All posts by Joel Hoffmann

www.linkedin.com/in/joelhoffmann
R-Car News

ustwo | Auto Blog on Design

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With the ongoing integration of advanced computer systems into vehicles, the interfaces within are becoming ever-more complex. As the prime points of interaction between driver and car, these ‘human–machine interfaces’ (HMI) demand great care and attention from manufacturers, designers and engineers alike.

To that end, we have produced an eBook and 5-part blog where we look into this phenomenon of growing in-car HMI complexity. We explore our belief that an interface should match the evocative nature and elegance of an automobile’s exterior and interior design. We also outline our key thoughts on how, in partnership with manufacturers, we can bring an extra layer of care into the design of compelling experiences, in order to tame the beast that is in-car HMI.

As always, we welcome your feedback and views on this exciting subject. Please do contact us if you want to chat about any aspects of the eBook in further detail.

From all of us at ustwo, we hope you enjoy it.

Source: ustwo.com

Amazing what happens when design precedes engineering. ustwo came up with some remarkably effective and simple UX designs for the car, and they released them into the open source community.

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Range Rover remotely wheels its way towards autonomous driving | TU Automotive

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Jaguar Land Rover has revealed some of the prototype technologies that its UK research team are developing to deliver autonomous driving in the future. The Rover Sport research vehicle demonstrates how a driver could drive the vehicle from outside the car via their smartphone. A smartphone app includes control of steering, accelerator and brakes as well as changing from high and low gear ratios.

Source: analysis.tu-auto.com

4MPH parking aid does not count as autonomous driving in my opinion, but the multi-point ‘spin the car” feature might be handy in my driveway. I can see the Open Source RVI project that JLR is working on being a key part of the link to a smartphone and the vehicle controls.

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Daimler and Qualcomm to develop in-car tech, wireless charging

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Carmaker Daimler on Saturday announced a partnership with mobile technologies company Qualcomm Inc. to explore wireless recharging of mobile phones in cars as well as recharging of

Source: www.reuters.com

I rented a GMC Tahoe the other day, it had wireless charging. I have no idea for what device though, certainly not mine. The rubberized tray was a nice place to put my phone regardless.

After 5-6 tries hopefully this one will stick.

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Android Auto: The First Great In-Car Infotainment System

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Alex (ten minutes later, pork banh mi and root beer in hand): Take me to Ocean Beach. And that’s how Android Auto, Google’s infotainment interface that can be installed in just about any new car, led me to the western edge of San Francisco, where I ate my sandwich, drank my soda, and watched the waves. Today, Hyundai became the first automaker to put cars with Android Auto on dealer lots, starting with the 2015 Sonata sedan.

Source: www.automotiveitnews.org

A few more mainstream articles like this appealing to the actual car buyers may convince the industry that Android is a good thing, at least for now. Moving on from the expensive development process of inventing ones own wheel seems too wasteful for most consumers paying for the radio. Now about your iPhone? Yet another user experience.

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Scheduling Business meetings in Stuttgart, Germany for next week

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A very busy and productive week in Germany. Great turnout of those that care about Linux in the car. GENIVI released its GDP (demonstrator platform) and taught 71 people how to install the system on the new low cost Renesas R-Car Porter board.

Two good friends in the business, Matt Jones and Mike Nunnery
Two good friends in the business, Matt Jones and Mike Nunnery
Matt Jones replacing former PSA exec Philippe Giquel as GENIVI president
Matt Jones replacing former PSA exec Philippe Giquel as GENIVI president
GDP proves out middleware by exposing bugs and driving quality updates
GDP proves out middleware by exposing bugs and driving quality updates

Matt Jones of JLR was made president of the Alliance and now bridges the gap to aligning AGL since he is now on both boards, GENIVI and Linux Foundation. All are hoping for a smooth and faster ride around the sharp curves ahead. W3C launched its full scale Automotive Working Group and member ACCESS already build a prototype to validate the HTML5 automotive API. Running on the Renesas Lager-H2 you can communicate from an embedded browser to the steering, accelerator and brakes.Logically this was a heavy conversation during the OA’15 Automotive Security sessions held at the same venue in Stuttgart. Home of Daimler, with several from the new GENIVI member around, we should expect to see news emerging into the open soon.

Oh and one more thing, they gave me an award.

GENIVI Presented its first Lifetime Achievement Award to Joel Hoffmann on April 2015

Hoffmann Group Consulting, LLC

I will be traveling from sunny Phoenix tomorrow to be fully prepared for a busy week circulating with about 400 members of the GENIVI Alliance along with some special guests.  The event returns to Germany where major automotive development and innovation occurs on a daily basis.  Home to recent member Daimler Corporation in Stuttgart, already a dozen delegates from Mercedes Benz will be participating. Of course all the typical european automakers (BMW, Jaguar Land-Rover, Volvo, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault) and their suppliers, plus many from other geographies (Ford, Nissan and Hyundai).

I’m looking forward to some private meetings with any of the members looking for marketing support and have time in my calendar on Sun 19-April, Mon 20-April, and at a few time slots through the rest of the week. Please reach out to me at JAHoffmann@mac.com and we will work out a time and date. Here’s my list of…

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Scheduling Business meetings in Stuttgart, Germany for next week

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I will be traveling from sunny Phoenix tomorrow to be fully prepared for a busy week circulating with about 400 members of the GENIVI Alliance along with some special guests.  The event returns to Germany where major automotive development and innovation occurs on a daily basis.  Home to recent member Daimler Corporation in Stuttgart, already a dozen delegates from Mercedes Benz will be participating. Of course all the typical european automakers (BMW, Jaguar Land-Rover, Volvo, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault) and their suppliers, plus many from other geographies (Ford, Nissan and Hyundai).

I’m looking forward to some private meetings with any of the members looking for marketing support and have time in my calendar on Sun 19-April, Mon 20-April, and at a few time slots through the rest of the week. Please reach out to me at JAHoffmann@mac.com and we will work out a time and date. Here’s my list of sessions recommended and part of my plan:

Screen Shot 2015-04-16 at 12.46.02 PM (2)

AGL, GENIVI, Renesas

Report from Open Automotive ’15 – Stuttgart

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Next week I will share updates from the GENIVI All-Member Meeting – please consider attending if you are interested in Automotive Linux and Open Source software development.

Over 300 people signed up so far to attend, many are not yet members of GENIVI. Please contact me if you are looking for a discount registration.

Presented by the GENIVI Alliance and Sponsored by Intel Corporation, OPEN Automotive ‘15 will explore, along with carmakers, leading suppliers, developers, automotive consortia and industry analysts, “Cyber Security – Protecting the Connected Vehicle.”

  • Discover how the relationship between cyber security and safety is having a dramatic impact on smart device integration, infotainment services, embedded solutions, privacy, interoperability, monitoring and collaboration among OEM’s, service providers, regulators and ultimately the consumers.
  • Moderated panels will discuss connected car vulnerability and the consequential critical need to address core cyber security issues well before the point of exponential attack growth along with the current initiatives that are being taken by automotive OEM’s and optional suppliers to keep our vehicles and passengers safe.
  • With more than 279 million connected vehicles projected to be on the roads by 2021, key industry stakeholders are exploring ways to better collaborate, set standards and define the future automotive architectures for keeping the connected vehicle as safe as possible . The OPEN Automotive ‘15 conference brings industry experts, key contributors and innovators together for a full day of education and knowledge transfer.

http://openautomotive.genivi.org/