In five years the connected car will become a mainstream reality with more than 60 percent of the world’s cars offering features such as built-in internet, wireless connectivity and smart notifications.

By 2017 market researcher ABI expects the figure to exceed 80 percent in the US and Western Europe as new cars get pumped full of smarter technology.

Developing regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe will also see a large jump in the number of new vehicles with telematics; Brazil and Russia will lead the trend, driven by country-specific mandates.

“In-car connectivity is quickly transforming the automotive industry, enabling passive and active safety and security and offering infotainment and connected lifestyle services to consumers but also enabling new car ownership, usage, and experience modes such as car sharing, (semi)-autonomous driving, dynamic demand-response electric vehicle charging pricing, and customer and vehicle relationship management services including prognostics and preventive maintenance,” said ABI VP and practice director Dominique Bonte.

Car companies such as Ford, Toyota, Lexus, Audi and BMW are not the only ones developing connected cars of the future.

Microsoft is working on “the next generation of the Connected Car Platform” using Kinect, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Windows Live, Bing, Azure and Tellme.