On the Road with QNX Software Systems

Everything you wanted to know about HTML5 in the car — Part II

2012-02-22T13:19:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the second installment in my Q&A series on HTML5 in the car. Last week, we looked at CSS, cross-platform execution, and asynchronous design. This week, we turn our attention to web servers, native plug-ins, instrument clusters, and display updates.

If I don’t use a web server in my infotainment system, will I miss out on some features of HTML5?

A web server isn’t strictly necessary, but there are two very good reasons for including one. First, it lets you export a user interface to devices outside the car, thereby allowing mobile phones or tablets to run apps that are hosted on the vehicle head unit. Second, it lets you export internal car resources, as a URL, to HMI software running in the head unit. For instance, the web server could provide the HMI with access to static vehicle-configuration data (through an xml file) or to a back-up camera (through a video stream).

Will using native code plug-ins compromise my ability to leverage HTML5?

This is tricky, because a lot of things you want to do may require native code. So, yes, use native code, but do it judiciously. The more native code you use, the more it will limit the cross-platform capability of the HTML5 code that relies on it. The good news is that with HTML5 gaining so much functionality, plug-ins are needed far less than ever before.

A sample climate control app from the
QNX CAR 2 platform, created with HTML5.

Would you consider HTML5 as an option for cluster instruments: speedometers, tachometers, etc.?

At this point, I’d say no. HTML5 makes a lot of sense for in-vehicle infotainment, but it doesn’t provide the response needed for a vehicle cluster and it won't ensure safety-critical certification. Plus, the instrument cluster isn’t where you realize a lot of HTML5’s value: downloadable apps, connectivity to mobile devices, and so on. If the cluster and the infotainment system eventually merge into one big screen, then it’s more likely you could use HTML5 for both — but that’s still a few years out.

What’s a good way to get responsive display updates (10Hz update) into HTML5? Websockets?

If you need to deliver high-speed updates to your head unit, Websockets is one way to go. Make sure, however, that you don’t stall the rest of the JavaScript engine while your main thread is blocked on tasks. If you create another thread to monitor for changes, you can do it just as effectively (and probably with less work) with a JNEXT or NPAPI call into native code.

Auto + Mobile

2012-02-21T14:56:00.001-05:00

I love this play on words. I can’t claim it as my own but I think it’s very cool that the word automobile breaks down into auto and mobile. I’m sure the term originally referred to automatically mobile horseless-carriages or some such thing. According to one online source, the word dates from 1895 and means “self-propelled motor vehicle”.

But today, it represents the convergence of two historically independent industries, auto and mobile. Now, more than ever, consumers are extending their digital lives into their cars. They want a personalized in-vehicle experience, including access to their music, to their friends, to their favourite places, and to their schedules — both personal and professional. And that’s just the beginning.

Following the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, I heard many in the industry refer to CES as one of the most important automotive shows of the year. You heard that right: CES is now considered an automotive show.

The new QNX concept car is
scheduled to appear at MWC.

Now it’s February and QNX Software Systems is headed to Barcelona where we will demonstrate our connected concept car on the BlackBerry stand in Hall 7 at Mobile World Congress. This same car won a Best of CES award in the car tech category.

MWC is the show for mobile phones and everything related. During the show, we will participate on a luncheon panel hosted by Fierce Markets, Paving the Way to Success for the Connected Car. Other panelists include Ford, AT&T, and the GSMA.

MWC isn’t known as an auto-focused event but I expect this to change. Most carriers see the connected car as an emerging growth market, as do silicon vendors. Meanwhile, handset and car companies work towards improving the integration of the mobile experience into the car without impacting driver distraction.

Auto + Mobile. End of story.

For more info on the panel, click here.

ITU-T: Developing standards to fight driver distraction

2012-02-15T12:31:00.000-05:00

The telecommunication standardization sector of the International Telecommunications Union is poised to play a crucial role in tomorrow’s connected cars. And yet, many people in the auto industry have never heard of the ITU, or of its standardization sector, the ITU-T. So let’s start with a quick introduction.

The ITU is the United Nations agency that deals with telecommunications. More specifically, it is where governments come together to agree on international standards for Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs).

Currently, the ITU-T is developing recommendations for ICTs that interact with drivers — examples include networked-based navigation systems, web browsers, and mobile phones. These recommendations will apply to networks; to applications accessed by drivers; and to connected, nomadic, and factory-installed devices. Strictly speaking, these recommendations are voluntary, which is precisely why they are referred to as “recommendations.” However, they can become binding if mandated by regional government agencies or customers.

