Googling the nearest gas station, sending email from your smartphone, or
booking a table at a restaurant .Those are all things you shouldn't do
while driving. But so many drivers have grown accustomed to their
on-the-go tasks that automakers are increasingly trying to make those
things easier to pull off with both hands on the wheel and both eyes on
the road.
As General Motors and Ford commissioned ideas from app
makers this week, the possibilities for what you can do with your
vehicle's steering wheel buttons, microphone, speakers and internal
gauges are quickly expanding.
How would you like to choose your
favorite tune by simply uttering the song's title, turn your car into a
mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, or respond to an ad you hear on the radio without
lifting a finger?
At the International CES show, General Motors
and Ford launched programs that will open their designs to developers,
inviting them to create software applications for future car models.
It's a relatively new strategy for car makers, but one that many gadget
manufacturers employ, including Apple, which did it for the original
iPhone in 2007.
The programs free the automakers from having to
keep pace with new technologies by tying the functionality of their
cars' internal systems to advances in smartphones.
Ford Motor
Co.'s app developer program, called Sync AppLink, "is a way for (the
company) not to worry about the next big app," said product manager
Julius Marchwicki.
General Motors Co. said its framework "gives developers a whole new sandbox, with wheels."
In
some ways, though, the current systems inside cars have a long ways to
go to provide the functionality that smartphones have offered for years.
For
instance, in a demo of Ford's new integration with music service
Rhapsody, you can wirelessly sync your phone with the car and listen to
playlists you have already created by pressing the voice button on the
steering wheel and saying "play playlist 1."
But you can't just
choose a track by voice on a whim, which is part of what makes these
unlimited streaming plans attractive even at $10 a month.
Saying
"Bruno Mars" to your Ford car won't pull up "Locked Out of Heaven,"
although typing it on Rhapsody's website or smartphone app can. The same
is true of Pandora's radio app in Ford cars.
The company plans to
improve the car's ability to respond to voice commands that cover a
wider range of search terms and speech in AppLink 2.0, which is expected
out by September of this year, said C.J. King, development engineer for
AppLink.
General Motors showed off its new relationship with
Apple's Siri voice assistant, which is newly integrated in some of its
cars including the Chevy Spark. Siri, however, only linked up to the
car's speaker and microphone and didn't offer access to the car's inner
systems.
Rhapsody CEO Jon Irwin said that it's really just the
beginning for automakers to work more closely with high-tech content
providers.
"This is the first step in what's going to be a really
exciting year," Irwin said. "As that technology evolves, you'll see it
get better and better."
When it comes to integrating new
driver-friendly advancements, American automakers are playing catch-up
to their Asian counterparts.
Hyundai's Blue Link technology syncs
with iPhones and Android devices already and allows users to check their
car's maintenance data like tire pressure, fluids and the condition of
airbags on their mobile devices. The service debuted in 2011 on its
Sonata and is expanding to a wider range of vehicles. Voice-activated
control of third-party music apps isn't integrated yet, but the company
is exploring using Google's Android software to do so.
Toyota's use of voice is the most advanced of the auto providers, even though it had nothing new to show at this year's CES.
When
it upgraded its Entune service for Toyota cars and Enform for its Lexus
line at CES last year, drivers got the ability to use their voice to
control several key apps, allowing them to say, for example, "Adele" to
the iHeart Radio or Pandora app to create a custom station with tracks
from the British singer and others who sound similar.
Voice
commands also worked to buy movie tickets, make restaurant reservations
through the OpenTable app and get turn-by-turn navigation towards cheap
gas.
Both Toyota's and Hyundai's systems require yearly subscription fees after free trial periods.
On
Chrysler's Ram 1500 truck introduced at the gadget show this year,
iHeart Radio was added as an application. Users who link their
smartphones to the car can select from customized stations they've made
already but aren't able to create new ones by voice. That is not likely
to be a barrier for long, said Brian Lakamp, president of iHeart parent
Clear Channel Digital.
"Voice activation - it's a trend and it's
going to get more and more sophisticated over time," Lakamp said. "We'll
be lock-step when they're taking advantage of voice to the extent they
can."
The truck also includes the option of using a 3G cellular
phone chip inside the vehicle itself to become a Wi-Fi hotspot for $15 a
day. That could be an attractive feature for people who might want to
use the truck for a tail-gate party.
And one small company called
Livio was looking to drum up some business from radio stations and
automakers with a prototype for embedding tiny codes inside traditional
FM radio streams. The codes would allow cellphone users to respond to
advertisements with a tap on their smartphone screen. The technology
could one day enable companies to send coupons through traditional FM
radio stations to drivers who let them know they're interested.
The
Livio Connect system "opens FM radio to two-way communication," said
marketing director Nicole Yelland. "No longer is it shouting at you.
There's a dialogue."
Given that Google, Toyota and others have
been testing driverless cars, it's not hard to imagine the day when your
smartphone will hear your stomach gurgle, get Burger King to send you a
coupon, and then guide the car up to the drive-thru window for a quick
bite.
In pics: Best of CES 2013