Seat Boss Thinks 5G Connectivity Will Play Big Role In Car Industry

Seat CEO Luca de Meo thinks that car manufacturers will be “big customers” when it comes to investing in 5G connectivity, although more innovation is required first so that the technology can take off.

Once fully operational, 5G promises to link everything from connected vehicles to household devices. One issue however is that the telecommunication industry still doesn’t know just how profitable this new technology is, as reported by Reuters.

According to de Meo, applications are currently “pretty limited” – said the Seat boss during the unveiling of what he described as Europe’s first 5G-connected concept car at MWC in Barcelona. He added that connecting a car with a user’s smartphone or any external infrastructure could lead to billions of possible transactions.

“I think personally the automotive industry will play a big role in justifying the investment, so we will be one of the big customers, but we need to be creative.”

“We need to experiment and look at functionalities and hopefully the market will say, OK, I want to buy a car like this because it can prevent an accident or it can see around the corner and I value that and I [will] pay for it.”

While 5G is expected to aid the development of autonomous driving, the issues of infrastructure and how traditional cars will coexist with driverless ones makes it very difficult to predict when exactly the market will take off.

Then there’s the issue of 5G versus Wi-Fi, with some automakers (VW, Renault) urging the European Union to choose Wi-Fi connectivity over 5G networks with regards to connected cars. Only time will tell which technology will make the cut.