In Car Commerce – Tobin Trevarthen, Founder at Spatial Shift
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All this cool tech inside cars is great, but what about the business side? Tobin Trevarthen, Founder of Spatial Shift, shares in his slides where he sees the dollars in the auto tech space going (hint, it’s a LOT of $$$$)
Connected Car – Ian Beavis, EVP at Nielsen Global Automotive
This presentation is a survey conducted by AutoTECHCAST about the Connected Car.
Questions include:
- Familiarity with “Connected Car”
- Interest in Connected Car in next vehicle
- Preference for “built-in” vs. “brought-in” design
- Impact of data plan options on consideration
- Trading more/data for advertising/information
- Privacy Concerns
- Connected Car Technologies
- Familiarity
- Current Ownership/Usage
- Interest in Owning
Navigate Your Car With GROM Audio
What is your name and title?
Leigh Gibbs, Director of Partners and Investor Relations
Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do there?
GROM Audio takes pride in delivering high quality after market car-kits at affordable prices. Bringing drivers the latest in-car technology and providing customers with not only mobility, but high quality sound and safety, GROM Audio continues to build upon its previous innovations to constantly bring drivers the best aftermarket car audio products
What is your tool/technology and what is the benefit of it for developers?
GROM-V-Line is a hardware device that plugs into any car navigation or infotainment system. It will integrate the capabilities of the smartphone through the car’s built in display as well as offering the latest driver assistance technology through applications and software.
How do developers implement your tool? Any particular technology/IDEs or experience they require?
Developers will be developing in Android 4.3 within emulator and will have to use the following capabilities:
GPS sensor (standard Android interface)
Front (DVR) and back (reverse) camera (standard Android interface)
Various sensors in the car: Speed, Parking Brake, Steering Wheel position, Ambient light density, Rear Gear, Tires Pressure (and some other car related information usually obtained through the OBDII port)
What are some examples of developers or apps that have had success with your offering?
Parking assistance
Near by ammusements announcement
What would you like to see developers create with your tool at the Autotech Challenge? What would you like to see that would get you really excited?
Developing the most unique application/software that can assist driving experience (Brand new in the market or making advancement to existing features such as voice recognition)
In a nutshell, we are aiming to offer the drivers an easy and convenient infotainment system. We are looking for developers who can build an app or software that can help drivers’ every day journey. Our goal is to deliver road safety, convenience and entertainment through VLine infotainment system through various application. How about a talking dashboard driven by an app or software?
Why do you think developers should get involved in the Autotech industry?
Connected car technology is the latest booming market for various reasons. As most of us desire the access to connectivity where ever we go, the demand for connected car has increased tremendously. For example, a car with a great connectivity system that can enhance the driving experience by enabling drivers to safely multitask when necessary.
Good example would be an app that can inform the driver of nearby parking spaces via voice prompt. Being able to multitask while driving is often necessary, but not yet safely done, we need to develop tools to provide connected services with relevance and safety. Making the road much more enjoyable in safe!
What is the biggest challenge of engaging with the Autotech industry that you think developers should be aware of?
The biggest challenge is to keep in mind the automotive unique environment. Such as: clarity of the graphics, responsiveness of the interface, UI layout, usefulness of the information, predictions for the user action that minimize distraction, etc.
Find more information about GROM Audio categories and prizes here.
Enable Technologies with Triggerfinger
What is your name and title?
Douglas Naimo, President Triggerfinger Software
Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do there?
Triggerfinger Software develops technologies that take signal inputs and translate them into instruction outputs for the operation of any electronic device. This technology enables a game controller to replace the keyboard and mouse for operate your computers, TVs and InVehicle Infotainment Systems. I started the company in 2003 and have led the development of our product group to include neuromuscular controllers for accesibility applications, Handset free Input Technology for integrated controls of mobile platforms, Sensor operations from Unmanned Vehicle Platforms, Head Up Single Hand controls and Gesture based Input Controls.
What is your tool/technology and what is the benefit of it for developers?
