Seat and Orange aim to make the car your home away from home

Orange Spain and Seat have signed an agreement to promote new advances in the development and use of the connected car, promising to make it your home away from home.

The agreement itself will focus on three separate areas. Firstly, improving the experience of vehicle occupants by developing connected car services. Secondly, developing the digital home or office experience for car users. And finally, promoting a loyalty programme that promotes the frequent use of new connectivity and mobility solutions they launch.

“We feel privileged to have strategic arrangements with partners such as Orange that give a major boost to our development of car connectivity,” said Seat Head of Business Development Arantxa Alonso. “This partnership opens up a large collaborative space for both companies that are pursuing a common goal – promote the use of the connected car and make the car user’s experience easier and more efficient.”

“This strategic agreement with Seat is a great step for Orange in its strategy of connected objects and Big Data and opens the door to innovations and new developments surrounding cars of the future, which will contribute to helping us achieve our goal of connecting our customers with what truly matters most to them,” said Orange Director of Innovation and New Digital Services for Spain Luis Santos.

While it does sound like marketing jargon, the home away from home idea is simply down to getting those in the car to use the same services there as they do at home. We pretty sure Orange and Seat are not suggesting the driver load up a Modern Family box set just yet, but there are of course numerous services which can be used in a safe manner. Part of the partnership will be a joint effort to create leisure and entertainment services that drivers and other passengers can enjoy.

Of course, while the idea of a connected (or autonomous) car does sound attractive in theory, success to date has been very slow. That said, incentivised customers can be forced out of their comfort zone as we all like free stuff. Offers for discounts on other services, freebies and gifts will be up for grabs depending on how much the customers actually interacts and uses the connected features.

Loyalty is the word being used here, but normality is one which is probably more accurate. Customers might need a little push to use the services, but this will normalize the new ideas in the mind of the customer, and also offer data for Orange and Seat to adjust and improve. The customer gets more comfortable with a scary new thing, while Orange and Seat make the service better. It’s a win for the pair.