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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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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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In an essay nearly 20 years ago, Bill Gates famously declared that “content is king”. Since that essay was published, if you had a nickel for every time you heard that phrase repeated you might own your own a private island by now. But overused as that saying may be, it rings true nonetheless.

In an increasingly mobile and digital culture, consumers now decide when and where they receive content rather than having it dictated to them by providers. As such, in many areas of...

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A whitepaper from Capgemini argues that, in the connected automotive world, the potential attack surface extends across the entire ecosystem, with autonomous driving increasing the surface even further.

The report, entitled 'Cybersecurity for the Connected Vehicle', asserts that information will become increasingly exposed as it is used in and travels to and from vehicles. Connected cars will be able to connect in a variety of ways; the introduction of telematics services and...

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Over the next few years, more vehicles will start being aware of others around them to help prevent accidents. The US government wants to accelerate the deployment of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication to improve safety. 

V2V is relatively new, and the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has already committed to delivering proposed rules for its...

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IBM and Peugeot have announced a partnership to help better analyse data to deliver new services from connected vehicles.

The latest move, which builds upon the two firms’ partnership from last year for big data and analytics tools, aims to allow Peugeot to develop new business opportunities for a variety of industries, including automotive distribution, smarter cities, and retail. Financial terms of the seven-year deal were not disclosed.

The two companies also noted the importance of...

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A research note from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) has poured cold water on the concept that autonomous cars would lead to a reduction in fuel consumption.

The study, from UMTRI researchers Brandon Schoettle and Michael Sivak, weighs up the energy-saving pros and cons of self-driving vehicles. In theory, if cars were driverless then there would be fewer of them on the road, and would conserve fuel through more eco-friendly driving standards; increasing...

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...

Smartphones, tablets and wireless-enabled wearable technology will all become more reliable if BMW succeeds in bringing its Vehicular Small Cell research project to road cars.

Originally conceived to provide mobile phone signal in areas that normally struggle with poor coverage, femtocell technology was designed with thick-walled country cottages and large, insulated structures in mind.

BMW, however, is working with Nash Technologies and peiker acustic to circumvent the signal shielding that can cause...

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.

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Connected cars are on the rise, this much is certain, but how fast the market will grow in the future is an area that is still up for discussion and one company has its own take on where the industry is headed.

By the year 2020, Business Insider Intelligence estimates that the market’s value will be $2.2 trillion thanks to the 220 million connected cars due to be be on the road by then, although connected services will only be used by consumers in 88 million of...

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Mobile software management company Redbend continues its advance on the connected car industry with the launch of over-the-air software management platform Redbend 10.

Fresh from being acquired by Connecticut-headquartered Harman, Redbend has announced its latest package that lets manufacturers apply software and firmware updates using

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Internet access in the connected car will become a great deal more usable after Chinese telecommunications company Huawei and Orange, a French mobile network, announced a wi-fi product for cars in Spain.

Huawei’s Car Wi-Fi system can manage up to 10 different devices, including laptops, mobile phones and tablets. For the average car that seats a maximum of five people, each person would be able to use two different internet-connected devices which is more than...

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The driverless car, for a long time anticipated as an invention belonging to the future, seems to have arrived. Trials in four UK cities were announced just recently by the government.

For the driverless vehicle to be truly ‘connected,’ and to deliver benefits of safety, convenience and comfort, it must be one part of a whole communications infrastructure. Not just in the car but...

Federal standards that secure cars and protect drivers’ privacy have taken a step closer to reality, after new legislation was announced at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

Senators Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut want the legislation to direct National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create these new federal standards.

The concerted push for legislation comes after Markey’s own office

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London has fallen victim to a new wave of tech-savvy criminals that have been breaking into cars through their keyless entry features.

To paint a picture of how commonplace this is, the Metropolitan Police Office reports that more than 6,000 cars and vans across the UK’s capital were stolen without the owners’ keys, which is an average of 17 vehicles each day. These figures represent 42% of all car and van thefts.

Thieves are said to be using a device that can...

A flaw discovered by Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V. (ADAC) in BMW’s ConnectedDrive system has now been solved by the manufacturer.

More than 2.2 million vehicles were said to be affected by the vulnerability to ConnectedDrive, BMW’s in-car operating system. ADAC reported that a mobile was all that was required to access the platform.

By spoofing a phone network ADAC was able to break into ConnectedDrive. From here it was possible to control heating, ventilating, and air conditioning,...

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Google may have to skip the likes of Volkswagen, Daimler and Audi when looking for driverless partners if the German government has its way.

During a recent interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s transportation minister Alexander Dobrindt, spoke of a government initiative it was calling Digitales Testfeld Autobahn that would involve a stretch of smart highway in Bavaria.

Dobrindt, who may have concerns about the NSA tracking German citizens, revealed that...

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Over the next five years the number of connected cars on the road will rise significantly, making them a major player in the internet of things according to Gartner.

The research and advisory company has forecasted that one in five vehicles across the world will have a wireless network connection by the year 2020, which will equate to 250 million connected cars.

Connected cars are no longer available for the wealthy, with James F. Hines, research director at Gartner, commenting on...