Highlighting an evolving ecosystem in vehicle connectivity, Airbiquity Inc. has been chosen by Nissan Motor Co. as a provider for a global platform enabling smartphone integration in vehicles.
NissanConnect Apps service will allow vehicle users to access their smartphone applications via the vehicle controls — for example, being able to see apps on the vehicle’s head unit and use voice commands to have posts from Facebook or Twitter read aloud via text-to-speech, and to dictate responses that can then be posted. The service, which is being rolled out internationally, uses Airbiquity’s Choreo, a cloud-based, connected vehicle services platform.
Dave Jumpa, chief revenue officer for Airbiquity, said that the company’s platform looks realistically at what people are already doing in cars and helps them to do it more safely.
Nissan will be using Choreo for the NissanConnect Apps in 50 countries, with localization in 32 languages, Jumpa said — a considerable shift from the regional approach that has so far dominated vehicle connectivity, he added. Different services have been selected for vehicles from the same manufacturer in the U.S., China, Europe or Japan, and then an IT staff had to manage different gateways for all of the regions, according to Jumpa.
“An OEM is actually going with one platform, from one vendor, and going global with it for in-car connectivity. It’s frankly new,” he added.
The Choreo platform works by having users download an application that then allows them to use vehicle displays, switches and voice recognition to interact with their smartphone and popular apps once they have paired up with the vehicle via Bluetooth. Jumpa said that Airbiquity has a unique interface suited to a vehicle’s controls rather than a phone’s.
Airbiquity has been working with Nissan for several years now. The company enabled the Carwings system for the Nissan Leaf that let owners remotely check their car’s battery, find charging stations, get reminders and start charging their vehicles. The smartphone integration solution will be deployed starting with the 2014 Altima sedan in North America, with regional rollouts to follow and reach 50 countries by the end of 2014.
“Airbiquity’s Choreo platform is unique in its ability to enable automakers to create, deliver and manage their connected car experiences on a global scale without having to become smartphone app integration or content experts,” said Roger Lanctot, who is associate director of the global automotive practice at Strategy Analytics. “Given the strength of their platform and proven ability to work with OEMs, wireless carriers and Tier 1 suppliers, I expect Airbiquity to strengthen its market position and accelerate revenue growth as the connected car market rapidly expands.”
Airbiquity is one of Sprint’s partners for its Velocity connected vehicle platform initiative, and is also working with operators including Vodafone and China Unicom, as well as discussions with AT&T and Telefonica, Jumpa said.
“We’re looking at wireless carriers to enable them to be offering tier 1 bundling solutions versus being a pipe,” he continued.
He noted that automotive is the biggest market for machine-to-machine applications, and that the ecosystem has moved beyond simple safety and security and is moving toward leveraging big data to offer services in-vehicle. Jumpa said that data such as knowing whether a vehicle is a minivan or an SUV, the season and the car’s location — say, near mountain ski resorts — could lead to information and services being proffered such as which lifts are open and ski packages.
“Every OEM has [connected vehicles] on their radar, and rightly so,” Jumpa said. However, he added that that kind of connectivity is also more complicated than most M2M applications. And, he said, the industry evolution means the likelihood of hybrid models that rely on services and access both via smartphones — such as the app connectivity Nissan is offering — and embedded wireless M2M modules.
“The needs have grown past safety and security,” Jumpa said. “How do you use an LTE module or CDMA module and smartphone? How do you bring in and integrate entertainment, diagnostic, safety — whatever the app might be.”
