Visteon’s Jim Wynalek has a vision of the connected vehicle, he’s not looking
far beyond the parking lot. It is not a matter of if or when. It is a question
of both how and how much? Here’s what he’s seeing.
The world that Jim Wynalek describes is one that’s slightly ahead of the one
that many of us inhabit. For example, he refers to a “multimedia head.” In response
to visible puzzlement, he says with a smile, “It used to be called a ‘radio.'”
Of course, the multimedia head unit does a whole lot more than simply provide
tunes or talk (although it does that, too: but chances are good that in Wynalek’s
world, the source of the audio is actually a satellite, not a terrestrial tower-or
it could be an MP3 file). Navigation. Internet access. E-mail. E-commerce. The
vehicle that Wynalek, vice president & general manager, Telematics/Multimedia
Visteon Corp.’s Comfort, Communication and Safety Segment, and his team-along
with partner companies including Microsoft, Intel, Lucent, Nintendo, and others-are
developing may look like a conventional vehicle, but it will have tremendous
functionality.
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Visteon’s
Wynalek anticipates changes in telematics will be driven primarily by customer demand: “How much we want and are willing to pay for.” |
Consider this possible scenario: “If we detected a vehicle that required a
real-time recalibration of a key engine operating parameter”-say there was an
emissions problem discovered with the type of engine found in that vehicle-“we
could wirelessly download the new code. We could do a ‘seamless recall.’ We
don’t have to have the car in our hands in all cases. We have the ability.”
(Imagine not having to spend time in some small waiting room-free coffee and
donuts notwithstanding.) Visteon has learned a lot about real-world applications
that include such data exchange through its participation in Formula One and
Champ car racing. He continues: “We can track a vehicle from a wireless signal
and its GPS location. There may be an operator that wants to know where their
assets are at all times. We can do that.” Think of logistics companies that
are serving just-in-time customer needs. As for a vehicle that can do either
of these things: they haven’t engineered one-yet. They’re working on it.
As for what this car will be built like, Wynalek observes, “We’re not making
radical changes to the physical architecture of the car. I think the electronic
architecture of the car may change with time, such that we have the appropriate
multiplexing and data buses so we can move more information around in the car
and spin more of that off to some infrastructure.”
Architectural Issues
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By GlobalDataThat “infrastructure” leads to a question of architectural issues
of another sort: what will the “connected” aspects of this connected vehicle
be? Wynalek acknowledges, “The format isn’t clear yet.” That is, say you have
a cell phone or a communications-enabled personal digital assistant (e.g., a
Palm). Chances are, you might not want to have redundant capability built-in
to your vehicle. Instead, there could be a Bluetooth node in the vehicle that
communicates with your device once you bring it into the vehicle. Then you would
be able to save some money, not have to pay twice for similar functionality.
However, Wynalek notes, “If the wireless link is portable and has to be electronically
or physically docked in the vehicle and you get into a crash, wouldn’t you feel
bad if you left your cell phone on your desk and never got the help to save
your life?” Well, maybe you wouldn’t feel badly because you’d no longer feel-but
if you did survive despite leaving your equipment behind, chances are that phone
or PDA wouldn’t be long for this world once you got back to your desk. Wynalek
suggests that there will probably be a balance between portability and taking
advantage of the vehicle platform.
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| DCX is partnering with Sun Microsystems on the “IT Cruiser” telematics technology, as shown in the Dodge Super8 Hemi concept. |
Another architectural consideration is one that specifically relates to how
much capability should be built-in to the vehicle and how much should be accessed
via a network. For example, consider mapping. On the one hand, it might seem
as though a DVD disk could contain a sufficient amount of data for, say, Europe.
And there is an array of memory forms and formats being developed (e.g., the
Sony Memory Stick). That on-board approach would be quite reliable. There is
another school of thought that has it that a better approach would be to have
navigation information accessed in real time. Visteon has developed a “NavRadio”
system for Europe that takes advantage of the German traffic messaging radio
channel so that getting there means being routed around traffic tie-ups that
have suddenly occurred, or construction projects that didn’t make it onto a
disk. (He points out that in North America this sort of thing may occur on a
private basis.) Or some architectures have it so that the whole thing is downloaded
to the vehicle via the Internet in real-time. Visteon is somewhat neutral about
these approaches in that Wynalek says they are willing to supply the required
form and function.
