out next month — has the ability for transactions to be completed instantly and can even distinguish between identical twins, 'News Limited Network' reported. According to Pisarenko, "the face is a PIN and it's more like a complete way to identify a person.

Using such a system is certainly a lot more convenient than traditional methods. And as no two faces are 100 percent identical, such a payment system could reduce things like stolen credit card purchases and identity theft.

But in some cases where the system is not 100% accurate, it will ask a person to input their PIN as security," he said. There is no payment card involved, nor is a mobile or wallet needed. Customers sign up to the technology by registering their identification and bank details. Once the items are scanned through the customers' details will flash up on a screen and they click "OK" to confirm the transaction.
The new tech is similar to facial recognition identification which is used by international travellers at airports in Australia. The company is getting ready for deployment of the system in Helsinki, news website goodnewsfinland.com reported.
The company said its patent pending technology allows to reduce time spent on transactions close to zero seconds.

The system will work something  like this: each store will have a Uniqul tablet at its check-out counters. This tablet would take the customer's photo and then process biometrical data to locate that individual within a database, which can be registered with any major credit card. They then press an "OK" button, and that's it! No signature is required and customers are in and out of the store quickly. According to Uniqul, the facial payment system reduces transaction time from 30 seconds to under five seconds.

The fee for using Uniqul is as follows: seven Euros for world-wide access, three Euros to cover a certain region and one Euro to cover 1-2 kilometers.

A new technology that allows customers to use their facial features instead of swiping a credit card to purchase goods has been developed by a Finnish company

Making sense out of Driverless Cars

Sitting in the passenger seat as your driver lifts his arms away from the wheel and gleefully says "look, no hands" should be an unsettling experience. But this feeling will soon get superfluous after the advent of the driverless-car technology.

An autonomous car, also known as a robotic car, or informally as driverless or self-driving, is an autonomous vehicle capable of fulfilling the human transportation capabilities of a traditional car. As an autonomous vehicle, it is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Robotic cars exist mainly as prototypes and demonstration systems, but are likely to become more widespread in the near future.

Driverless vehicles sense their surroundings with such techniques as radar, GPS, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage. Some driverless vehicles update their maps based on sensory input, allowing the vehicles to keep track of their position even when conditions change or when they enter uncharted environments.

 Analysts say these cars are coming no matter what, with the earliest estimates placing commercially-available robot cars within the next five to ten years pending regulatory approval. The technology is there, it's just a matter of getting the legislation, driver and insurance companies onboard.

Self-driving cars are one of today’s hottest technology trends. Google revealed that it was developing self-driving cars in 2010, and since then, these vehicles have logged hundreds of thousands of miles with few accidents and received approval from Nevada to test is cars on the state’s roads. Car makers such as Tesla, Audi, and Toyota have since started developing driverless solutions of their own, and GPS-maker Garmin revealed its new heads-up display (HUD) gadget today that projects key navigation information on your car’s windshield — a safer alternative to looking down at your Smartphone while driving.

While human error is responsible for 80% of auto accidents, with humans getting into at least one fender bender every 100,000 miles, according to IEEE estimates, Google claims its car logged 300,000 miles without incident.

The cars are expected to become far more widely adopted than the fuel-efficient hybrids and electric vehicles made by the likes of Tesla (TSLA) on the road today. Their focus on safety is expected to be a major selling point for consumers, insurers and the government.

As automakers focus on developing and testing driverless cars, the technologies will slowly start to be adapted into modern-day vehicles, representing a gradual yet inevitable shift.

Toyota, for example, partnered with Tesla and is expected to unveil vehicle-to-vehicle communication in its 2014 Lexus models when cruise control is activated, an early version of a technology expected to become a cornerstone of autonomous cars.

That kind of communication and instantaneous reaction time could feasibly allow a freeway of autonomous cars driving at 70 miles per hour just five feet from each other. It’s a scary thought, and one that will likely take drivers a long time to get used to, but it could serve to significantly reduce traffic and make transportation all the more safer. 

Current Driverless Car Technologies

 1.)    Anti-lock brakes - One of the driverless systems that you may not have realized was driverless is anti-lock brakes. Sounds surprising, doesn't it? After all, anti-lock brakes need the driver in order to work. Still, they represent one end of the driverless continuum because anti-lock brakes perform a function that drivers used to have to do themselves. When a car is braking hard and doesn't have anti-lock brakes, the wheels can lock up, sending the car into an out-of-control skid. In a car without anti-lock brakes, the driver has to pump the brake pedal to keep the wheels from locking up. With anti-lock brakes, the system does the pumping for the driver -- and does it better than the driver. The system can read the wheels and knows when they are about to lock and react faster and with a more appropriate response than a driver could.

2.)    Traction - Another type of driverless system is traction or stability control. These systems are so transparent that usually only professional drivers recognize when they've taken control. Like anti-lock brakes, traction and stability control react better than a driver ever could. Unlike anti-lock brakes, these systems are very complicated and use multiple systems within the car to keep the driver from losing control.

3.)    Cruise control - Cruise control is another common driverless system that's available in most cars. Cruise control keeps the car at a constant speed, set by the driver, without the driver constantly having to press the gas pedal. Cruise control isn't completely driverless, however, because the driver must watch constantly for slower moving cars in his or her path.

Illustrative Example of Cruise Control

Adaptive cruise control takes care of that. Though it's currently available on only a few cars, it's very simple. Using radar sensors on the front of the car, adaptive cruise control can tell when an object is in front of it and, if the object is moving, how fast it's moving. When cruise control is set, adaptive cruise control will maintain a constant speed, but will also maintain a set distance between it and the car in front of it.

