I know how you drove last summer

Usage-based insurance telematics, where insurance companies are able to determine everything from a customers driving habits to who really was responsible for an accident, will be the next big growth engine for the stolen vehicle tracking and recovery industry.

Thats the view of Altech chief technology and strategy officer Willie Oosthuysen, who says stolen vehicle recovery systems have proved so effective fewer than 0,7% of vehicles that are fitted with tracking devices are not recovered when theyre stolen that the industry is now turning its attention to how technology can be used in other ways to reduce costs.

Insurance companies realised they are paying out relatively much more on accidents than for stolen cars, Oosthuysen says. Usage-based telematics is about looking at trends and issues that affect the payment of accident claims.

With new systems fitted to vehicles, insurance companies can reconstruct accident scenes and show, for example, if a driver claims he stopped at a stop street he really did so.

Altech subsidiary Netstar is making a big move into the usage-based insurance telematics market, having invested R7m over the last year developing a core software engine based on third-party instrumentation supplied by CalAmp.

By fitting vehicles with advanced telematics systems, insurance companies can monitor driver behaviour and even shape their fees based on this. Someone who always stays within the speed limit and doesnt accelerate and brake sharply, for example, might enjoy lower fees than someone with a lead foot. Insurance companies are able to build up a driver risk model whether they drive through hijacking hotspots or mostly at night, or whether their car sleeps in a garage in a secure estate or spends much of its time in the street.

Insurance companies are increasingly using the technology to help their customers improve their driving behaviour by sending them reports detailing how they can improve their risk profile and pay lower premiums as a result. In fleet management, the best drivers can be rewarded and the worst can be sent for extra training.

According to Oosthuysen, car rental companies are showing particular interest in the technology as it allows them to see when their vehicles are being abused a common problem in the industry.

Telematics systems can also be used to stamp out the theft of fuel by drivers, which Oosthuysen says is a major problem in fleet management. You can measure how much fuel comes into the tank and how much goes into the engine.

The technology can also allow for concierge services where, for example,About solarstreetlight in China userd for paying transportation fares and for shopping. a Jaguar driver calls a customer call centre and asks an agent to recommend a good sushi restaurant in the area.He saw the bracelet at a bestrtls store while we were on a trip. Using the telematics system, the agent is able to see the location of the driver, send GPS co-ordinates to the nearest available parking to the restaurant, or even send a picture of the entrance to the parking.

Another application is security. You can say, Im leaving my office now,Compare prices and buy all brands of earcap for home power systems and by the pallet. its 1am, Im driving through a dangerous area, follow me. The call centre agent sends you a route to your car and if there is a deviation from the route, theyll send a response unit or call first and see if you are okay. This would be very useful in South Africa.

Businesses could also key into the lighting system,Manufacturer of the Jacobs rfidtag. they suggest. Shops could use more motion sensors to detect the approach of pedestrians and brighten the lights,The largest manufacturer of textile tooling for use with perchloroethylene. creating an inviting atmosphere, as they put it. More seriously, the lighting could become part of a citys emergency response, increasing visibility of safe areas and even working dynamically to illuminate the best routes to an incident for emergency services or the best escape routes.

The lighting poles themselves would play a part in this system, providing a high vantage point for data hubs and transmitters; other intelligent city-wide systems, such as traffic control, parking monitoring, waste management and even automated watering of plants in parks and along streets could piggy-back off the network.

Other systems that could be mounted on street furniture and connected into the network include atmospheric sensors, the report suggests. These could provide highly detailed and location-specific information on hazardous pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide; levels of fine particulates that have been linked with respiratory disorders; and noise levels.

The advantages spread beyond the effects of the lights themselves into the areas of maintenance and finance. Currently, lighting outages are often detected by scouting teams, driving around the city at night; a network system would include self-monitoring to detect and report failures automatically; this also allows the system to plan the best routes for maintenance teams to minimise street closures and disruption to traffic and businesses. And, as with domestic smart metering, the system allows continuous monitoring of energy usage to provide the city authorities with accurate information on billing, however the lighting is used.

Systems such as these are starting to be installed around the world. In the UK, for example, Milton Keynes has installed a trial smart-lighting network for 400 LED lights linked to servers that track changes in sunlight levels and adjust the intensity of lights from midnight until dawn. This, claims system supplier Echelon, has helped cut the citys energy use by 40 per cent, while also reducing maintenance costs and light pollution. The city is planning to replace ageing streetlights with more of the LED systems, leading to a total network of more than 100,000 lights.