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Toyota has announced plans to expand the development of its hybrid technology over the coming years.
The car maker said it’s doing so as fuel consumption regulations “continue to strengthen” in some major countries.
Therefore, regions such as China, the US and Europe will need more environmentally friendly cars over the coming years.
As such, Toyota said by 2021, at least 60% of its...
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Connected car production will grow from 12.4 million shipments at the end of this year to almost 61 million by 2020, according to the latest research note from analyst house Gartner.
The end of 2015 saw 6.8 million units globally, with 4.68m of those tethered – to a mobile device – and 2.17m embedded. 2017 will however see the turning point where embedded systems will dominate, with 11.1m compared to 9.97m tethered. By 2020, the numbers for embedded and tethered are predicted...
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San Francisco-based firm Automatic has launched its new Automatic Pro connected car adapter, which offers a cellular signal and has been described by the firm as the “future of the automotive ecosystem.”
The adapter no subscription fees and is focused on real-time connectivity and Internet of Things (IoT). The new flagship adapter is designed for consumers to experience connected car capabilities based on their interests and needs.
The adapter, which comes with an unlimited...
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Hyundai is expanding the use of smartphone integrations across the 2017 model year range in the US, with the software update compatible with CarPlay and Android Auto now available for free through MyHyundai.com.
The 2017 Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport are now being built with both CarPlay and Android Auto support and will arrive at dealerships soon. All other 2017 model Hyundai vehicles with eligible Display Audio or Navigation systems include both smartphone integration solutions from...
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On the back of the addition of more than one million new connected devices over the past 12 months, Spireon has reported its 20th straight quarter of year-on-year revenue growth.
The addition in connected devices was witnessed across all major vehicle telematics segments, including new and used car dealers and lenders, small and medium sized fleets, transportation and trailer, rental car companies and consumer markets. Profitability more than doubled at the company that boasts over...
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Automotive giant Ford is launching the Automotive Wearables Experience laboratory in Michigan aiming to assess the potential of wearables and connected car technologies.
Gary Strumolo, global manager for vehicle design and infotronics, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, said: “As more consumers embrace smart watches, glasses and fitness bands, we hope to develop future applications that work with those devices to enhance in-car functionality and driver...
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Automotive giant Volkswagen has expanded a five-year relationship with RealVNC to enable it to ensure a consistent quality user experience in its cars – whatever handset the user is using.
Using its VNS Automotive Mirrorlink Certified solution car owners are able to pair their car with their smartphone. This then allows their devices to perform numerous functions within the car – from streaming movies to the backseats to running mapping applications on the centre...
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The introduction of Automotive Ethernet would significantly reduce vehicle weight, and better manage the complex transfer of data within connected vehicles according to Ninad Deshpande, a specialist in Open Technologies at B&R Industrial Automation.
In a speech during the Automotive Megatrends conference in India, Deshpande said the introduction of Ethernet in the automobile...
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A multi-function smart pole was shown at the IoT World Forum in Dubai which could help to ensure pedestrian safety, detect speeding vehicles, and reduce electricity consumption.
The functionalities are just a few of the possibilities of the new smart pole street lamp from Etisalat, which can act as a streetlamp, security camera, and even a WiFi hotspot, the company claims. With...
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The number of Chinese passenger vehicles with telematics capabilities rose 32.1% year-on-year to 1.8 million units in January-September 2015, according to a new report by Research In China.
The report found that 4G LTE technologies and smartphone integration has found wider applications among Chinese passenger vehicles. Manufacturers are also enriching in-vehicle infotainment and networking features for a better user experience.
OnStar dominates the Chinese passenger vehicle...
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German automobile maker BMW has unveiled several new connected car features which it hopes will help their vehicles differentiate from competitors.
The company's flagship vehicles, the BMW i3 and BMW i8, both feature integrated SIM cards through which the vehicle can interact with the internet and the increasing amount of "things" being connected to it as part of the IoT.
BMW has put a focus on harnessing the latest technologies outside of the company's...
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Verizon Telematics has announced the commercial availability of Hum, which promises to be a “smart, connected driving experience for more than 150 million vehicles.”
Hum’s staying power, like a lot of software this publication has assessed in recent weeks, is that it can be connected to practically any car. It can be installed through an onboard diagnostic reader (OBD), with a Bluetooth-enabled device on the visor, which updates drivers with real-time data...
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Mojio and its closest rival, Automatic, saw the gap in the market for transforming drivers' current vehicles into connected cars and stepped-in to offer their own adapters in the $100 - $149 region which feeds data from the OBD port available in most cars since 1996.
Of course ecosystems only thrive with a...
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Automatic Labs has announced $24 million in series B funding to “continue its mission to transform the car ownership experience with a host of connected car apps built on the Automatic platform.”
The company recently launched App Gallery, ostensibly an app store for connected cars, and its own developer platform, which is available to build apps for “just about any car since 1996”. It aims to use the cash injection to accelerate growth and continue expanding its...
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We might be entering the era of driverless cars, but for the time being the majority of us will remain in control which means the only errors we can blame are our own. This is where TomTom wants to step-in and help prevent our human mistakes from occuring with an innovative connected car application.
TomTom's system allows for a more-detailed look at driving performance
Dubbed TomTom CURFER, the new technology provides real-time feedback on the...
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If you wanted a connected car, you would have to put down a considerable sum of money for a car technologically-savvy enough. Yet one Dallas-based firm is aiming to turn all that on its head.
Meet Vinli. The startup, which debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in September, has the simple mission statement of “turning your car into a smart connected car”, by installing a $99 device into your vehicle and utilising Vinli’s apps, app store and 4G LTE connection. And the startup...
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The connected car is the focus of a lot of speculation about uses for contextual data feeds. The visions are exciting, whether of helmet-mounted cyclist beacons or biometric apps to stop drivers falling asleep at the wheel.
But they derive from car makers without a long track record in the kind of human-centred thinking that constitutes best practice in interaction design. Or they come from technology companies whose over-riding ambition is to transplant their operating...
Visa, Pizza Hut and Accenture are to collaborate on a proof-of-concept connected car that will be used to test commerce possibilities when drivers are out and about.
The concept will bring together several technologies, including Visa Checkout, mobile connectivity, Bluetooth and iBeacon, so that staff will be alerted when a customer has arrived to collect their pizza.
Takeaway food might be the initial focus of the tests, but the trio of companies have visions of their technology being adopted for everyday...
Aspects of in-car communication are still causing headaches for drivers, with a study from market research firm J.D. Power placing Bluetooth connectivity and voice interpretation at the top of a list of woes.
Of those that experience Bluetooth pairing or connectivity issues, 55% complained that the vehicle did not recognise their phone and 31% admitted their device would not automatically connect when entering the car.
Failing communications are playing a part with drivers’ decisions to repurchase with...
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The Hella group has released details of a new system called the Intelligent Damage Detection System that is capable of detecting scratches and dents as they happen.
Depending on the specification, anything from two to 12 sensors are positioned through a car’s body panels. A central control panel is able to detect a pressure being applied to the panel and then decide whether it is rain or something far less innocuous like a scratch.