Increasing smart glasses adoption among automotive frontline workers

Frontline Workers Need Reassurance, Their Knowledge Is Appreciated

Digitization is continuously transforming our cars and other vehicles into full-blown computers on wheels. Servicing of these cars is becoming ever more complex. This can be a challenge for veteran technicians, since solving some of these new issues sometimes requires a new set of skills. Just adding a new piece of technology won’t do the trick. Workers need to understand that their skills are not being simply replaced by a smart device. They should be reassured that this change will add and build onto their already rich knowledge base, without them having to throw away anything from their vast experience.

A survey by Gartner shows that “half of employees who are not knowledge workers want their organization to provide them with greater control over when, where, and how much they work. Currently, less than a third of this group reports having flexibility in any area of their work.”

Technologies like smart glasses powered with AR-powered remote support solutions can help with that: When workers have all the information, they need to do their job available in their field of view, right when they need it, and both hands free for the actual work, then they can work in a more self-determined way: No need to wait for the only colleague in the company who knows this or that car model best to arrive and assist in person. No need to search for old manuals or serial numbers of spare parts. Everything is right there in real-time.

Address Privacy Concerns and Invest in Secure Solutions

Privacy concerns have been raised in the past with smart glasses like the original Google Glass, or similar products by Facebook. These concerns do mostly relate to consumer products, suspecting everything that is filmed via the smart glasses’ camera or registered by its microphone would be harvested by the above-named data companies.

Why shouldn’t frontline workers fear the same for industrial-grade smart glasses their employers want them to use? First, inside a work environment, different laws apply for workers safety and data protection in most jurisdictions. Additionally, the employer usually has a self-interest in protecting this data from being leaked, so security measures are way higher already compared with consumer devices. Finally, there are solutions out there that encrypt all data traffic in a way that not even the company providing the smart glasses’ AR software – let alone the employer – can decipher it. This way of encrypting data is called end-to-end encryption.

According to McKinsey, cybersecurity is becoming a new dimension of quality for automobiles. As we are on the verge of introducing connected, self-driving cars on our streets, no carmaker, related dealership, or workshop can afford to fall short on cybersecurity. This, of course, includes all hardware and software that is used in producing and servicing cars. But no technology or security measure is invincible without the people using it. So, it is again key to get automotive frontline workers on board to embrace new, secure digital technology: AR and smart glasses with integrated remote support solutions, can make a real difference for both companies and workers, in an auto world that is becoming digitalized faster and faster.