I can’t figure out who is inside the wagons, or the inner circle. Is it the OEMs or the customers? In the car business the OEMs often leverage the customers into buying bundles of features they might otherwise not want, whereas CE buyers pick and choose more. When these things really open up I’m not sure the OEMs will be prepared for that complex feature assortment, or will finally settle on just a few that “just work”.
“The results showed that Chief Executive Officer John Chen is moving the company closer to his goal of doubling yearly software revenue to $500 million by March 2016. Software revenue soared 153 percent to $137 million last quarter. Still, the company has a long way to go before businesses like security-focused software make up for the slump in smartphone sales. BlackBerry, which sold just 1.1 million devices last quarter, has partnered with manufacturers to cut costs and try to turn the shrinking handset unit back to profit.”
Looks like BB is doing what they said they would, improve performance through software. With such a strong legacy in security tech and reliability, their software is a great fit for not only infotainment systems in cars, but safety systems that improve driving. This is the growth area for software and BB may be the one to capture a large share.
“Jaguar’s new flagship XJ is the second vehicle in the Jaguar family, following the XF, to pack in the latest InControl Touch Pro infotainment technology, powered by HERE.
As the first brand to fully incorporate HERE Auto, Jaguar is leading the way with the most advanced guidance system on the market – taking full advantage of being deeply embedded within vehicles and offering a mobile and web companion application for when drivers step out of their cars.”
Many would think Google Maps would overtake the embedded navigation by now, but this collaboration shows there is still a lot of innovation options. I like the deep personalization and “Approach Mode” with parking integration. This system delivers a great experience and uses Linux as its OS and blends Open Source with commercial code elegantly.
Uber is getting serious about maps, and it has poached the former head of Google Maps to lead the charge. Brian McClendon, a Google engineering VP and 10-year company veteran, will be overseeing Ub…
Google Maps + Uber = Autonomous taxi service? In Uber’s case I wonder where the savings will be, perhaps their drivers are the largest cost in their service. If you did not have drivers though, Uber will have to own the self-driving cars. See labor analysis: http://time.com/money/3678389/uber-drivers-wages/. The real money is in the high resolution maps that all the geo mapping servers want. Uber drivers could help build and maintain that database with their cars I suppose.
Jaguar Land Rover aims to have all its new vehicles connected by the end of this year and has spent millions to acheive this. Mike Bell, who was appointed global connected car director in 2012, told Automotive News Europe why this is so important to the carmaker.
(Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp said it reached an agreement with Ford Motor to explore collaboration for the implementation of Ford’s SmartDeviceLink (SDL) technology in future Toyota and Lexus vehicles. SDL is an open source platform that integrates smartphones apps with vehicles through dashboard buttons, display screens and voice recognition technology.
This update includes comments from both Ford and Toyota. If these companies can collaborate on the smartphone topic and further develop a solution, the majority of cars could have the same technology.
“Getting cross-department cooperation is critical.” Functional Safety at Jaguar Land Rover by Roger Rivett – Roger Rivett works as Functional Safety Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover, UK and is a long-time member of the International ISO 26262 Committee. During this year’s 5th International
It is not a trivial task to move up to functional safety (ISO262) as IVI developers will soon learn. It affects the entire organization including the OEM supply chain. This process is now being accelerated as OEMs are being compelled to demand ASIL A-D certification, not on the components of a system only, but the entire product. An ADAS rich vehicle that cooperates internally between the systems become a very complex and expensive platform if not pre-integrated to some extend. Departments inside and outside the carmaker need to cooperate, this is also known as the COMMUNITY. Borrowing methodologies from Open Source will help greatly here.
You might have missed a quiet announcement of great significance last week: Toyota would be joining Ford in supporting SmartDeviceLink (SDL). IMHO, that’s great news for the industry. I’m a huge fan of SDL because I think it solves the problems of mobile to car connectivity in the right way.Here’s a look at the current field for connecting cars to phones: Apple CarPlay. Lets you get iOS apps into the car head-unit, following the look and feel guidelines set by Apple, and works only on Apple devi
The auto smartphone integration issues are now down to 3: Apple, Google, and Ford’s SDL. SDL is really the open version of Ford’s AppLink, and as a hosted project on GENIVI there is some work to be done to give the fit and finish for each car and brand. That’s good news because customization is what the industry wants, and brand identity that goes with it.
Unless you live a very isolated, disconnected existence, you’re probably leaving quite the trail for Google. Are you ready to leave more of a trail about how you stay connected in your car? Of course we already do drive around with GPS-tagging, server-connecting smartphones in our vehicles.
Vehicle data storage and sharing is already an issue – before Google started mining your car. Try Bluetooth on your next rental car and see your private contacts be uploaded to the car and left there! This will only get worse, and Google’s Android Auto does not really care – all phones used in the car get treated equally open and shared. I wonder if Ford’s SDL has the same issues?
Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin doesn’t use the phrase ‘world domination’ in these videos, but he could. He lists enough computing niches where GNU/Linux is the major player — from supercomputers to the next generation of automotive systems — that with or without world domination, …
The shortage of available workers is a classic scenario when an economy is growing. This economy is the Linux economy, and growth into cars and other parts of IoT is driving the machine.
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