Manufactures of consumer’s electronics have been pushing the industry to develop a standard terminal practise which enables mobile applications to form an automotive infotainment portal. A recent consortium which includes famous cars brands GM, Honda and Volkswagen have coordinated with Panasonic and Sony system distributors to coordinate the Terminal Mode Standard which was which began its initial roll out earlier this year.
A global terminal standard allows a harmonious technological integration of the various components which will form the new ecosystem in the technological niche driving forward innovation for communications in the motoring sector. A single platform strategy for a user interface reduces the systems life cycle and allows consumers application upgrades without purchasing new hardware. This could mark a dramatic shift in the consumer’s consumption of digital technology which had previously required regular hardware upgrades.
The technology which can support mobile applications from both Apple and Android open architecture may see the emergence of Microsoft into the playing field the level of interest shown by the dominant players indicates trends towards a supplementary navigation system within the vehicle itself as consumers are able to mix infotainment and navigation in the applications storage device. Whilst this is large leap forward for traditional car entertainment systems there are already ambitious plans to integrate frequency communication and wireless charging too.
Honda’s unveiled its first terminal infotainment system in July this year which included a unique Honda application that allows users to access Facebook, Twitter, Restaurants and Radio in one simple device. The application immediately opens access to thousands of radio stations and music streams as it is bouncing off the digital platform running off the cloud system. Honda’s platform has a greater reliance on Microsoft’s App Link platform then manufactures using the standard windows operating system but upload speeds remain relatively unchanged
The integration of Smart Phone technology to cars will have dramatic effects to laws which regulate the use of mobile phones in motor vehicles and may improve driver safety if it prevents the use of handheld devices. However the technology has the potential to be disruptive if it is not built into an accessible interface location. Driving Offence Solicitors have yet to become involved in a negligent driving case caused by this technology and many motorists will be hoping applications that provide information on traffic accidents and speed cameras are easily available.
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