Triggerfinger Software is a Java based application that is edited through a text file for easy integration with existing programs. The developers can use existing keyboard commands to operate their devices. The edited text file takes the existing commands and integrates the information with the device control application to provide finger tip controls from a stearing wheel or controller. The benefit to the developer is the ability to take existing keyboard controls from a pc application and operate them from the Invehicle Infotainment platform. If the program works on a laptop then it can be made operational in the vehicle.
How do developers implement your tool? Any particular technology/IDEs or experience they require?
Triggerfinger Software is a Java based application with an edited text file for customization of commands to operate existing applications. Running your custom Triggerfinger application is just like using a keyboard and mouse on your laptop.
What are some examples of developers or apps that have had success with your offering?
The living room has become the connected hub for many homes. Triggerfinger enabled technologies can be found when computers are used to access the internet via browser based platforms with a game controller replacing the keyboard and mouse. With over ten million users of the technology (and counting) this is a growing market worth supporting. For many families the automobile is their second living room. Using a game controller to operate your smart phone and tablet within the vehicle provides the benefits of using commercially available technologies with the convenience of fingertip controls.
What would you like to see developers create with your tool at the Autotech Challenge?
We want developers to create applications for the IVI computers that allow desktop control and mobile convenience for the driver and passangers. This would be a simple task using the edited text file and game control devices.
What would you like to see that would get you really excited?
I want the passanger in the back seat to operate the touch screens with a wireless game controller. That would be really cool for the kids in the back of the bus to run the video system without bothering the driver.
Why do you think developers should get involved in the Autotech industry?
65 million vehicles will be sold this year. All them are a blank slate for technology to be added via tablet/smart phone or integrated with 4G connectivity. This seems to be a pretty good incentive to put effort towards the Autotech industry.
What is the biggest challenge of engaging with the Autotech industry that you think developers should be aware of?
The biggest challange for developers is the lead time many vehicles have from concept to production. Third party development of vehicle accessories can reduce the deployment cycle but wide spread adoption of an industry standard is a timely event.
For more information on Triggerfinger’s Challenge category and prizes see here.
Control Your Car Seat with Faurecia’s BioFit SDK
What is your name and title?
Jim Hotary Director, Electronics Innovation Faurecia Automotive
Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do there?
Faurecia is one of the largest automotive suppliers in the world. We design and manufacture composite body panels, emission cleaning systems, and entire interiors for virtually every major automaker around the globe. I’m part of our advanced innovation team and focus on bringing new electronic and software features to vehicles.
What is your tool/technology and what is the benefit of it for developers?
The BioFit SDK makes it easy for developers to access the capabilities of our BioFit seat – the first automotive seat that streams health and wellness data to mobile devices. Real-time heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, stress level, and other indicators can be easily accessed. In addition, certain features and adjustments can be controlled directly by your app, allowing exciting new functionality.
How do developers implement your tool? Any particular technology/IDEs or experience they require?
The BioFit SDK utilizes standard iOS and Android development tools, as well and standard Bluetooth profiles. We’re working hard to ensure developers can easily create exciting new features and solutions!
What are some examples of developers or apps that have had success with your offering?
The BioFit SDK is brand new! Developers at this event will be the first in the world to access this powerful new technology.
What would you like to see developers create with your tool at the Autotech Challenge? What would you like to see that would get you really excited?
We believe the car seat, in many ways, is the ultimate wearable device. Every day, most people spend time in their vehicle. Without remembering to wear (or charge) your activity tracker, smart watch, or other wearable, the seat is able to monitor levels of bio-data previously unavailable – every time you drive! We can’t wait to learn about all the creative uses for this powerful capability – whether related to health, wellness, entertainment, or categories previously unimagined.
Why do you think developers should get involved in the Autotech industry?
The automotive industry is at an exciting inflection point – transitioning from classical manufacturing to one that provides personal mobility services. The car is already the most complex consumer product you will likely own, and in the future global challenges related to sustainability, urbanization, and other issues will require that the car radically evolve.
What is the biggest challenge of engaging with the Autotech industry that you think developers should be aware of?
In many cases, global automotive companies are notoriously difficult to work with. Finding the right entry point, understanding the daunting set of regulations, or the challenging development process, can be nearly impossible. Faurecia is committed to creating a “soft landing spot” in the industry, providing access to all automakers with one partner, and allowing you to focus on what you do best – create great apps! For more information on Faurecia’s Challenge category and prizes see here.
