Harman snaps up Red Bend Software for $170 million

Software management firm Red Bend Software has been acquired by audio and visual infotainment group Harman International for a fee of $170 million.

The deal seems like a good fit for Harman, which was perhaps missing a connectivity string to its bow and Dinesh C. Paliwal, chairman, president, and CEO of Harman confirmed it was a strategic purchase.

“This acquisition of Red Bend, a true pioneer in OTA and virtualisation technologies for cyber security, adds a critical component to our automotive systems...

By Simon Holland, 22 January 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Devices, Infotainment, Mergers and acquisitions, Video and audio.

University of Michigan builds test town for connected cars

Driverless vehicles are the talk of the automotive industry after busy CES and Detroit motor shows, but testing them in a safe environment, that can accurately replicate the challenges of road navigation, has been a challenge until now.

US education establishment, the University of Michigan, has released more information surrounding M-City, its ambitious project to create a detailed urban test area for driverless...

Jaguar Land Rover’s virtual back-seat driver warns you with a tap on the shoulder

Back-seat drivers can be a real annoyance to drivers and Jaguar Land Rover appears to be drawing on this bothersome trait for its latest bicycle safety system.

Jaguar Land Rover has launched an array of new features to help reduce the 19,000 cyclists killed or injured on UK roads every year, with one solution likely to prove divisive among drivers.

Bike Sense, Jaguar’s new system for cyclist detection, can detect when a bike is coming up the road behind the car. Depending on whether the cyclist...

Mojio rolls out its 'connected car for all' system to the rest of the world

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Connected car company Mojio has announced that its open platform for vehicles is now available to the world beyond Canada’s borders thanks to a partnership with AT&T.

Mojio has made a name for itself by breathing new life into the cars that manufacturers forgot when releasing new models and their shiny connectivity gadgets, giving them features such as parking...

By Simon Holland, 15 January 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Connectivity, Devices, Infotainment, Navigation.

How the internet of things is becoming intertwined with the connected car

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Looking at the recent news from some of the world’s biggest auto manufacturers, it is clear to see just how much progress has been made and how the connected car is revolutionising the in-car experience. At CES in January 2015, GM announced AtYourService, a suite of new OnStar services aimed at allowing retailers and other merchants to promote deals directly to drivers. These promotions include hotel...

CES 2015: Where the connected car became a tech industry darling

As the doors closed at the Las Vegas Convention Centre and its countless exhibitors tidied away their wares, it is clear that the connected car is at the forefront of the most compelling developments in the technology industry.

Technology firms have earmarked automotive as a sizable growth area and are investing heavily in developing products for car manufacturers to implement in one or all of their models.

Nuance, a company best known for its voice-transcribing software for desktop PCs, is a prime example of this strategy...

By Simon Holland, 12 January 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Apps, Artificial Intelligence, Devices, Driverless, Ecosystems, Infotainment.

A look into the future: Secure connected cars

Picture credit: Denis Bocquet

The number of people living in cities is expected to double by 2050, meaning congestion and pollution will increasingly be a problem for city dwellers. As a result the cities of the future will demand smarter traffic management solutions and more intelligent vehicles.

Experts say that the car industry will develop more in the next decade than it has in the last fifty years due to the rise in connectivity and mobile technology. The industry is gearing itself up for the age of the...

Harman creates separate audio ‘zones’ for each passenger

Infotainment manufacturer Harman has designed a new system for cars that is capable of giving each person their own audio without it interrupting their fellow passengers.

Harman’s Individual Sound Zones build on a vehicle’s regular audio system by adding a number of other speakers to the inside of a car, each aimed at giving passengers their own virtual pod for listening.

The idea is to avoid circumstances in the car that might be distracting for passengers, for example navigation and phone calls...

By Simon Holland, 08 January 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Devices, Infotainment, Navigation.

Nuance offers voice-activated biometrics for personalised infotainment

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Personalisation is set to be the next significant hurdle for car manufacturers and Nuance thinks it has the perfect solution with a fresh new update to its Dragon Drive product.

In today’s economical era of car use, there is a high chance that one vehicle will have more than a single driver. In these cases, each specific driver will have their own preference for configuring different aspects of the car.

Rather than having to tweak a whole host of settings before a driver...

Qualcomm’s new auto-focused CPU wants to be the master of multitasking

Semiconductor designer Qualcomm has let loose the 602A on the vehicle world, its latest Snapdragon silicon aimed at the connected car.

Qualcomm’s automotive-grade infotainment chipset seems to have been built with an emphasis on modern car technology having to perform a number of different processing tasks for its drivers and passengers.

The 602A supports multiple operating systems, complex user applications, enhanced 3D navigation, high-resolution, sophisticated graphics and human-machine interfaces,...

By Simon Holland, 07 January 2015, 0 comments. Categories: Devices, Infotainment, Mirrorlink.