Editors' note: The title of this blog post initially misstated the name of Microsoft Virtual Earth.
Before: This sample map is what OnStar advisors used to use to assist drivers and first responders.
(Credit: OnStar)When OnStar advisers get an accident response call, they now have another tool at their fingertips to use. The GM subsidiary recently integrated Microsoft Virtual Earth into their response system and are using the 3D features to guide first responders with more accuracy to hard-to-find or rural locations.
"Microsoft is helping automakers, suppliers and customers focus on long-term innovation to reshape the plant floor, in-car and dealership experience," said David Graff, U.S. automotive industry solutions director, Microsoft Corp. in a press release.
"Collaborating with OnStar to support emergency services is a great example of this innovation, empowering advisors with features like Virtual Earth's Bird's Eye view imagery to help them quickly locate subscribers, even in adverse weather and conditions. This service not only continues to provide differentiation inside the vehicle, but also more importantly helps save lives," he said.
Integration with Microsoft Virtual Earth helps After: Integration with Microsoft Virtual Earth offers 3D images and helps OnStar advisers better assist drivers.
(Credit: OnStar)OnStar advisers have had the technology available to them for a couple of weeks, and they've found that its also been useful in giving directions, says OnStar spokesperson Cristi Vazquez.
"For really hard to find addresses, when people are close we can tell them, it looks like you're two buildings away," she says.
OnStar is available on more than 50 MY 2009 GM models.
The competition between Microsoft and open-source software reaches into the automotive space with the announcement of a new alliance among automakers and technology providers called Genivi. The goal of the alliance is to build a Linux stack that will provide a common architecture for automotive infotainment systems.
At the same time, Microsoft announces version 4.0 of its own automotive platform, on which Ford's Sync and Fiat's Blue & Me systems are based. The new Microsoft platform now supports Intel chip architecture and includes what Microsoft calls "common head unit functionality," meaning that the platform comes with standard modules for integrating CD playback and ripping, along with other applications.
Version 4.0 supports a common voice command structure that works for typical car applications, such as navigation and Bluetooth cell phone integration, so users won't have to go back to a top-level tree structure to issue commands for different in-car applications.
... Read moreCES 2009: Car Tech wrap-up
Our heads are still spinning a bit from the onslaught that was the in-car electronics hall of CES 2009. From every direction, there were speakers the size of extralarge pizzas and flashy video displays vying for your attention. Amidst the cacophony, our (ahem) skilled Car Tech editors were able to spot a few gems and a few diamonds in the rough.
(Credit:
CBS Interactive)
As evidenced by our Car Tech ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
Ford Sync 3.0 offers turn-by-turn directions.
(Credit: Microsoft)We've been pretty impressed by Sync's Bluetooth phone and MP3 player connectivity, but Version 3.0 of Sync gains a whole new dimension with an array of connected services that includes navigation, traffic conditions, business search, weather, and other information sources. To use these services, you hit the voice command button in a Sync-equipped car and request services. The system uses your Bluetooth paired phone to connect with a server where you can request, by voice, directions, traffic conditions, a local business search, and other services.
The really innovative aspect of this system is that Ford can easily add new services, because they are loaded into a centralized server. For new services, car owners may need to update their version of Sync, but that can be as simple as downloading an update file from Ford's SyncMyRide Web site, putting it on a USB drive, and hooking it up to the car. However, this new version of Sync requires a GPS chip, which wasn't installed with earlier versions of Sync, so there won't be backward compatibility.
Sync can use this simple monochrome display for a variety of services.
(Credit: Microsoft)The system doesn't require an LCD screen or factory navigation system, either. When you request directions to an address, Sync uses the GPS chip to send your location to the server, which computes your turn-by-turn directions and sends them to the car. If you get off the route, you can ask the system to update the directions, and it will send down a new set based on your current location. Likewise, with business search, you can request a business type by saying florist, or hardware, and it will find the nearest business of that type and send it to the car. With the traffic conditions feature, the system will advise you of any bad traffic on your route, and then suggest an alternative.
Ford will make this new version of Sync available on almost all 2010 Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln models. There is no subscription fee for the first three years of ownership. Ford will determine any future fees at a later date.
SEOUL -- Lee Seong-chul's assignment: Give his company's vehicles an information-technology edge.
To do that, the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group executive vice president plans to mix Korean government money, Microsoft Corp. know-how and local entrepreneurship.
Lee is in charge of the Automotive IT Innovation Center, an incubator that opened Nov. 3 in Uiwang, a city south of Seoul.