Get Connected with Carvoyant
What is your name and title?
Renz Kuipers, COO
Tell us a little bit about your company and what you do there?
Carvoyant is a connected car development tool enabling easy connected car application development. My role within the company is to engage customers and ensure we are supporting our client’s needs.
What is your tool/technology and what is the benefit of it for developers?
We sell an API providing automotive data feeding connected car engagements. We want to make it easy to build connected car applications, and if you like it, go immediately and order a device from us to start getting cars connected to your application. We also help distribute completed apps to drivers of other customers. To help foster this, Carvoyant developed a development sandbox allowing developers the opportunity to work with simulated data enabling our clients to build and test an application without ever driving a vehicle. This actually ensures a developer will receive the type of data needed to run their application. You can imagine it might take several months before a check engine light turns on, or certainly, a developer does not want to test impact detection!
How do developers implement your tool? Any particular technology/IDEs or experience they require?
We offer our sandbox, it is available at https://sandbox-simulator.carvoyant.com . As of this writing, the UI only supports the base set of data. But within the next couple of days we will be releasing an update to it that allows the user to optionally select other data points. We plan on continuing to enhance this tool as much as we can to make it easy to simulate data. I also want to point out that we will be fully open sourcing the simulation tool and putting the code up on GitHub. We don’t have a timeframe for it yet but it will be sooner rather than later.
What are some examples of developers or apps that have had success with your offering?
Application wise, we have a number of applications being built but none that I would call in a finished, public state. Fuse (http://joinfuse.com/) is the closest one to it. They ran a pretty successful Kickstarter campaign earlier in the year and are actively doing beta testing right now. I don’t have a time frame on exactly when they will be live but I expect it to be pretty soon. There are a few others that are being built by partners for their existing customers but I’m not certain on the terms for public disclosure with them so I need to check and get back to you.
What would you like to see developers create with your tool at the Autotech Challenge? What would you like to see that would get you really excited?
We would like to see Carvoyant’s API mashed up with APIs from other ‘things’ around the driver (home, office, calendar, gas station). What would get us really excited is a new IoT integration we never considered…Parking Lot near the restaurant telling the driver how many parking spaces are left and on what floor – as an example!
Why do you think developers should get involved in the Autotech industry?
The connected car is today at a similar inflection point the smart phone was when iOS launched 7 years ago. We believe this space is on the verge of exploding so developers have an opportunity to get in on the proverbial “ground floor” of a very big opportunity.
What is the biggest challenge of engaging with the Autotech industry that you think developers should be aware of?
Consumers are becoming self aware of the value of their data. Developers need to respect the consumer’s data and ensure all engagements around an integration gives the consumer the option to control their dataflow. The Autotech industry is quickly being made aware, and is coming to grips with, this nuance in data ‘ownership.’ We recommend developers engaging the Autotech industry become aware of this nascent movement in data ownership.
Welcome to the Sandbox
What’s the coolest space in technology for developers today? The auto industry of course!
To get in on the ground floor of the opportunities, meet the industry leaders and help drive the industry forward (pun intended), you’ll want to be part of the Autotech Council’s first Developer Challenge to be held in the Bay Area Friday, October 10 and Saturday, October 11.
The Auto industry has moved beyond apps to find parking. Think autonomous vehicles,in-car entertainment and the ability to use data from vehicle diagnostics and connecting your car to wearables and other sensors.
An additional special feature of this Challenge is to interact with the industry leader of the Autotech industry in 2 ways:
- Private meeting invitation: Participate in the Autotech Council’s Member meeting for October which is closed to the public. This meeting kicks of the challenge with a panel discuss where you’ll get to hear from and meet industry leaders (approximately 100 will attend), to get their direct input on how they see what the industry needs, learn the challenges the industry faces, and make your connections to get your app on the path of successful commercialization.
- 1-1 Mentor Session – all developer teams will get a private mentor session with one of the OEM members!
Autotech Council Developer Challenge 2014 