Connected infotainment will be dominated by connected
navigation, with global shipments reaching 27 million by 2016. Widespread
interest in multimedia streaming, social media integration, and in-car Wi-Fi is
still unproven.

Automotive connected infotainment systems are being
driven by a number of factors. The emergence of smartphones and applications
and their integration into the vehicle environment, decreasing hardware and
connectivity costs, consumer interest and increasing awareness, fast
development of cloud-based and web-based services, and consumers’ drive to
extend their ‘connected lifestyle’ into the car environment are all key
contributors to the push for connected infotainment.

These infotainment systems are being implemented by many
car OEMs, with the two most innovative being social networking integration and
radio streaming,” said Dominique Bonte, group director, telematics and
navigation.  

Social networking integration would allow users to access
applications like Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, among others. Facebook users,
for example, would be able to listen to status updates and enter new updates
via speech recognition through their vehicle.

Social media integration however, is controversial as it
has the highest risk of creating driver distraction and conservative car OEMs
are concerned about launching such functionality.

There is no way of stopping connected infotainment from
finally conquering the car. One way or another, users will access entertainment
and information while driving. While connected PNDs, smartphones, and tablets
are already being adopted, the main challenge for the automotive industry is
either allowing safe integration of portable infotainment devices, in various
flavors of more or less integration, or preferably, provide embedded
infotainment solutions maintaining control over quality, safety, branding, and
business models,” Bonte, added.

By Telecomlead.com Team

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