Honda puts its head in the cloud

By  Mike Bantick
HondaLink joins other - mostly German – vehicle manufacturer’s attempts at bringing the online world into our cars.  Social media, cloud based services and other applications streaming directly to the infotainment system.

Beginning in the 2013 Honda Accord, HondaLink will deliver a range of infotainment features that will appeal to many of today’s smartphone wielding brigade.

Combining the app driven smartphone way of life with a modern in-car infotainment system is all part of the service.  "Honda's strategy is about leveraging the cloud to bring a wealth of new information and services to Honda owners," said Charles Koch, American Honda manager of new business development. "This is the next evolution of the connected car and the connected customer."

In the US purchases of cars with HondaLink can expect a wealth of content available when they connect their iOS or Android based device.  "HondaLink will enable customers to put away their phone and still stay connected to the people, music and media they love," said Vicki Poponi, assistant vice president of product planning for American Honda. "By creating an intuitive and customizable user interface, HondaLink allows drivers to access digital content as easily as choosing a radio station."

Connecting the smartphone app to HondaLink enables content to be streamed, through the infotainment system of the vehicle.  You can enjoy digital content seamlessly from the device as well as streamed via the cloud, picking up from where you left off before the drive started, and book-marking the content when getting out of the car. 

The Aha Radio service, which is part of the HondaLink package, is somewhat of a misnomer, providing more than radio as we commonly know it today.  The service includes access to favourite podcasts, internet radio, on-demand music, personalized traffic reports, restaurant recommendations, and audio updates from Facebook and Twitter.

But what of Australian consumers, diddled as we are by expensive data download plans (compared to most other similarly set up countries) as well as coverage issues inherent with a geography versus population mismatch as big as our horizon, how will HondaLink work locally?

Well don’t you worry about that, at this point in time Honda has no plans for HondaLink to be installed in cars shipped to and sold in Australia.  "HondaLink is a system set up by American Honda for customers in the United States,” company spokesperson Lindsay Smalley said “It is another great example of how Honda is taking a lead in investing in new technology. If there was such a system designed for Australia, we would definitely consider it."

Source;
http://www.itwire.com/science-news/automotive/56054-honda-puts-its-head-in-the-cloud

Apple’s Hiring Automotive Engineers, Is An ‘iCar’ Infotainment System Coming?

By Matt Hardigree

Apple is once again proving they're still the company Steve Jobs built. After years of saying "meh" to working with automakers on tighter integration of Apple products into automotive infotainment systems, there's evidence Apple is now hiring people to build a system for them that'll work with all their devices.

The in-car infotainment marketplace is primarily split between people who already have existing deals with Microsoft to use their Windows CE-based Windows Embedded Automotive 7 system (Ford SYNC, Kia UVO, Toyota Entune) and those that don't (GM and the Volkswagen Audi Group, to name just a couple).

Volkswagen's top executives did meet with Steve Jobs in 2007 to discuss ways the company could work together, but nothing has been publicly announced other than Apple products showing up in VW concept cars.

Given Microsoft's almost full-decade jump on Apple in the space it's not hard to believe somewhere deep in Cupertino there's been a group developing their own car audio integration solution for automakers or customers (the idea of Apple building its own car, however, is ludicrous... at least at this point).

But, a hint that Apple might be in the process of actually trying to build a version of whatever concept they might have developed comes via China Car Times, who noticed a head-hunter posting in the automotive section of LinkedIn in China.

The representative of Allegis-BN says Apple China is looking for someone who can fill the role of a Supplier Quality Engineer/New Product Integration supervisor with experience in CNC/die casting/stamping/plastic injection who knows Chinese manufacturing.

That could mean they're looking for the kind of person you'd need if you were trying to manufacture a device to fit into a car dashboard — or that the type of person who knows his way around a CNC machine in automotive applications could translate that skill to other non-automotive uses. This could even just be the consumer electronics juggernaut of cool trying to build a prototype of a previously-developed concept.

This is nowhere near definitive proof that Apple is entering the space, but it's certainly a big clue that they might be. And, since Apple is famously tight-lipped when it comes to discussion of future product until it's being boxed up and shipped out it's not like we're going to get official confirmation. For the moment we'll have to rely on rumors and clues like this one to determine the reality of an Apple in-car automotive infotainment system.

Well, unless someone in China ends up leaving a plastic-injected or CNC-cut prototype center console in a bar. And if they do, let me be the first to say we know what to do when that happens.

Source;
http://jalopnik.com/5889578/apples-hiring-automotive-engineers-is-an-icar-infotainment-system-coming