Automakers rush to offer apps in cars
— -- An infotainment revolution is coming to cars and, yes, there's an app for that.
Just as apps have transformed smartphones and tablets, car console screens are the next frontier. While thousands of apps are available for download for personal devices, automakers have so far allowed only a select few to show up while you are driving.
Ford Motor will announce it is doubling the number of apps available for its Sync in-car infotainment system to 10 at next week's International Consumer Electronics Show. Mercedes-Benz and Kia are going to reveal the first apps for their respective infotainment systems at the same Las Vegas trade expo.
As revolutions go, this one started fitfully with just a handful of apps. Drivers can activate the car's controls to make dinner reservations through Toyota's Entune system or use the car's voice-command system to select music over Ford Sync. But the number of available apps is expected to multiply to dozens or perhaps hundreds over the next few years, just as they proliferated for Apple's iPhone or Google's Android smartphones.
"It's much more about extending the digital lifestyle to the vehicle," says Thilo Koslowski, automotive practice leader for Gartner, a research and consulting company. The car becomes "the ultimate mobile device."
Using apps behind the wheel, however, isn't the same as ambling down a sidewalk with a smartphone. Automakers are being careful to roll out only those they don't think will raise issues about driver distraction.
Most of the existing apps are automotive versions of ones available to all smartphone users. Many in the next wave will be specifically aimed at enhancing the driving experience.
Some possibilities:
•Instead of receiving generic Groupon-style local deal offers, imagine getting location-specific discounts as you drive near a business and then being given turn-by-turn directions to get there.
•If you're a news radio fan, you could get a tailored newscast in which you hear only the stories or topics of most interest to you — instead of listening to the standard fare.
•Accidentally leave the printout of the party invitation on the kitchen table? No problem if you can transfer e-invites and calendar items directly to your car, which would then direct you to your destination with turn-by-turn instructions.
Why apps? Because automakers say they are trying to fill in a big gap in their customers' electronic lives.
"When people get in their cars, they feel like they are not connected anymore. We want to change that," says Alfred Tom, a researcher and investment analyst at General Motors' Silicon Valley outpost. "That's what apps are going to do: Make people feel connected."
Lots of ideas
In the pursuit of new apps, automakers are being bombarded by developers pitching ideas.
Of the thousands of Web developers who have approached Ford Motor about creating apps for cars, only a relative few will make it through the development process, says Julius Marchwicki, Sync AppLink product manager.
"We are moving forward as best we can," he says, noting the complications of finding apps that can be used at 70 miles per hour. "Our solutions, as they are today, are much safer than using a handheld device."
Among major automakers, Ford Motor has shown arguably the greatest interest in apps, making them the focus of its Sync system developed in conjunction with Microsoft.
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