Even though third-generation services are not yet available on mobile phones, one Belgium-based company is betting that 3G telematics services will be just as big, if not bigger.
Acunia NV, Leuven, Belgium, crossed the Atlantic at the beginning of last year to set up a research and development office in Cambridge, Mass., and sales and management operations in Detroit, intent on implementing its telematics concept in North America. The company offers an open telematics framework, based on Java, that will allow original equipment manufacturers, automobile makers and wireless carriers to create and implement telematics applications, and update them on the fly.
For service and content providers, Acunia offers a service development kit. Providers can register and operate their services via the application programming interfaces that are part of the SDK, Acunia said.
The second layer of the open telematics framework includes the communications and control center portal. It is the link that connects the service providers and the platforms in the car, or the “technology code translator,” said Steven Buytaert, co-founder and co-chief executive officer of Acunia. The company said it has developed CCC gateway software that will enable communication, administrative and service functions.
The final piece consists of terminal components, or the Java-based hardware platform installed in the car. The platform has a range of communication devices that enable a combination of point-to-point, broadcast and short-range communication; a telematics chip set; a link in the car; a user interface, which could include a screen display, hardware buttons or voice recognition; and a Java virtual machine.
Buytaert said Acunia chose Java because of the intrinsic qualities of the platform. It is a widely known and used programming language, and can easily be manipulated by both the service provider and end user. Security also is built in to the software.
“We have put all our efforts and all our trust in the OEMs. They come from a long history and they know how hard it can be to be caught in a solution where there is no second supplier. They want to be sure that everything they buy is interoperable,” Buytaert said. “It must be as easy to supply a service as it is to use a service.”
The company debuted its open-architecture platform in October at Convergence 2000 in Detroit. Since that time, it has entered development partnerships with General Motors Europe, Webraska, GenRad Inc., the BMW Group, digital mapping provider Tele Atlas NV and, most recently, Oracle Corp. Buytaert said BMW plans to have Acunia’s platform aboard select 2003-model vehicles.
Acunia said it will not act as a portal or develop large quantities of hardware terminals, but instead license its technology to OEMs like Delphi Automotive Systems and Visteon Corp., network operators such as AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Vodafone Group plc, as well as auto makers.
Acunia was founded in 1996 as SmartMove. Because the company thought the prefix “smart” was too widely used, in December, the name was changed to Acunia, after the explorer who pushed into deep regions of the Amazon. The company employs about 120 people, with 18 employees in its Cambridge and Detroit locations.
