Where e-SIMs meet cloud-based platforms
Connected and autonomous vehicles need a way to connect to a mobile network.
Ericsson predicts that all the manufactured vehicles will be cellular-enabled by 2025, “leading to an enhanced driving experience made possible by innovative connected services, like assisted driving and better infotainment”. Being cellular-enabled will require the vehicles to have e-SIMS to connect them to a 5G network and they will enable over-the-air (OTA) updates, removing the need to go to a dealership to update software. With cellular connectivity, the updates will occur automatically.
In their September 2020 blog, eSIM: Driving global connectivity in the automotive industry, Francesco Militano, strategic product manager, and Tandy Xinglong Mai, head of global connectivity for automotive at Ericsson, explain: “Chevrolet… issued a recall on its flagship 2020 Corvette model to fix a glitch in its trunk. As a result, some owners will have to take their car to the dealer for the necessary software update, but for those who signed up to receive theirs over-the-air, the update will be made automatically and without any disruption to their lives.”
They explain that customers who subscribed to OTA can receive these updates wherever they are because of the “combination of cellular and eSIM (embedded subscriber identity module) technology, also known as eUICC (embedded universal integrated circuit card)”.
Greater flexibility
With e-SIMS, the automotive sector has itself gained greater flexibility. It unlocks new features and capabilities and they permit the more effective use of cloud-based management platforms. A key advantage over a fixed SIM card, which is locked into a single mobile network operator (MNO), e-SIMS widen access to a range of MNOs. With that comes benefits of increased connectivity, reduced complexity, and lower costs. The blog’s authors also suggest that e-SIMs allow for steady, compliant, high performant local connections and they are seamless.
They argue that having to change a SIM car is often an arduous process, stating that the security of the change is complex and that only a few vendors can do it. Yet with eSIMs, the supply chain can be streamlined because they reveal that “manufacturers only need to maintain one stock keeping unit (SKU) instead of multiple.”
To read the complete article, visit TU-Automotive.