The fundamental characteristics of the IoT are as follows :

Interconnectivity: With regard to the IoT, anything can be interconnected with the global information and communication infrastructure.

Things-related services: The IoT is capable of providing thing-related services within the constraints of things, such as privacy protection and semantic consistency between physical things and their associated virtual things. In order to provide thing-related services within the constraints of things, both the technologies in physical world and information world will change.

Heterogeneity: The devices in the IoT are heterogeneous as based on different hardware platforms and networks. They can interact with other devices or service platforms through different networks.

Dynamic changes: The state of devices change dynamically, e.g., sleeping and waking up, connected and/or disconnected as well as the context of devices including location and speed. Moreover, the number of devices can change dynamically.

Enormous scale: The number of devices that need to be managed and that communicate with each other will be at least an order of magnitude larger than the devices connected to the current Internet.  Even more critical will be the management of the data generated and their interpretation for application purposes. This relates to semantics of data, as well as efficient data handling.

Safety: As we gain benefits from the IoT, we must not forget about safety. As both the creators and recipients of the IoT, we must design for safety. This includes the safety of our personal data and the safety of our physical well-being. Securing the endpoints, the networks, and the data moving across all of it means creating a security paradigm that will scale.

Connectivity: Connectivity enables network accessibility and compatibility. Accessibility is getting on a network while compatibility provides the common ability to consume and produce data.

References:

• Usha Devi, Dr. M.S.S.Rukmini, “IoT in Connected Vehicles: Challenges andIssues- A Review,” International conference on Signal Processing, Communication, Power and Embedded System (SCOPES)-2016.
• Burnham, J. Seo G. Bekey, A. Identification of Human Driver Models in Car Following. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 19, 6, 1974, pp. 911–915.
• Ovidiu Vermesan SINTEF, Norway, Dr. Peter FriessEU, Belgium, “Internet of Things–From Research and Innovation to Market Deployment”, river publishers’ series in communications, 2014.
• [http://www.reloade.com/blog/2013/12/6characteristics-within-internet-things-iot.php]