Why Automakers Should Stop the Infotainment Arms Race 317
New submitter SomewhatRandom writes "Dailytech recently published an article titled 'Detroit Automakers Vie For App Devs Amid Infotainment Arms Race.' Unfortunately for auto manufacturers, they are in a poor position to complete with companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc... and they should give up the arms race and take a different direction. Mobile operating systems and their associated hardware have a rapid release cycle that significantly outpaces vehicle infotainment systems. Additionally, mobile OSs are developed by specialized companies that can spend dump trucks filled with money on their platform. I'm sorry Dodge, Toyota, Honda and all your friends; you simply can't compete."
SomewhatRandom continues,"The in-house infotainment systems being brought to market by the automotive industry typically try to replicate a limited subset of features provided by a mobile operating system (ex: Android, iOS), while implementing a clunky interface that feels like a blast from the past. Replicating features that already exist in a consumer's device with a clunky interface does not offer any value to the end consumer.
Automakers should stop throwing money at developing a 'doomed to fail' in-house infotainment solution, and start catering to the consumer by developing a system that allows the consumer's mobile device of choice to control in-vehicle assets (speakers, in-dash touchscreen, noise-canceling microphone) directly.
Consumers would prefer to see a standards-based system that allows the interface of their existing mobile OS of choice duplicated or extended on an in-dash touchscreen, while having audio redirected from their device to the vehicle's speakers. Start focusing on technologies like Miracast and Bluetooth and how they can be used to augment a customer's mobile device, rather than replace it. Manufacturers that choose to adopt this focus not only provide better value to the end consumer, but also be able to reduce the size of their development budgets. Win-Win.
What are your thoughts? Am I crazy, or does it seem like the automotive industry has lost sight of what will best serve the consumer?"
Re:AppRadio (Score:5, Interesting)
Pioneer AppRadio looks ideal - basically mirrors your phone's screen on it's 7" display. You need to do a bit of hacking to unlock the full potential, but the basic idea is brilliant.
The only real down-side is that the FM radio side sucks. If you mainly listen to playlists on your phone though it isn't a big issue.
I really don't want to be using a touch-screen interface while driving at all. If I want to change radio station/volume/whatever I want nice tactile buttons that I can feel without taking my eyes off the road, touch screen systems in cars are a disaster.
I agree. My car has some simple radio controls duplicated on a stalk, up-down channel, volume and mute. I can use these without looking, which is great,
Car companies innovate very poorly. (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Electric motors have maximum torque at zero rpm
2. IC engines have peak torque at some 3000 rpm
But till Tesla came out with a car using electric motors to beat the big "performance" car makers BMW, Porche, Jaguar and Benz, they kept messing with making the IC engines more and more powerful, with more and more complicated transmissions, in their acceleration pissing contest called 0 to 60 time. They have seen diesel - electric locomotives completely dispensing with transmissions, and using pure electric motors to produce oodles of torque needed to get a a mile long freight train moving. They should have added a small 10 or 20 HP electric motor to their high end cars, to go from 0mph to 5 or 7 mph in 0.5 sec and go fro 7 to 60 in 2 sec flat with their enormous 8 cyl, 12 cyl engines producing 300 to 500 HP. They could have done it 25 or 30 years ago. The technology needed to do it existed then. I am not talking about super efficient hybrid or regenerative braking or any such thing. I am talking about the pissing contest all these car companies took to heart and fought hard, and where there was big prize money awaiting the winner. Still not a single one of them thought of using a small electric motor to supplement their IC engines. But no, they were set in their ways till they were forced it eat the dust of Tesla with a liberal helping of crow.
When it comes to electronics, they think they will make big profits here by the "walled garden" approach. All companies pack their GPS in bundles and try to charge 500$ to 1900$ to get the GPS. Then they want 100 to 200$ to upgrade the maps. Hello! Google maps and spoken driving directions are free. They think they are going to make money of these things?
It is not just the auto makers who lack imagination and innovation. The whole industry reeks of anti-competitive behavior and following the rut. The dealers are lobbying to prevent Tesla from selling the cars directly to the customers.
RAM 1500 'Infotainment' system (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Replaceable computer (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry but that still don't work. If I look at my car I would see that it was released the year the first WiFi standard was ratified, it would be running DirectX 5, the USB 1.0 spec would have just come out, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group wouldn't have been created for another 2 years let alone actually made a usable interface for anything other than a mobile phone accessory, real media was the cutting edge of music formats, the monitor would have been a 640x480 CRT, and it would potentially have come with a ZIP drive.
I think you are underestimating just how quickly a standard interface can be replaced in our rapidly changing world of technology.
- No bluetooth device released even 2 years after my car was would handshake properly with any modern equipment (standard not to be ratified for another 5 years), but if it did it would be woefully slow maxing out at a top speed under ideal conditions which would take more than 30 seconds to transfer a typical MP3, and no one ever saw that speed in practice.
- If my car had WiFi it would not be able to connect to any modern encrypted wifi network as lack of encryption is not backwards compatible.
- And if it had USB what device should it emulate? It would be another 8 years before USB hosts would seamlessly support all mass storage devices in a standard way.
My car is 15 years old and showing no signs of dying or being replaced. Yet any technology in the entertainment systems which existed back then simply would not work any more even using completely open standards. I don't know what the computer world holds for us in 10-15 years, but I don't think anything I currently have would be compatible with it, and this is not even taking into account that the car industry is about 5 years behind in technology development.
Re:AppRadio (Score:4, Interesting)
Take a look at what the "local maniac" did to install an iPad mini in the dashboard of his truck: http://hackaday.com/2013/01/02/a-very-dash-ing-ipad-mini/ [hackaday.com]
Of course, not every stereo installer is going to custom sculpt a trim ring for each stereo they install. But when they do, the results can be impressive.