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Dashboard becomes extension of Internet

IT used to be that cars were promoted on the idea that driving itself was a form of entertainment. Then radios and CD players were added to dashboards.

Well, that's all becoming passé now.

The automobile is evolving into yet another link in the digital world, with infotainment defining the driving experience.

Through voice command, touch screen and vehicle controls, drivers are able to access their social network accounts, play online music, get satellite navigation based on real-time traffic and weather information, and even make restaurant reservations without leaving the steering wheel. The automobile, in essence, is becoming a giant smart phone.

Automakers are embracing the new smart car concept as a way to not only sell cars but also to sell the experience of owning one. That entails a lot of new product development.

The auto industry is nothing if not innovative. One hundred years after starting vehicle mass production with the first moving assembly line, US carmaker Ford has led another revolution.

Instead of taking on the job of designing onboard infotainment features, the company is among the first to replicate the vibrant app ecosystem of smartphones in the car by fully opening up its dashboard for third-party input from around the world.

This special program, called Ford Developer, came to China last month, bringing with it a software development kit that contains tech documentation in Chinese for developers to make use of a car's various user interfaces to achieve communication between the programs they design.

"We understand that the developer community can bring new capabilities to our customers much faster than we could on our own," said Kumar Galhotra, vice president of product development for Ford Asia Pacific. "So we want to build relationships with developers in China, and we want to enable anyone who has a great idea for the in-car experience to create, test and possibly deploy their app in Ford vehicles."

Launched along with the program were the first nine local apps to run in Ford's cars next year. They include cloud navigation services by China's biggest search engine provider Baidu, a Twitter-like social networking platform called Sina Weibo and a personalized music tool of the popular online radio station Douban FM.

All software developers, big or small, are welcome to code for Ford's infotainment system, the company stressed. Many hands make light work, and for an industry that is used to multiyear development cycles on each car model, that's probably the easiest to way to keep up with the innovation pace of information technology, where a new phone can be created in less than a year and apps in just months or even weeks.

Better idea? Ford says yes

Because of its dazzling speed of technology development and content upgrades, the mobile device is playing an important proxy role in providing in-car connected services.

In the case of Ford, custom-built apps for infotainment need to be installed on one's smartphone before they can be uploaded into the car's Sync infotainment system, which can connect the phone via USB or Bluetooth. Through a technology called AppLink, the system then allows drivers to run the programs by pressing conventional buttons, swiping on a touch screen or uttering a few command words.

As soon as one upgrades his phone to a 3G or 4G system, he can start to make use of this connection for the infotainment system without any change to the car itself, said Ed Pleet, director of connected services at Ford Asia Pacific.

"Vehicles have to last for 5 to 10 years," Pleet said. "If you need to wipe the hardware from the car and put the new one in for a technology upgrade during that time, that will entail costs and complexities our customers don't want to deal with."

The system is all about brought-in, not built-in, functions, he added. After all, people are not looking for just any connected driving experience, but rather a personalized one. That is easily possible using apps on their phones, which are the center of their digital life.

Sync-enabled apps can be just the updated version of those running on handsets. Users don't need to download a new program; neither do software developers have to work from scratch.

There is no need to study a completely different technology platform because Sync is compatible with familiar smartphone systems, like Apple iOS, Android, and BlackBerry OS.

To establish the communication between the app and the vehicle, certain modules simply need to be added into codes.

That gives Ford huge creative manpower at hand. The company has recently formed partnerships with Baidu and with China's major telecommunication operator Unicom, both of which have large and active developer communities attached to them.

Another pioneer of opening up the dashboard, General Motors, is taking a more aggressive approach.

Having found ways to allow apps to be directly downloaded into their cars, the company is trying to cultivate developer support for its own proprietary platform. This plan for deeper integration with vehicle data could yield fewer but more intimate partnerships.

"It's not just taking phone apps and making them function in a car, which most car companies do in some form now," Phil Abram, chief infotainment officer of GM, said earlier this year when announcing the compnay's own developer program.

