Talking about how connected cars integrate into home smart devices

In 2014, the concept of “Internet of Things” will be more widely known. Everyday life is inseparable from the Internet, and more items are related to the Internet. Mobile phones and computers are the same, as are cars.

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Especially in the automotive industry, relevant technological advances can be said to be changing in recent years. Foreign media Techradar recently interviewed Benoit Joly, senior vice president of Technicolor, a well-known French multimedia and entertainment company, to discuss the topic of "Connected Cars" and discuss Google, Apple and Technicolor's own solutions for the automotive open source platform.

TechRadar: Why did Apple and Google only enter the automotive interconnect industry until now?

Benoit Joly: Unlike home electronics, cars are a much more complicated thing, and the core business of equipment manufacturers like Apple and Google is not a car, so it takes a long time to understand it.

Every industry has regulations, and each country has different regulations. For automotive interconnection, driving safety and information security are very important.

The members of the car can't be distracted by the excessive entertainment function when driving. To achieve this, technical companies and manufacturers need to make efforts. In addition, how to ensure the security of the information inside the car is not an important aspect. Information security and personal safety in the car are inseparable.

The cost of human and material investment in these areas is enormous, requiring new development teams and experts. In addition, on the big cake of car interconnection, it is obviously impossible for automakers to let IT vendors or technology companies eat alone. They need absolute control over the brand. Therefore, the first development cycle takes some time.

People are used to using smartphones and applications, and today it is the era of touch devices such as tablets. People use this type of equipment in large numbers at home or in the office, and in the future, cars will become a gathering place for connected devices. Now is a good time to develop connected cars.

TechRadar: With the emergence of many competitive products, will it start another "format war"?

Benoit Joly: Of course, large equipment suppliers want to be able to occupy a place in the automotive interconnect, thereby broadening their applications and services. Google recently announced the establishment of the Open Source Auto Alliance, which will push the Android system to the car, and Apple also released the "iOS in the car" strategy.

In fact, rather than competition between vendors, it is better to focus on how to make cars part of “connected families” or even “connected cities”.

TechRadar: So what advantages does Technicolor's solution have over other companies?

Benoit Joly: We are proposing a macro open source platform called Qeo, which includes but is not limited to automotive embedded software.

Qeo is a communications architecture that creates a common system and standard that integrates different brands of products. Qeo connects cars to cars, cars and equipment, and cars to cloud servers and even to users' home networks. This program has recently been adopted by Peugeot Citroen.

We are working closely with automakers to design solutions and related network protocols that seamlessly connect vehicles to equipment and homes. For example, when a guest visits your home, you can answer in the car. For example, if you want to retrieve a certain recorded video from the set-top box of your home digital TV, you can also do this in the car.

Let's assume a scenario. When you are driving home, you can turn on the air conditioner in your home through the Internet function, so that you will have a comfortable temperature environment when you arrive home.

TechRadar: Do you think it is important to convince consumers to adopt new technologies?

Benoit Joly: Today's smart devices contain technologies from several different companies, including Apple, Android, Microsoft, and more. So that users can not fully experience the value of the product, in other words, their cognition is one-sided.

The Internet of Things is essentially the integration of a large number of smart devices. Qeo is a macro open source communication architecture that enables interoperability between devices and applications. This means that the architecture does not need to rely on a specific Service Discovery Protocol. Developers don't have to worry about language incomprehensibility, environment, etc. when developing software. They only need to pay attention to the logic programming of the application.

Devices can be connected to each other via Bluetooth, WiFi, Zigbee wireless networks, and more. This is also the biggest advantage of the Qeo open source communication architecture: users can buy a new intelligent communication device without worrying about compatibility, but can buy it.

In addition, the configuration steps for new devices will be simplified and more easily integrated into the network.

TechRadar: When do you think connected cars can really become mainstream, or popular?

Benoit Joly: In the next two years, car companies will accelerate the launch of connected car products. The 4G LTE network has been deployed in some cars, such as the Audi A3, and the application of the connection service will be developed step by step.

Some car companies hope to accelerate the car interconnection process by adopting an Android or iOS system solution. However, which operating system is used depends on how much the car enterprise pays attention to the user's control experience.

This is like a network provider and a TV service. At present, there are still many network service providers who resist the embedding of Android systems in set-top boxes because they want to master the customer experience. In the same way, many car companies do not want to let these two operating systems take control of the user experience.

While providing a single service over an LTE network is simple, creating a comprehensive service system is not easy. But we believe that through the Qeo communication architecture, this process may be accelerated.