Car Apps: What Will Be Coming To A Car Near You
Car apps are created to provide additional conveniences and safety for the driver. Car manufacturers are following suit and joining into the social media and other applications market environment, just as smartphone manufacturers have been doing for the past few years. Things like an emissions monitor, web-enabled security camera, unlocking/locking your car via smartphone, accessing podcasts and internet radio, finding the cheapest gas prices in the area, and even Twitter integration are all viable technologies. Of course, it is the integration with the driving experience and ensuring that they are not distractions that is crucial for mass adoption.
For example, Toyota Friends and Ford's American Journey 2.0 are new startups in the world of social integration. The pioneers of this would be the OnStar, which which first launched in 1996, and SYNC, which passed its fourth birthday already. The marketplace is now ripe for application developers to further enrich the driver's infotainment experience.
The real path to this is not just the vehicles, but also transportation and the social space. Not only are we talking about dashboards in cloud computing, but also the use of video, parking, toll road payments, location technologies and other new innovations in the mobile environment. The car telematics market and related aftermarket is a 850 million strong global phenomenon.
What else are car manufacturers doing? BMW recently invested $110 million in mobile solutions called BME iVentures. One product, MyCityWay, gives real time information about public services, urban logistics and parking availability. Its carpooling services also promises to change driver commuting behaviour. This integration and merging infrastructure, including cars, buses, trains, planes, can connect with smartphone, promises new connections with the public.
The new trend is with electric cars and related power management and energy conservation. Car makers are in a mad rush to incorporate new battery technologies and attract more car buyers seeking economical transportation. The merging of the smartphone with car control and infotainment systems is only the beginning. The long term future really depends on how we can reinvent the mobility market.