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Will Apple's CarPlay dominate the dashboards of future cars? Is Ford planning to kick Microsoft out of its Sync system? Are Audi and General Motors going for Google?
Or does QNX, a dark horse whose software is already in tens of millions of vehicles, have the cards to trump other high-tech companies?
A dashboard donnybrook has erupted among tech companies vying to clean up the clutter of controls - infotainment apps, safety systems, social media, maps and the like - in the next generation of connected cars. While each company says it should be the one to untangle these connected services, it seems unlikely that any single one is going to dominate the dash, at least in the near future.
Apple's recently announced CarPlay software for connecting iPhones to the dashboard will appear in vehicles from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo this year, with other automakers signaling that they, too, will support the software.
Meanwhile, rumors that Ford may abandon its seven-year relationship with Microsoft underscore that carmakers are still wrestling with the multiple layers of software necessary to meld computers, communications and cars.
At the surface level, when drivers plug an iPhone 5 with a Lightning cable into a vehicle with CarPlay, for example, what they will see is an Apple icon, and beneath it an iPad-style arrangement of familiar square icons for apps like maps, messages, calling and iTunes. (There's no wireless option and the phone's screen will be locked while it's plugged in.)
The CarPlay app will effectively take control of the dashboard screen for those tasks, and it will look identical on all vehicles, giving Apple an almost unprecedented say in dictating what apps will appear in cars, and how they will be displayed - at least for those with the iPhone 5, 5c and 5s.
But while carmakers are willing to acquiesce in giving the creators of the iPad and iPhone control of the in-dash screen, that control goes only so far. Under other tabs and menus, the cars will still have apps for Google Android phones as well as popular apps that may not be supported by Apple, like Pandora, and car-specific apps, like the manufacturer's remote start function.
Referring to what designers call the human-machine interface - the controls that drivers actually touch - Doug Welk, the chief engineer for software and services at Delphi, says, "CarPlay is not changing the H.M.I. that's in the car." Delphi, which supplies in-dash systems for customers including General Motors, says carmakers will still decide how drivers operate CarPlay.
Volvo, for instance, is "going for a full touch-screen integration," says Thomas Müller, the automaker's vice president for electrical and electronic systems engineering. The company, which has cultivated an image as a safety-first automaker, thinks drivers have become more familiar with touchscreens.
At Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, "what you will not see is a touch display" version of CarPlay, according to Kal Mos, the automaker's senior engineering director. Mercedes plans to introduce its first CarPlay-compatible car, the C-Class, by year-end.
Müller of Volvo and Mos of Mercedes point out that Apple will not have access to any critical elements of the car, like the vehicle diagnostics, the safety systems or even the air-conditioning.
Those tasks falls to a deeper level of software. It is at this level of coordination that operating systems like Linux, QNX's Car Platform and Microsoft's Windows Embedded Automotive step in to coordinate the display, the human-machine interface and communications functions. The software market at this level is also in flux, as demonstrated by the rumors that Ford may adopt QNX's infotainment solution over Microsoft's.
The main problem facing connected cars is the lack of standards, which can be a source of confusion for drivers.
But no single platform has yet gained much traction. "We're in over 50 car models, and every one of those implementations is different," says John Donham, the chief executive of TuneIn, an app that lets listeners scan thousands of online radio stations. Donham acknowledges that it would be simpler to write an app once or twice for Google and Apple and have it work in all vehicles.
"We were hoping there would be more consolidation around an auto-driven standard for connecting smartphones to cars," says Niall Berkery, executive director for business development at TeleNav, which provides mapping and navigation services. Indeed, without an open standard and by including free maps, Apple and Google present an additional conundrum for navigation companies and automakers: Even more drivers might be discouraged from buying dedicated map apps or expensive built-in navigation systems.
Nevertheless, automakers want to work with smartphone technology companies rather than compete against them. "Ford sells cars," not phones, says John Ellis, the automaker's global technologist. "Automakers have to appeal to iPhone and Android owners alike. But auto makers suggest that today's drivers are more sophisticated about technology. "When the phone runs out of battery power," Müller of Volvo says, customers don't complain to the car maker.
@New York Times news service
