Automotive electronics and GPS: get ready for an over-haul

Automotive electronics and “gadgetry” usually fall into three categories: audio/video entertainment units, communication centers, and GPS information systems. The navigation systems are becoming more popular, with almost all automakers having them available as options. However, devices in all three categories still lack user-friendliness for the average user and car-buyer. Although the car electronics (from here: car info-tainment) industry is getting better as a whole, it is still lagging on two major fronts:

• Ease-of-use of the interface, and
• Integration of the user’s devices in the car

Currently, different car brands use different interfaces to control the info-tainment units in their cars. These electronics range from radios, CD and DVD players, auxiliary input devices like iPods and other MP3 players, to GPS and voice-recognition systems. It takes time for drivers (as well as their passengers) to learn and get accustomed to these info-tainment systems. For example: Mercedes-Benz uses a completely different – hard-button solution to interface with its GPS and audio systems than does Lexus, which tries to eliminate hard-button clutter and use a touch-screen instead. The point is, however, that it is challenging – even for someone like myself (who lives and breathes tech) to use the current implementations of GPS interfaces. In the next few years, I believe that automobile manufacturers will need to rethink how users interact with their in-car entertainment and information electronics and completely re-invent the wheel. Why? For starters, the automobile info-tainment market is still in its infancy. To better understand this, let’s look at the the current desktop and notebook computer market – a market that is similar to the info-tainment market in that it too requires an integration of software and hardware, aiming to create a better, easy to use, and stable user experience.

Currently, there are only three major software operating systems for the personal computer market: Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. All three environments share some similarities, but are different in their implementation and the rhetoric used to create them. In the end of the day, however, the user will be familiar in using at least one of those three personal computer operating systems. Let’s now compare this to the number of different info-tainment systems in the auto world and it becomes strikingly obvious why user satisfaction is not at its highest in this department: every automaker has a version of their own info-tainment system. Here’s the count (for simplicity, I will name the parent company of each automaker and we will assume that the subsidiaries use a version that’s the same or similar to the one used by the parent):

-VW (Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat)

-Toyota (Lexus, Scion)

-Honda (Acura)

-Nissan (Infiniti)

-Mercedes-Benz

-BMW (Mini, Rolls-Royce)

-GM (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Holden)

-Ford (Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo)

-Chrysler (Jeep, Dodge)

-Subaru

-Hyundai (Kia)

That’s eleven companies, not counting the various subsidiaries, that manufacture completely different info tainment units in their cars! Eleven! That’s at least eleven different GPS interfaces, audio and video head unit interfaces, communication configurations, and rear-seat entertainment systems that users will possibly have to learn how to use in their lifetime! Compare that to the much-smaller three operating systems that users will possibly use and the problem automobile manufacturers face is obvious: the more technologically-equipped a vehicle becomes, the greater the brand “switching” cost for the user. The user will need re-learn to use some if not all of the following if he or she decides to switch vehicle brands:

• Head unit (radio, music controls)
• Navigation system
• Voice commands

Add on top of these learning costs the fact that most of these systems are very user-unfriendly and designed with the least amount of ease-of-use in mind (read: they are designed by engineers, not user-interface experts) and the info-tainment industry becomes a spot in the automotive landscape that’s desperately in need to innovation. But that’s enough and I will get off the soap box: now that I’ve identified the problem, I will explain what I think must be done to fix it.

All manufacturers need to adopt a unified electronic devices communication center. Such a center will handle all the external (3rd party) devices the user brings into the car: cellular phones, media players, usb sticks with music files, etc. Thus, this center will handle the car’s Bluetooth communications, central audio and video content, and integrate with the car’s navigation system (if, of course, one is installed). This system will use a unified set of voice commands to control the devices mentioned above, as well as provide voice access to the car’s standard utilities such as AC controls, overhead displays, and others.

So what will it take to develop such a “control center?” It already exists! And it’s called SYNC , and it’s by Microsoft. This is Microsoft’s first official push into the automobile territory.

Microsoft’s strategy is very appealing when one observes the different areas in which the company desires to be present: they already are on personal computers with Windows, on mobile phones with Windows Mobile, in the living room with their Media Center PCs, really in the game room with Xbox, on the web with Windows Live and their search properties (and the recent bid for Yahoo), in the data center (with Windows Server), and now – in the car – with SYNC! (Their world-domination strategy is looking pretty good right about now).

A little about SYNC and then some more on how it will need to be improved:

SYNC supports a variety of devices – from cell phones and personal media players to simple USB thumb drives and SD cards. It has an extensible architecture to support many brands of devices – not only those that run Microsoft software, and it is the best in-car communications and entertainment system for automobiles. It provides access to vehicle features in a hands-off (read: safe) fashion to the driver by using simple voice commands learned by the user. SYNC can even read text messages out loud and can interpret short-hand such as BRB, for “Be right back”. Here are some features of the SYNC system:

• Voice-activated hands-free calling: allows the user to voice-dial any contact in their address book simply by pressing a button on the steering wheel and pronouncing the name
• Uninterrupted connections: pushing a button on the steering wheel transfers the call from the handset to the car’s Bluetooth system, without having to redial
• Audible text messages: the system reads text messages out loud to the user (as above)
• Advanced calling features: the system displays the same information on the in-car dash/screen as the mobile phone, such as Caller ID, Call waiting, Conference calling, a caller log, a list of contacts, a signal strength icon, and a phone battery charge icon
• Voice-activated music: allows the user to browse through their iPod, Zune, or memory stick music collection by genre, album, artist, or song title only by saying “play – Cyclone”. (Where Cyclone is the song name)
• Simple voice recognition: the user does not need to learn scripted commands

Other features are listed on the Wikipedia page here.

