There’s more news that came out from TU-Detroit Automotive after yesterday’s roundup. There were trends in the presentations and many new industry announcements from Nissan, TomTom, Texas Instruments, NNG, OpenCar Inc., Nuance, HortonWorks, HARMAN and Ficonic.
Connected Car Presentation News
There were some interesting trends and information during presentation including:
- Telematics needs a new name – TU-Detroit used to be called Telematics Detroit. Presenters noted that the word telematics is confusing to customers and doesn’t relate to them.
- Data should be part of a plan – Analysts found that customers prefer to pay for data as part of their existing wireless plans.
- Self-Driving cars may cause need for more driving tests – one analyst suggested that if self-driving cars and car-sharing services become ubiquitous, drivers may need more training and there will be a need for drivers to prove they maintained their driving skills.
- Demand for cars great – even with all the shifts in mobility services, the demand for cars has never been greater.
- New Nissan Connect Pricing Plans – Nissan Connect will start off with a free six- month trial and three levels of pricing for different services.
TomTom Presentations and Announcements
Along with presenting a seminar on real-time maps, TomTom announced the availability of Highly Automated Driving (HAD) map content in the metro Detroit area for precise vehicle positioning, enabling future self-driving cars to see beyond their sensors.
At CES 2015, the Audi A7 auto-piloted driving concept ‘Jack’, used TomTom HAD prototype maps successfully to cover 560 miles from San Francisco to Las Vegas.
ToTom now offers a NDS (Navigation Data Standard) powered navigation portal “MyDrive” giving users access to fresher maps, trip planing in advance, Traffic road and manage favorites. TomTom reports it is another important milestone to implement real-time maps for highly automated driving cars in the future.
TomTom now offers cloud-based components to sync in-dash navigation systems to smartphones, tablets, wearables and laptops.
OpenCar Opens to Nuance – OpenCar Framework Ready
OpenCar Inc. announced that the OpenCar Connect framework now supports Nuance’s Dragon Drive Link technology to smartphones for data connectivity, personalization and supplemental processing.
OpenCar also announced that its OpenCar Connect application framework is now ready for deployment into all global markets.
The OpenCar Connect framework enables the creation, validation, distribution and maintenance of high-performance infotainment, telematics and IoT applications for connected cars.
OpenCar supports iHeart Radio, Dash Radio, NPR and OPIS (Gas Buddy). New partners were announced at TU-Detroit. We have contacted their PR rep to find out the new partners.
Hortonworks Data & HARMAN
Hortonworks and HARMAN announced a partnership to enable real-time, Internet of Things (IoT) data, insights and prognostics solutions. HDP processes the sensor data from the connected car – collecting it, storing it and analyzing it – from real-time alerts on driver behavior, road safety or the need for maintenance and repairs.
Ficonic MirrorLink Client/Server
Ficonic Solutions offers its MirrorLink client and server software for its customers with a renewed licensing model. The new model combined with Ficonic team’s MirrorLink expertise helps head unit and smartphone manufacturers to deploy MirrorLink quickly and with high cost efficiency.
Ficonic Solutions is a Finnish software company developing innovative solutions for Connected Car and a member of the Car Connectivity Consortium.
TI InfoADAS SDK for DRA7XX Family
Texas Instruments (TI) announced the availability of its new informational advanced driver assistance systems (InfoADAS) software development kit (SDK). The new SDK delivers an automotive-ready InfoADAS framework for integrating ADAS algorithms into existing in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems.
InfoADAS adds non-active safety information content such as surround view, pedestrian and lane detection and more to traditional IVI features to enhance the driving experience. The DRA7xx family of processors provides a hardware- and software-compatible platform capable to augment existing infotainment products with informational ADAS features.
NNG NavFusion and iNAGO
NNG announced the NavFusion Platform. The NavFusion Platform integrates in-car infotainment, smartphones, and connectivity to create a user-focused and OEM-controlled platform.The platform combines static and dynamic connected content, navigation, ADAS, in-car map updates, personalized infotainment, predictive maintenance, and more.
NNG and iNAGO introduced the NNG Assistant, an intelligent, conversational assistant powered by iNAGO’s netpeople platform and integrated with NNG’s NavFusion Platform. Drivers can converse with NNG Assistant in everyday natural language.