Despite being home to over 600 million people, South East Asia has been nothing more than a mere afterthought internationally, when it comes to telematics. For one, most of these countries are known for their high traffic fatality rates. A 2015 report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), for example, states that Southeast Asia accounts for 25% of global road traffic deaths. That means, over 300,000 people die in road traffic-related accidents every year. While this statistic is alarming, it isn’t entirely surprising. After all, most Southeast Asian countries (and India, in particular) have been overlooked for their low incomes, poor roads, and geographical differences. Nonetheless, a growing number of companies are taking a fresh look at Southeast Asia, what with the region’s gradual economic advancement.

Toyota, for instance, is working to have 70% of its new cars connected globally by 2020. The company has even talked about using data to alert dealers when their cars need servicing, providing information about road and traffic conditions so that cities can plan smarter, and even informing retailers of passengers’ commutes so that they can work on more targeted marketing. Similarly, Tata Motors recently installed 100,000 advanced telematics systems on its fleet of commercial vehicles. The company claims that it was the first OEM in India to embrace this technology and integrate it into its vehicles in India.

It isn’t just the major corporations that are working on telematics, though. New-age startups like Skyfy, from Singapore, have created supply-chain management applications to allow companies to monitor, track and control their vehicles from anywhere. In India, Zeliot has made use of IoT and the telematics application, AquilaTrack, to harvest big data and offer intelligent business analytics. Thanks to its multi-cloud architecture, AquilaTrack can easily cater to more than 1 million devices, be it school buses, ambulances, or even employee transport vehicles. All these examples are proof of the fact that South East Asia is working towards better fleet management, understanding the value of telematics and how it can positively impact the business.