INTERVIEW: The car industry in Europe “is not as happy as they should be” warned Nokia’s head of car V2X Uwe Puetzschler (pictured), as he emphasised the need for better networks to advance the connected automobile segment.

Puetzschler, speaking to Mobile World Live at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, said one of the biggest barriers to developing connected cars was differences in connectivity around the world, with “Japan and Korea having access to very good coverage of networks”.

Conversely, in other regions including Europe, Puetzschler suggested the car industry wasn’t able to advance as they may want to “because the network coverage is a challenge, and they need full coverage to give the right experience to their customers”.

Improving network coverage to develop connected and automated driving is one of two of Nokia’s priorities for the segment.

He said there were some requirements “today’s networks cannot currently meet to the extent the car industry would like to see, and that’s why we are working to improve it”.

The second direction Nokia is pursuing is to “provide a common platform to manage the cars and to manage the applications which are associated with the use of cars, fleets, etc”.

In the interview, Puetzschler also spoke about his thoughts on the operator opportunity arising from the connected car, and how he believes automated driving could lead to more traffic on mobile networks.

Click here to hear his thoughts.