In Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) – The Next Great Innovation In Automobiles?

By: | December 6th, 2014

Infotainment

Infotainment (Image Courtesy www.openers.co.jp)

Humans get attached to the things they use frequently, as our new love affair with smartphones attests. But a new form of entertainment, automobile “infotainment”, promises to provide a new form of technology obsession. Services will include: SMS Messaging, HFP & GSM, digital phone book, 3G+ Internet access, audio streaming, PIM, WiFi, Dun-Pan, and more.

Navigation, Connectivity & Remote Services

In fact, the automobile industry believes there is and will be a disconnect between consumer handheld devices and automobile IVIs including: differing lifespans, the speed of adding new features and the ways humans can best interactive with an IVI.

Automobile manufacturers are interested in having a connected car but they want control over the interface to provide the quickest and easiest way to update software and programming while providing the highest level of security.

Transition From Analog To Digital Automobile Systems

Over the past two decades vehicle analog audio systems have been replaced by digital systems. Broadcast content continues to flow as before, but there is a new universe of content available including interactive multimedia internet-based information content.

Industry Alliance In Place To Promote An Open Source Platform

A nonprofit industry alliance, GENIVI, is committed to adopting an In Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) open source development platform, setting requirements and implementation standards and providing certification programs. GENIVI seeks to provide entertainment and information features and functionality so that infotainment applications for music, news, navigation, location services, telephony and internet services will be universally available.

GENIVI consists of Linux-based core services, middleware, and an open layer interfaces that developers can use to create compliant applications. Selection of the open-source platform was made to speed up time to market, accelerate innovation, reduce development costs, and set the groundwork for a vibrant ecosystem of valuable apps.

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David Russell Schilling

David enjoys writing about high technology and its potential to make life better for all who inhabit planet earth.

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