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As the year wraps up and we are inundated with discussions around what the year ahead holds, I wanted to take a moment and think about what I believe will happen with IoT in 2018.
The internet of things is still in its relative infancy, and in 2018 there will be some significant milestones achieved that will showcase the possibilities that an IoT world will bring.
So without further ado, here are my top five IoT-related predictions for 2018:
- 2018 will be the year that the common car tire will become connected, with sensors embedded that can talk wirelessly to telemetry boxes and the cloud, acting as a source for big data analytics. Apps will be able to provide intelligence to, for example, fleet management companies that can tell if the pressure needs adjusting to save money, or if the driver is driving dangerously or if the tire needs replacing (safety). Also, manufacturers will be able to offer “tire as a service” — so you lease a tire based on how much rubber is used. It should also help reduce the number of slow punctures that lead to flat tires!
- More and more things will start to be sold as a service because it’s so easy to track usage through IoT. These will range from the mundane coffee as a service to the helpful tire as a service to the essential garbage collection as a service. This could lead the way to eventually teachers as a service or even police as a service. This could lead to everyone becoming part of the much-touted gig economy.
- Smart space: We’ll hear more about how IoT networks and software platforms are going to lower the cost and ease the complexity of space travel. NASA’s Orion vehicle is an example.
- We’ll see the first IoT-enabled vermin control for the smart home. Sensors and robotic traps will replace the cat. We’ll also see the first robotic IoT-enabled vacuums released — ones that have cameras and are connected. They will even identify Legoes and store them so you don’t step on them.
- Smart retail: We’ll see amazing results from Walmart and other brick-and-mortar retailers as we realize that IoT in the real/augmented world is a great differentiator against virtual-only competitors, such as Amazon. Having physical stores really matters — as long as they are IoT-enabled.
While the internet of things is the fuel driving this new set of innovative services, it will further shine a spotlight on the need for a new standard of IoT certification using AI-powered test technology, in order to avoid a range of privacy and ethical dilemmas caused by physical objects merging into the digital information infrastructure.
Let’s check back in December 2018 to see which of these predictions came true, and in the meantime buckle up for another year of breakneck speed innovation around IoT.