Whatever shakes out will probably be a combination of things. Regardless, Wynalek
is convinced that voice-technology will have a big role to play in the driver-system
interface (something that Visteon has commercialized and which is currently
available in the Jaguar S-Type). After all, the driver’s eyes should be on the
road and hands upon the wheel. Speaking in that context and referring to some
capabilities being on board and others as part of the network, he comments,
“If I need to make a voice command to dial the phone or change my climate control,
I’m not going to make a wireless hookup to a server to give back a command to
my climate control. Some functionality will be embedded, some will be off-line.”
Widening the Pipeline
The inhibitors that Wynalek sees are not so much from the point of view of
electronics manufacturing (he suggests that one of the reasons why a company
like Visteon is in a good position to provide these products is because “we
are very good car guys and systems engineers, which comes partly from our heritage”-as
part of Ford Motor Co. “There are several vehicle systems for which we were
the primary systems engineers.
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What Do (Some) Women Want? Although the stereotype has it that guys are fascinated (bordering on According to the Polk’s Manufacturer Loyalty Survey conducted by Polk Observed Yolanda Reid, Polk Loyalty Research Manager, “The auto industry |
We know what it takes to harden those systems and ruggedize them for the vehicle
environment. You might find some other companies coming from consumer or wireless
electronics.” Those companies, he suggests, don’t have the same sort of understanding
of what it takes to build electronics that operate at all conceivable manner of
environmental extremes. “It’s not that the other guys can’t get it right but that
we have a couple steps up that learning curve by virtue of our past experience.).
They can’t necessarily make everything necessary right now, but he is confident
that they are in a good position to ramp up the needed capacity.
Rather, the problem is primarily one of content. He notes that essentially,
GM’s OnStar is offering the greatest amount of content. But if you consider
what it offers in relation to what you can get via your computer, it is rather
limited.
The issue is two-fold. For one thing, there must be content providers who are
interested in developing information that is mobility-oriented (i.e., something
that is car-specific, not desk-top)-content that consumers (in this case, vehicle
operators) are willing to pay for in some manner (either through a subscription
fee or by permitting themselves to be subjected to advertisements). “The technical
capacity is there. We almost have an Internet”-by which he means in the context
of the vehicle-“with no content providers today. Who are the people who can
provide content for the commerce?”
As for the other, there must be an information “pipeline” into the car that
has a wide-enough diameter to permit the on-board system to get the amount of
data needed at sufficiently high rates in order for there to be usefulness,
for it to be a “a value-added device to use your time more efficiently.” Wynalek
observes, “Current analog and 2G cellular systems are pretty low data rate.”
So the issue is telecommunications providers increasing their bandwidth capabilities
in order to address this limitation.
He notes of how fast we are going to see these changes: “Rate of change is
people-dependent: How much we want and are willing to pay for.”
Wylanek adds, “We are not going to out-do the wireless guys. We are going to
follow the wireless revolution. Wireless is the gateway to the car. There will
be a wireless pipe feeding the car with as much data and speed as the next-generation
digital networks permit us to. What we can do in the car is directly dependent
upon that ramp. Given that that’s the case, I look at the value chain: Portal
operators”-like OnStar and Wingcast-“pipeline providers”-like Sprint and Verizon-“systems
integrators, software and electronics providers and content providers must work
to provide what people value. That’s the real inflection point.”
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Really Extended Karenann Terrell, director of E-Connect, DaimlerChrysler Corp., notes, Specifically, the DCX Research and Technology Center (in Palo Alto, CA), “Instead of a car as an insular environment, it will be in a ubiquitous As a demonstration, the group has developed a version of the PT Cruiser Technically, the Infotronic system-which includes the ability to connect Of the computers, one is used as a communication gateway: it provides While the two rear positions have 8.4-in. LCD touch screens and wireless One of the big issues is getting information into the vehicle. When the |
By Gary S. Vasilash, Editor-In-Chief
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To view related research reports, please follow the links The Intelligent Automotive |
