Google, Apple Forge Auto Ties
Consumer Electronics Show to Spotlight In-Car Digital Race
Technology giants Google Inc. and Apple Inc. are about to expand their battle for digital supremacy to a new front: the automobile.
Next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Google and German auto maker Audi AG plan to announce that they are working together to develop in-car entertainment and information systems that are based on Google's Android software, people familiar with the matter said.
They also plan to disclose collaborative efforts with other automotive and tech companies, including chip maker Nvidia Corp. , to establish Android as an important technology for future vehicles, these people said. The aim is to allow drivers and passengers to access music, navigation, apps and services that are similar to those widely available now on Android-powered smartphones, these people added.
The coming announcements signal Google's response to an initiative launched last June by Apple to integrate iPhones and other devices running its iOS operating system with car makers' dashboard control panels. Apple so far has the support of BMW AG , Daimler AG 's Mercedes-Benz division, General Motors Co. and Honda Motor Co.
Apple and Google already compete fiercely in an array of digital businesses, ranging from smartphones and tablet computers to mobile apps and Web browsers. With 80 million new cars and light trucks sold each year, automobiles represent a significant new opportunity for Internet-based software and services.
"The car is becoming the ultimate mobile device," said Thilo Koslowski, an analyst at the research firm Gartner Inc. who specializes in advanced in-car electronics. "Apple and Google see that and are trying to line up allies to bring their technology into the vehicle."
The annual event known as CES has in recent years become an important showcase for advances in automotive electronics, including the kind of autonomous driving technologies that Google has helped pioneer.
Besides its partnership with the Internet company, Audi is expected to demonstrate new technologies that allow cars to drive themselves in certain situations and for short periods, and to lay out a timetable to offer them on new models due to arrive over the next four or five years, people familiar with the matter said.
A year ago, Audi used the trade show to demonstrate a car that could navigate through a parking garage and pull into a parking space without a driver at the wheel.
Ford Motor Co. is expected to demonstrate an autonomous vehicle it has developed at CES next week. BMW, based in Germany, has also invited reporters to a demonstration of related technology.
The developments, some of which were discussed in an article in electronics trade publication EE Times earlier this month, come as car makers keep adding more computer chips to their new models. Some, such as GM and Audi, have announced plans to equip cars with fourth-generation cellular chips to connect to the Web without requiring a smartphone. GM, for example, plans to equip almost all of the company's 2015 models with the technology to provide a constant wireless broadband connection, said Phil Abram, the auto maker's chief technology officer, during a recent conference call with analysts.
Car makers also are adding powerful processors based on technology that ARM Holdings PLC of Britain licenses to smartphone chip makers. Such processors require operating systems, and Google's free Android software is an emerging option.
"We are starting to see an uptick of Android use in car makers, starting in Asia and working its way across the world," said Rajeev Kumar, a world-wide director of business development for Freescale Semiconductor Inc., a large supplier of chips used in cars.
As they approach the auto market, technology providers are compelled to create offerings that don't require drivers to take their eyes off the road or their hands off the steering wheel. Apple has some key technology in that field.
The Silicon Valley company's voice-based Siri technology, for example, can read out incoming text messages and emails, and let the driver dictate a reply.
Honda, based in Japan, is now starting to roll out new models that allow the driver to activate Siri from a button on the steering wheel and to talk to Siri using the car's hands-free audio system. That enables a driver to use Siri to read out newly arrived email or text messages, check weather, set the navigation system or enter appointments on the iPhone's calendar—all while keeping both hands on the wheel.
With its "iOS in the Car" initiative announced last June, Apple hopes to turn the iPhone into a kind of brain for operating dashboard electronics, using the car's built-in display to interact with services such as maps and traffic information.
Apple has said that it expects a dozen car brands to adopt the technology in 2014. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment for this article.
Google and the company's partners, by contrast, hope to have Android and related applications running on the car's own built-in hardware, people familiar with the matter said. The company has provided its map technology to a range of auto makers since 2006, including Audi, Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan and Tesla Motors Inc. A spokesman for Google said that it doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.
Filip Brabec, Audi's head of product strategy, declined to discuss the auto maker's coming announcements at CES. But he acknowledged that future vehicles will need computer operating systems to support the kind of apps and functions that consumers want to access while driving.
"Cars are becoming more complex, and with the computing power that is going into vehicles, you need that type of system in the car," he said.
The increased focus on in-car electronics underscores a significant challenge for auto makers. Where earlier buyers based purchase decisions on characteristics such as horsepower or fuel economy, consumers now have grown up with the Web and mobile devices and expect to remain connected while on the go.
"When they get to the dealership, the first thing they may ask is what does this thing do and point to the dashboard," said Charles Koch, a manager of new-business development at Honda's U.S. unit.
Ford attributes rising sales in the U.S. in part to the voice-activated Sync system it started offering in 2007, developed with help from Microsoft Corp. The complex electronics has at times become a double-edged sword, however; a follow-up version called MyFord has proved confusing to some customers, hurting Ford's scores in some automotive-quality studies.
The push toward smarter cars, meanwhile, has caused big-name chip makers such as Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. to step up efforts to penetrate the car business. Rival Nvidia says 4.5 million cars on the road are already equipped with its processors, and predicts an additional 25 million cars in four or five years will be using its technology.
"Right now, we are just scratching the surface," said Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's senior director for automotive applications.