LAS VEGAS — Vehicle connectivity is becoming more and more common, so you better be ready to prepare your customers for what’s coming down the pike and get them ready to be able to watch it live in their shops.

Mike Blicher, business development director of automotive, commercial and military markets for Immersion Corp., says in fact, some people will be buying their vehicles based more on their connectivity than anything else.

“There’s a major wakeup call to these OEMs to that there’s aftermarket services are playing a key role to their long-term brand loyalty,” he states. Blicher talked about the connectivity during “Connected Vehicle Technologies: Accelerating the Commercialization and Acceptance of Integrated Automotive and Consumer Electronics” during AAPEX.

You too will be able to have your shop customers linked in with their customers. First, keeping today’s vehicles connected among their own systems as well as eventually with other vehicles and intersections starts with a monogamous relationship. What Blicher refers to as enlightened enhancement, the information comes to the OBDII port and the VIN is programmed into the device.

“It’s taking the owner of the vehicle, demonstrating the response that he knows what he’s doing to the modifications and the vehicle knows it’s accepting what those modifications are,” Blicher explains.

It will eventually become talking to the “cloud,” where shops will be able to talk to the vehicles, and vice versa. Think of the customer service you could offer there. Air Automotive Tracking (AAT) will track what the vehicle is doing in real-time, and will be available at shops online.

“This is not being big brother, this is being the big brother that protects you on the playground back at school,” Blicher says.

But to move forward with this, “we’ve got to continue to opening our listening and turn our thinking onto the people who are dealing with the customers,” he adds.