ADT and Ford recently announced a partnership to form a new company, Canopy. The new joint venture will bring together ADT’s professional security monitoring and Ford’s AI-driven camera technology to provide customers with safety for their vehicles. Canopy will employ multi-sensor security systems with monitoring from ADT, a first for the auto industry.

Canopy’s arrival follows several major residential security players expanding into car protection.

• In 2019, Vivint Smart Home launched Vivint Car Guard, a service that allows homeowners to manage the security of both their home and car within the same app.
• In March 2021, Alarm.com partnered with telematics provider CalAmp on a cellular device that plugs into the vehicle’s OBD-II port, enabling Alarm.com security dealers to offer their customers vehicle monitoring services.
• In the fall of 2021, Amazon debuted two new devices and an API, Ring Car Alarm, Ring Car Cam, and Ring Car Connect, as a new line of products for car manufacturers.

Nineteen percent of all US broadband households have experienced vehicle theft or break-in as of Q2 2021, which equates to more than 20 million households. Sometimes, there are multiple instances of theft or vandalism in one household.

Home security systems help protect and manage things people care about, and Parks Associates research finds that the strongest opportunities for providers to expand beyond the residents and home are protection for motor vehicles and pets. Parks Associates research finds that 69% of home security system owners are interested in vehicle monitoring as an add-on for home security systems, up from 41% in 2018. Additionally, 59% of security system owners the ability to detect theft or damage to vehicles is a “must have” feature of security systems, ranking second only after the system’s ability to detect home intrusion.

As ADT and other residential security companies look to partner with automakers like Ford and extend protection beyond the home, vehicle monitoring services provide a new opportunity to build upon their core capabilities and create capture additional revenue.

For more information on consumer demand for smart monitoring services, see Parks Associates Quantified Consumer – Security Buyers: Purchase Trends and Triggers

Contributor: Tam Williams