Open Standard Infotainment

Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association was quoted by Automotive News:

He said open standards — or common specifications for devices and software — would enable consumers to update their vehicles’ phone, navigation and music systems so that new devices could be installed regardless of the ages or makes of the vehicles.

Here’s a link to the article (subscription required).

This is exactly what I meant in this post on automotive life cycles. As the cost of new vehicles continue to increase, and environmental issues continue to become more prominent, it makes sense to refresh and update vehicles over much longer periods.

Another benefit of this interchangeability is the potential for portability as well. A simple example being iPods. If the media is digital and already contained on devices such as iPods as compared to CD players, then it’s easy to dock the device in the car. This is already being done with music players of course, but it will also involve other devices a

It won’t be long before your smart phone will enable you to start the car simply by having it in your pocket, play music on your car’s speakers, provide navigation, and alert emergency response crews in case of an accident.

The goal isn’t just to have access to a lot of infotainment devices in your car, it’s to have infotainment wherever you are. And to do that the standards need to be open.