Mercedes-Benz was the first automaker to offer smartphone apps to control aspects of its newly launched mbrace telematics system, but others are close behind. At its press conference on Wednesday, Chevy showed a prototype app that will allow remote charging of the Volt. And if I was a betting man I'd wager that Ford will roll out apps for its Sync system at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The company is already crowd-sourcing college students to that end.
At the Mercedes stand at the LA show, Hughes Telematics president Erik Goldman said that the company, which provides the mbrace system, plans to introduce new apps approximately every six months. And he showed us apps in development that will notify the owner when the car needs an oil change or a taillight bulb burns out, for example.
What type of automotive apps will we see in the future? As Goldman pointed out -- and anyone with an iPhone, an iPod touch or even a pulse should know by now -- it's limited only by the imagination of app developers and automaker's willingness to embrace (no pun intended) an open-architecture approach.
By carforallnet
on December 6, 2009
12:25 PM
I would love to read more about this topic.
http://carforallnet.blogspot.com
By ulf187
on December 9, 2009
07:45 AM
Am I the only one who is worried that someone hacks into the car and does something to it while you drive? I would like to see something from the car companies where they show what they do to prevent people from cracking their stuff...