"Instead, GM may approve applications that stem from vehicle ownership. For example, customers can choose to download applications that assist them in driving more safely or in a more fuel efficient manner, possibly decreasing the costs of vehicle ownership," he said. Links and apps create platform warfare

A platform war, similar to the one between Android and iOS, is underway. GM is aspiring to build an in-car app store, just like Apple. Ford chooses to play it safe with its AppLink Catalog program, which organizes and lists all the Sync-enabled apps and automatically directs customers to app stores for downloading their choices.

If one drives a Ford car that can run his favorite apps, is there any chance that he would switch to a GM model that provides a new set of infotainment choices?

Without the convergence of platforms, which is not even likely to happen in the mobile app world after all these years of seesaw battles, the level and quality of content creation for each upgradable in-vehicle infotainment system will undoubtedly become a key differentiator for after-sales services. That will affect customer relations profoundly.

This competition may appear to be even more complex than it sounds. Some carmakers have formed an alliance for software development, and some IT companies have gotten involved in the game, as players rather than facilitators.

There is an initiative called MirrorLink, which is supported by 94 members of the Car Connectivity Consortium, a group that holds around 70 percent of the global market in vehicle sales and 60 percent of the market in smartphones.

As the name implies, it is a technology standard for "reflecting" the smartphone screen on the car's dashboard display, making it a new interface for playing mobile apps in a vehicle cabin. Mainstream smartphone brands like HTC, LG, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are all in on it, which means the infotainment system can source its content from the huge developer platforms of Symbian, Windows and Android.

Apple, however, chooses to fight alone. It is aiming to fully integrate cars with its own system. Starting from next year, the iOS-in-the-Car program, announced last month, will enable the in-vehicle system to perform an Apple device's functionalities, such as phone calls, maps, directions, and iMessages.

The system is all controlled by using Apple's Siri Eyes Free voice command solutions or the car's built-in display and controls. The company may even start supplying in-vehicle infotainment system hardware. It has already developed and patented one.

The question remains: Will carmakers feel comfortable about taking a back seat and letting IT companies lead the connected-driving experience?

Most members of the MirrorLink union seem almost absent-minded in promoting this standard, and some, like General Motors and Ford, already have other plans. Among the 12 carmakers supportive of the iOS-in-the-Car program, half are Japanese and Korean automakers that haven't invested much in developing their own infotainment solutions.

BMW, which has been working closely with Apple for product integration with its own iDrive system, chooses to stay out of deeper partnerships. As a spokesman of BMW once explained to media, changing all the architecture of a car to embrace a new system is not as "straightforward" as implied. Driver diversion looms as gadgetry risk

Or perhaps, the German automaker is just as worried as rivals about losing control over which apps can be allowed in a car. A liability dispute over driver distractions is the last thing they want to see come along with the fancy infotainment features. If the car's screen becomes a dumb terminal of phones, as Mirrorlink supports, who knows if drivers will start to play games and watch videos when they feel bored at the wheel.

As carmakers are eager to point out, the principle of providing a connected driving experience is to make sure the driver keeps his eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, and they want to control that experience tightly.

Both Ford and GM hold the final say for the launch of apps for their cars after developers submit their work for testing. The requirements include a "no visually intensive" content rule that prohibits apps involving videos and games, or long texts and photos.

Ford suggests developers ask themselves: Do voice commands make sense? Are actions mapped to the right buttons?

But when it comes to the infrastructure that supports these interactions, Ford also needs to ask itself some questions. Is the voice recognition system smart enough? Are there enough physical buttons to complement the touch screen?

Currently, Sync is only capable of understanding command words, and it is still trying to fine-tune its "hearing" of China's complex dialects. It has identified 12 regions for Mandarin accents. Looking on the bright side, Sync with its Applink technology can leverage the off-board voice recognition system that provides much more powerful computing capabilities through cloud services.

It is not only the technology immaturity of voice recognition that may sometimes disappoint drivers looking for a smooth infotainment experience. Ford has received quite a few complaints about its touchscreen being confusing and cluttered, and recently decided to add back some physical buttons for the user interface.

The new inventions for infotainment are a double-edged sword.

In North America, the Sync system has become one of the top selling points for Ford cars, but imperfections have dragged down the automaker's reputation for quality , according to the authoritative J.D. Power ranking. The balance is very hard to find. The auto industry needs to keep in mind a simple fact - it is innovating for consumers, not for technology's own sake.




 

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