The only problem is, it’s currently licensed only by Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. Microsoft recently announced that it is ready to move past Ford and license SYNC to more automakers. Now it’s time for these automakers to integrate SYNC into their vehicles (besides sitting down and inking the deal with Microsoft).

Why is SYNC so great? SYNC unifies in-car communications and entertainment for users. And with it making its way across different automakers’ dash boards, drivers will no longer need to learn new ways to set up bluetooth to work with their phones, learn new voice commands, or take their eyes off the road to read a text message, make a phone call, or play a song. However SYNC lacks one component that still needs to be unified across vehicle marques: the navigation system.

Currently, navigation systems, just like communication systems before SYNC, range in user-interface and “look and feel” from manufacturer to manufacturer. While some brands use this as a marketing advantage (BMW iDrive, anyone?), they are actually more of a disservice and inconvenience. How is a navigation unit a “benefit” and more superior to other brands when manufacturers offer 3-hour long classes to teach new users to use their “value-added” nav systems? (As a comparison, first-time iPhone users don’t need such instruction and the iPhone, on a “per device basis”, does much more than a “predefined-functionality” GPS unit.) The point is that when drivers switch car brands they should not have to re-learn how to use the navigation system. This goes back to the personal computer situation: chances are, the user will only use one of three computer systems in their life: Windows, Mac, or (big “if” here) Linux. But the user faces a much greater chance of using (and thus having to learn) a completely different user interface for the car brand’s navigation system – a choice of eleven different brands at the very least.

These systems – made by or subcontracted by the auto manufacturers are often not user-friendly. I have a GPS unit in my 2006 “entry-luxury” vehicle from Lexus and it’s very unintuitive. The iPhone’s Maps application and even stand-alone GPS units by Garmin or TomTom are much easier to use and learn. Microsoft’s SYNC currently has tie-ins to the manufacturer’s custom-built nav systems, but If Microsoft were to bundle a nav system package into SYNC, they would:

• Make it easier for drivers to switch brands and not be afraid of having to learn and entirely new navigation system interface
• Carry over the look and feel of the navigation system user interface from car brand to car brand, similar to the PC market, and thereby would
• Decrease the amount of “different” navigation operating systems in the market place
• Decrease car manufacturers’ development costs for navigation systems and would allow the manufacturers to do what they do best: make safe, fun, attractive vehicles and would allow Microsoft to do what it does best: software development and user-interface design and implementation
• Lower navigation system prices

The navigation interface that SYNC will provide will be a value-add that drivers will seek out and it will become a selling point on a vehicle. The basic system functionality and interface would carry over across different brands and Microsoft would move much faster than the auto makers in developing this system. After all, they are a software company at heart. This move into in-car nav systems won’t be a first for Microsoft: they already make a very good software package with Streets and Trips that can integrate with a GPS receiver unit.

P.S. A big factor in me writing this article is this “button-happy” interface (guess by who?)

(2008 Mercedes Benz E350 Luxury Sedan – Courtesy Mercedes Benz; artistic details: yours truly)

Now that I’ve covered navigation systems and in-vehicle device integration, I’d like to briefly mention rear-seat entertainment. Currently, rear-seat entertainment units consist of monitors attached to DVD players. The monitors can be fed content through other inputs – such as S-video, HDMI, and/or component/composit inputs. SYNC can’t really improve much in this area, but the SYNC system can offer one feature for the rear-seat occupants that I see is going to become the next best thing in cars since the automatic transmission and the airbag: in-car internet. In-car internet access can be configured from a technical standpoint in a few ways:

1. The vehicle can be sold with an in-car cellular data receiver (like a USB data card from major carriers). This card will provide access to the SYNC system, which will in-turn distribute this signal via Wi-Fi throughout the vehicle, giving passengers access. This is the most rudimentary way of providing internet access. The driver will pay monthly or yearly subscription fees, just as they do for cellular service today. Car manufacturers and cellular carriers can have a synergistic cross-promotional advertising affect here by offering promotions on certain brands of vehicles or certain carriers.
2. The driver’s cell phone, equipped with high-speed data service, will be the data receiver whose signal SYNC will distribute to the passengers via Wi-Fi, as in the above fashion.

In summary:

• Current differentiation in in-vehicle info-tainment systems is too much to handle and learn for the driver, making brand switching “costs” too high in terms of re-learning
• Microsoft’s SYNC is a very good approach to unify info-tainment in cars and should betaken further into in-vehicle navigation systems, unifying the user-interfaces of the systems and reducing vehicle “switching costs” while providing an overall better user experience and a faster, less expensive development cycle for manufacturers
• In-car internet is the next big thing

 

Posted in Automotive, Business, Decisions, Microsoft, Software