The center's backers, Hyundai-Kia, Microsoft and Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy, will identify local small- and medium-sized businesses with products that fit the center's focus on in-vehicle electronics.
The initial cost of the project is projected at $6.8 million to $13.7 million. So far, 89 companies have applied for funding.
Most of that money comes from an annual ministry fund that sponsors 20 companies' projects for three years. The ministry provides up to $137,000 for each company's project. Hyundai provides vehicles, engineers and space. Microsoft has sent two software engineers to work full time at the center.
Hyundai gets first crack
In an earlier, similar collaboration, Microsoft and Fiat Auto Group helped to set up Microsoft Innovation Center in Turin, Italy, which conducts r&d of embedded software.
The Korean collaboration helps Microsoft expand its automotive industry business. The companies also are working to put Microsoft Auto software, the same software that powers Ford Motor Co.'s Sync system, into Hyundai-Kia vehicles in 2010.
Hyundai will get first crack at the center's results. "The first products will be exclusive to Hyundai-Kia vehicles, especially for the U.S. market," Lee told Automotive News in an English-language interview.
Beginning in late 2010, those products will be introduced into vehicles. Some early examples will likely include voice-operated audio systems, Bluetooth connectivity and telematics.
Other projects include panoramic views on navigation displays and multilingual voice recognition.
Eco-driving report
An "eco-driving" project aims to use real-time traffic data to help drivers save fuel. The system, integrated with the navigation system, will generate a monthly report to be e-mailed to the car's owner with data on driving habits, fuel use, driving time and fuel costs. A similar system run by Nissan Motor Co. in Japan won an award from the Japanese government.
The center is in a Hyundai-Kia building that has been used for several years as a startup incubator. Map&Soft, a local maker of navigation maps, was a prior tenant. The company now sells maps of Korea to Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus unit, Lee said. Hyundai liked the startup's performance enough to buy the company.
(Source: Automotive News)
(Credit:
Microsoft)
Anticipating an era when cars connect to the Internet, Microsoft is adding the capability to connect to its Live Search service to its automotive offerings, composed of Microsoft Auto and Windows Automotive. Microsoft Auto is the software behind Ford's Sync system, while Windows Automotive powers some portable navigation devices and some factory-installed navigation systems. Although Microsoft's announcement won't have an immediate impact on products, the tools will be there for companies such as Ford to build a search function into the in-car interfaces, possibly tailoring it to provide greater flexibility when searching for destinations, as opposed to today's fixed points-of-interest databases. ... Read more
Hyundai brings its cars upscale, starting with the Genesis sedan.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)Microsoft and the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group announced today an agreement to put Microsoft's Automotive Platform, the technology behind the Ford Sync system, into Hyundai and Kia cars by 2010. Ford Sync lets users integrate MP3 players and cell phones with their cars, allowing for hands-free calling and voice-command music selection. There are no details yet about what features will be offered, but we can expect similar functionality to Ford Sync, along with anything else Microsoft can come up with in time for the assembly line. Hyundai Kia has been pushing hard over the last few years to go upscale, with the upcoming Hyundai Genesis luxury sedan being hotly anticipated. At this year's New York auto show, Kia showed off its first use of a GPS system, in the Borrego.
We spoke with Martin Thall, head of general manager of Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit, about the deal. He emphasized that the current announcement only covers the strategic partnership, and doesn't detail which models might carry the new system, or even how Hyundai Kia will brand it. Mr. Thall stated that Microsoft is interested in developing a strong speech experience with its automotive platform, and looks to a future where the platform becomes the head unit in vehicles. He also suggested that automakers are looking for low-cost navigation, and said one solution might be using dashboard left/right indicator lights for route guidance, rather than an expensive LCD.
Another part of the Microsoft/Hyundai Kia agreement includes an automotive innovation center in Korea that includes the Korean government as a partner. This center would work on Korean government initiatives concerning the environment and safety, and give Korean technology companies a leg up into the automotive market.
Today Microsoft announced a new feature on its Live Search Maps service: Clearflow, an option that will alter driving directions based on traffic, not just on the usually metered major freeways, but on adjoining connector ramps and streets as well. See news story.
Microsoft now considers surface street traffic as well as freeway speeds in its routing.
I find the Clearflow product of only marginal usefulness on a PC, since traffic patterns change quickly. I'd trust it to get me on to a freeway in the most efficient way, but if my route takes more than 20 minutes, I'd worry about its accuracy at the other end. If this technology can be applied to Microsoft's Live Search Mobile, and if it can update the route in real-time when conditions change, then it will be killer.
