New Cars Offering Integrated Technology And WiFi Hotspots

Driven by both consumer expectations and visions of new streams of revenue, auto makers and major players in the smartphone and apps industries have been working to remove many of the prior obstacles to allow for greater integration of vehicle displays and output from apps.

A wave of new car models are now appearing in showrooms, featuring dashboard electronics that have been designed to make it much easier to access smartphone apps to provide drivers with real-time traffic maps, parking access and weather reports.  Thilo Koslowski, a Gartner Inc. analyst who follows in-car technology said, “This year is a tipping point.  There has been a lot of talk about apps in cars, but from 2014 forward, the revolution really happens.”

Technology-savvy drivers will certainly rejoice at this announcement, with more and more people being interested in increased integration over the past couple of years.

Many automobile companies are choosing to include integrated technology in their new models.  General Motors Co. is incorporating Pandora, the music streaming app, into the dashboards of the majority of Chevrolets, Buicks and Cadillacs.  Honda Motor Co. includes Aha Radio in its automobiles.  The 2014 Mercedes-Benz cars can access radio broadcasts from all around the world via the driver’s smartphone by using the TuneIn radio app that is built right into the dashboard.

GM and Audi have announced their plans to roll out models in 2015 that will include their own 4G high-speed Internet connection, eliminating the need for a smartphone entirely.

Car makers realize that electronics and communications features are now extremely important to many consumers, especially young customers and first time car buyers, who often consider these features to be as important or more important than horsepower or handling.  “This is a big transition in the industry in the digital context”, explained Mathias Haller, Audi’s chief architect of infotainment systems.

For the past few years, many new cars have included technology to allow drivers to make hands-free phone calls, but many consumers found these interfaces to be difficult and distracting to use.  However, this appears to be changing.  At the New York International Auto Show last month, Mercedes-Benz demonstrated their new infotainment system, CarPlay, which utilizes Apple’s iOS extension for automobiles, thereby having the very familiar and easy-to-use interface that people are accustomed to using on their iPhone.  Mercedes’ director of connected infotainment, Kal Mos, explained the impetus behind this decision, saying that, “If the driver has less to learn, then it makes it more safe.”

While mobile technology providers and car makers may have concerns about working together, they both have a lot to gain if consumers become accustomed to expecting these new tools in their automobiles.  “It is an absolute arms race to put [smartphone technology] into every car,” explained Kanwalinder Singh, vice president of business development at Qualcomm Inc., a company that makes computer chips that are essential components of smartphones and are found in many new cars.

The expectations for integrated entertainment and information technology in cars appears to be massive.  Bryan Trussel, the founder of Glympse, which makes an app that lets people track the location of people they are meeting, says that, “Everything that has been showing up in smartphones is going to show up in cars.”