Automakers Taking Multi-Pronged Tack to Tighten Vehicles’ Internet Links
Automakers are employing a multi-pronged strategy to tightening vehicles’ links to the Internet as they spread deployments of operating system software and applications across model line-ups, industry officials told us last week at the New York Auto Show.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Hyundai is using Google Search as part of its Blue Link 2.0 Android maintenance/remote access app, and also will make Apple’s CarPlay available as an option with its new 2015 Sonata, said Michael Deitz, Hyundai senior group manager-connected car. And while Hyundai is part of the Open Automotive Alliance that’s dedicated to establishing a standard for Google’s Android, it also had Apple staffers on hand at the auto show to demonstrate CarPlay. Mercedes-Benz, too, is making CarPlay available in its new C-Class sedans, but it also will be ready to install Google software, Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Steve Cannon told us. CarPlay is compatible with iPhone 5, 5s and 5c.
"Eventually cars are a node on the Internet and it’s not just going to be about infotainment inside of the car,” Cannon said. “It’s going to be about live traffic warnings, collision avoidance, car-to-car communication and cars sending to the cloud vehicle status information like tire pressure and battery life. The whole industry is moving to that direction and cars have a slightly longer development time. The cycles for consumer electronics are one year and for automotive it can be seven years so it takes a little longer for us to keep pace.”
With the Internet’s final form in vehicles still taking shape, some automakers are staking out turf in more than one operating system camp, industry officials said. Audi, General Motors, Honda and Hyundai are part of the Open Automotive Alliance. But Honda also is a member of the Car Connectivity Consortium, along with Toyota and Volkswagen, that’s backing Microsoft’s Windows in the Car conceptual platform for adapting Windows Phones’ apps and functions in dashboards. Windows in the Car uses MirrorLink, which isn’t compatible with CarPlay, which is being deployed in Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ferrari vehicles. But BlackBerry’s QNX operating system, which is at the heart of 50-70 percent of vehicle infotainment platforms, does work with CarPlay.
"Our idea is to have the same flexibility with Android and iOS customers,” said Michael O'Brien, vice president-corporate and product planning at Hyundai. “For each vehicle we will take a little bit different approach depending on portability and customers’ willingness to pay and interest in those features.” Hyundai’s 2015 Sonata will have CarPlay available as an option in all but the entry-level models, with Apple’s Siri voice recognition software available in some vehicles through an 8-inch touch screen, O'Brien said.
Volvo is making CarPlay a key optional cog in its vehicles starting with the 2016 XC90, positioning it as an alternative to the carmaker’s own systems, a Volvo spokesman said. CarPlay has interface ties with Volvo’s steering wheel-mounted buttons and 10-inch touchscreen in-dash LCD. The voice control button can launch Siri and when CarPlay is activated, Volvo’s in-car entertainment system pauses. Volvo’s in-car system has four horizontal tiles, one each for GPS navigation, music, making calls over a Bluetooth connection with a phone and a custom option, which could be CarPlay in the future, the spokesman said. In a demo, tapping on the CarPlay icon expands it to use most of the LCD screen, but still leaves room to control in-car temperature and air conditioning.
"Folks are very used to Apple iPhone and they don’t want to be cut off from it when they get into the car,” Cannon said. “So the Apple CarPlay integration will take what’s on iPhone and project it on to the screen in a smart car-safe way without putting a lot of distracted drivers onto the road."
Yet automakers are hesitant to be tied to a single operating system or software provider, industry officials said. Hyundai is making CarPlay available with its high-end Genesis vehicles along with the Sonata, Deitz said. “Hyundai with CarPlay will one of the first to market and when it comes time to introduce something with the final version of Android we will be ready,” O'Brien said. Hyundai is shifting its Blue Link app to its own servers this year, having previously used Sirius XM’s Agero, Deitz said. Sirius acquired Agero last year.