But I digress. The technology development effort to predict traffic flow on unmetered roadways was led by Microsoft's Eric Horvitz. What's interesting is that Horvitz et al. also developed another traffic prediction system, which was spun out to the company Inrix (previous story), which in turn sells its data back to Microsoft.
Inrix collects traffic-flow data directly from vehicles (mostly the GPS units in trucks and other commercial vehicles, but also some mobile phones and Dash Navigation units). Based on the historical data it collects, it can predict traffic on the routes it has coverage for.
Inrix does not do the routing itself, but it supplies its data to Microsoft (and other mapping companies, auto manufacturers, and GPS device makers) who then can incorporate it into their routing algorithms. Microsoft's new Clearflow prediction system doesn't overlap much with Inrix's prediction algorithm, since Clearflow predicts what the traffic of the moment will be on unmetered streets, while Inrix provides data for all highways, and predicts traffic flow in the future.
Since Inrix collects data from actual moving vehicles, not just road sensors, it can report on traffic speeds on any road where there are drivers. Today, the company announced that it's now providing coverage on all U.S. freeways, for instance--over 100,000 miles of roads. Mapquest will be the first of Inrix's customers to use that data in its direction-finding service.
What's next in traffic routing? Inrix CEO Bryan Mistele says the "Holy Grail" is routing based on the routes real drivers take, not just observed speeds. For example, a navigation service could record the actual paths people take between points, and use this data as well speed information to generate directions. Of course, there are privacy implications when you're recording users' driving in this way, but there's all that data to be got from commercial vehicles. So in the future, the wisdom of taxi drivers may end up popping up on our in-car GPS gizmos.
In a conversation with Martin Thall, the General Manager of Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit, he laid out a vision for the future of infotainment systems in cars, which included connected services supported by in-car advertising. Mr. Thall suggested that five years from now, car infotainment systems will be networked and provide the latest information on local services and traffic, as just two examples. This sort of car system should offer daily relevance, so that you could have it give you the best way home from work each day. Or, you could use local search to find a particular item for sale, or a restaurant, and the car would give the best route to that location. Your preferences for the route could vary from quickest time, the most scenic, or the route that will cause the least amount of emissions and save the most gas.
But, as Mr. Thall points out in a lesson learned from OnStar, supporting the infrastructure for a connected car is expensive. As an alternative to making consumers pay a subscription fee for their connected car, the navigation screen could display ads or businesses could offer incentives for you to stop in, such as Starbucks loading a free MP3 track into your car if you stop by. While Web advertising is measured in pennies or fractions of pennies per impression, Mr. Thall says "click-through value for in-car advertising could be measured in dollars," because the driver is already out of the house and is more likely to follow through on the ad's suggestion. Although the idea of ads in cars may sound like an invasion of personal space, drivers are already very used to the concept. Drivers see advertising along the roads every day and hear it over the radio. Having ads appear on an infotainment system wouldn't be too much of a stretch, and could be the incentive to more quickly connect cars to useful services such as real-time traffic.
We gained other insights during our conversation with Mr. Thall. Microsoft's automotive efforts are rapidly gaining ground after a slow start, and the company has no major competition in this area. The Automotive Business Unit, part of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, has two products: the Windows Automotive platform and the Microsoft Automotive platform, the latter including the technology behind Ford Sync. Many in-dash navigation units are built on Windows Automotive, although the interfaces are designed to completely hide that fact from the user. Ford Sync is the more recent success story. Mr. Thall's philosophy behind that technology is to keep it very cost effective and put it in mass market brands, such as current partners Ford and Fiat. In North America, Ford has an exclusive on the technology until November 2008. Mr. Thall says to expect other car makers to announce their own versions of the Microsoft Automotive platform this year, offering similar features as Ford Sync. In a tantalizing hint, he suggested that, as the technology is already in Europe and North America, Asia is the next logical region. Given the mass market push for the Microsoft Automotive platform, we will go out on a limb and predict that Toyota is the next likely partner.
(Credit:
CNET Networks/Corrine Schulze)
The Zune Car Pack ($79) is Microsoft's in-car FM transmitter made especially for its entire line of Zune MP3 players (including the first generation Zune). The Car Pack shares the same aesthetic as Microsoft's second-generation series of Zune players, offering design-conscious Zune users an elegant in-car listening solution.