Biggest Barriers to the Driverless Car Technologies

 è  The biggest hurdle is garnering widespread regulatory support, not to mention getting insurers on board and collecting support from the masses. It 

could take many years.

 è  Perhaps the second largest setback is the prohibitively expensive cost of these cars. It is estimated to cost about $250,000 to build each of them due to the expensive nature of the advanced technologies used.

 è  The concept of self-driving cars may be all the rage in technology circles, but the organization that represents big U.S. auto makers says a new poll due out later this week indicates many U.S. consumers are wary about sharing the road with robot vehicless that could be hacked by mischief car makers.

è  Other miscellaneous technical problems to overcome.

What people think about Driverless Cars

Cisco’s survey found that 57% of the respondents, who came from 10 countries, said they’d ride in a car controlled entirely by robotic systems. Brazilians gave the most enthusiastic endorsement, with 96% of those surveyed saying they’d trust self-driving cars. Indian consumers were next at 86%. Among Chinese respondents, 70% said they would trust a driverless car. Sixty percent of the Americans surveyed said they would be comfortable in a self-piloting vehicle. The nations with the most scepticism toward autonomous cars: Auto powers Germany (37%) and Japan (28%).

According to designers and manufacturers, an increase in the use of autonomous cars would make possible such benefits as:

·         Fewer traffic collisions, due to an autonomous system's increased reliability and faster reaction time compared to human drivers.

·         Increased roadway capacity and reduced traffic congestion (due to reduced need for safety gaps), and the ability to better manage traffic flow.

·         Relief of vehicle occupants from driving and navigation chores.

·         Higher speed limit for autonomous cars.

·         Removal of constraints on occupants' state – in an autonomous car, it would not matter if the occupants were under age, over age, blind, distracted, intoxicated, or otherwise impaired.

·         Alleviation of parking scarcity, as cars could drop off passengers, park far away where space is not scarce, and return as needed to pick up passengers.

·         Elimination of redundant passengers – humans are not required to take the car anywhere, as the robotic car can drive independently to wherever it is required. This would be especially relevant to trucks, taxis and car-sharing services.

·         Reduction of space required for vehicle parking.

·         Reduction in the need for traffic police and vehicle insurance.

·         Reduction of physical road signage – autonomous cars could receive necessary communication electronically (although physical signs may still be required for any human drivers).

·         Improved fuel efficiency.

·         Reduced air pollution as a result of less emissions and traffic congestion.

The Google driverless car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for autonomous cars. The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.

The U.S. state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011 permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada. Google had been lobbying for robotic car laws. The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012. The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driverless technology. As of April 2012, Florida became the second state to allow the testing of autonomous cars on public roads. California became the third state to legalize the use of self-driven cars for testing purposes as of September 2012[update] when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law at Google HQ in Mountain View.

Google first revealed in 2010 that it had been working on self-driving cars. This fits in with its work on mapping and software and might give users extra time to surf the web, boosting Google’s profits. Last year the company released a video of a blind man sitting in the driver’s seat of one of these (albeit with a passenger as backup), being taken to buy takeaway tacos and collect his dry cleaning. Sergey Brin, one of the internet company’s founders, expects its autonomous driving system to be ready for the market in five years. That may be optimistic, but by the 2020s some cars that drive themselves most or all of the time could well be in volume production. This will have big consequences.

The idea of self-driving cars as a means of reducing accidents and congestion has been around for a long time. One of the most popular exhibits at the 1939 New York World’s Fair was “Futurama”, a depiction of a city with cars remotely controlled by radio. In the 1980s and 1990s the European Commission sponsored a programme of research on automated driving, Prometheus. In the mid-2000s the Pentagon’s research agency, DARPA, launched its Grand Challenges, offering prizes to driverless cars that did best at navigating a tricky course. In the first of these, in 2004, none of the robot cars completed the course. In the third, held in 2007, six cars made it. The winning team’s technical director was Mr Urmson. Its main advantage over its rivals was that it had mapped the course in fine detail, something that his current employers are busy doing for the rest of the planet.

But even before such prototypes have proved themselves, the technology is already arriving in instalments as carmakers introduce sophisticated “assisted driving” features as options, even on mass-market models. European buyers of the Ford Focus, a mid-sized car, can now leave it to drive itself and maintain a safe distance in steady traffic. The car can measure a parking space and steer itself into it. It reads road signs and admonishes the driver if he breaks the speed limit. Such gadgetry also increasingly makes decisions on the driver’s behalf and overrules him in an emergency, for instance, braking to avoid a crash.

Other technologies are beginning to make this easier. First, the mechanical links between the controls and the working parts are progressively being replaced by electronic ones. Second, cars now have a rudimentary version of “black box” data recorders to collect information on the moments just before an accident. Insurers have already begun to offer discounts to motorists who agree to have more sophisticated ones that monitor their driving all the time.

Basil Enan, the boss of CoverHound, an online insurance broker, says that as well as giving discounts to drivers who install black boxes, insurers are offering lower premiums on cars with assisted-driving features because they reduce accidents. He thinks that in future “manual driving” will increasingly be penalised: “The more miles you’re logging on autopilot, the less you’re going to pay.” This will give motorists an incentive to use the assisted-driving features on their cars. Carmakers, for their part, will have an incentive to keep adding more to maintain high scores in the widely publicised safety tests that help them sell their models.

Safety-enhancing gadgets on cars tend to start out as optional extras, then get incorporated into “best practice” standards promoted by independent bodies like Euro NCAP, and eventually are made compulsory. Ubiquitous black boxes in road vehicles will provide a mass of data likely to demonstrate the effectiveness of automated-driving features, which will prompt calls to make them obligatory.

Conclusion: Autonomous driver systems are still in the early stages of development and too expensive for the mainstream market, and the race to be the first for mass consumption is heating up.