ITU-T recommendations for the car are needed for several reasons:

ICTs are moving into the automotive cockpit — Increasingly, ICT systems under the scope of the ITU-T are finding their way into the cockpit and interacting with drivers. Technology-related driver distraction has been recognized as a global problem that needs to be addressed. Internationally agreed guidance on the design and performance of these systems can help increase safety.
Easy-to-find guidance for ICT community — ICT designers, developers, and application authors need easy access to guidance on design and performance requirements for ICT systems that interact with drivers. The ICT community consults ITU-T recommendations for guidance and requirements on ICT systems. Therefore, there is real value in having ITU-T recommendations that can serve as a reference to existing driver distraction-related standards and to fill any standardization gaps.
Internationally agreed standards — The ITU-T is where governments come together to agree on international telecommunications standards. This is what makes these standards unique. It also gives them more weight with regional Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and regulatory authorities. There is even value in an ITU-T recommendation that simply references existing standards since it will have gone through the ITU-T approval process.

Focus group on driver distraction
Last year, I became the founding chair for the ITU’s Focus Group on Driver Distraction (FG Distraction), which was created to pull expertise from the automotive industry and human factors experts into the ITU-T standardization process. The group currently has 3 planned ITU-T recommendations related to driver distraction:

G.SAM — recommendation on mechanisms for managing the situational awareness of drivers:

G.V2A — recommendation on an automotive interface (for instance, APIs) for applications external to the vehicle gateway:

P.UIA — recommendation on automotive user interface requirements:

FG Distraction will finalize pulling together input from industry and human factors experts by December 2012. Approved ITU-T recommendations are not expected until late 2013.

Want to contribute?
If you’d like to participate in FG Distraction, the group is open to any individual from a country that is a member of ITU and who is willing to contribute to the work (which is just about everyone). This includes anyone who is also a member or representative of an interested SDO. There is no cost to participate.

For more information about FG Distraction and upcoming meetings, click here. The next meeting will take place on April 4-5 at the SAE Headquarters in Troy, Michigan, USA.

Everything you wanted to know about HTML5 in the car — Part I

2012-02-13T13:03:00.106-05:00

My HTML5 webinar generated a lot of interesting dialog about what HTML5 means for in-vehicle systems. People asked questions about everything from security and performance to WebGL and cross-platform execution. Many of the same questions come up with when I speak with customers and analysts, which got me to thinking: Why not address them in this blog?

So without further ado, here is the first of my "FAQs" on HTML5 in the car. If you have a question and you don’t see it answered here, leave a comment and let me know! I’ll try my best to answer it in a future post.

How can you create multiple in-vehicle user interfaces using a single HTML5 code base?
The key to achieving this is the Cascading Style Sheets language, or CSS.

CSS controls the look and feel of web pages, but it can also be used to control the look and feel of a vehicle head unit. By changing a single CSS file, you can, for example, change all the fonts and background colors in a website (or head unit) from Arial and white to Verdana and black.

Mind you, CSS does much more than that. It also lets you specify how individual tags in HTML documents are displayed: layout, margins, sizes, colors, behavioral characteristics, events, and so on. Consider, for example, a phone app accessed through the vehicle head unit. If that app provides an HTML5-based user interface, each OEM could provide a default CSS that controls how the app looks on the head unit, adapting the app to meet in-vehicle usability standards and, of course, branding it.

A sample app from the QNX CAR 2 application
platform, created with HTML5

Let’s say your phone has an HTML5 navigation app that you want to run in your Audi today and your Chevy tomorrow. Although the phone serves up the app content identically in both cases, the Audi system can use a CSS to ensure that the app looks ‘Audi-like’, with that distinctive black and silver coloring, and the Chevy system can use a CSS that gives it the app the look-and-feel of OnStar. In effect, CSS can give the OEM more control over brought-in applications than other types of ‘screen replication’ technologies, like MirrorLink or iPod Out.

Keep in mind, though, that CSS can’t solve different OEM input philosophies, such as touch, hardkey, softkey and so on. You could use CSS to change the appearance for different inputs, but you would still need to have JavaScript hooking things up underneath.

You mentioned that cross-platform execution is a key benefit of HTML5. Do you have any recommendations on how to implement it?
Cross-platform execution is definitely something you want to keep in mind when designing software for vehicle head units. If you’re careful to ensure your app avoids features specific to the embedded environment, you can use mobile and embedded apps with the same HTML5 code base. It shouldn’t be difficult to make sure your app runs in both environments, but it’s better to plan for this going into design. That way, you can avoid using anything that prohibits cross-platform execution.

Could HTML5 replace the current HMI systems in head units that support multiple applications, and still be event driven and asynchronous in nature?
Definitely. JavaScript in HTML5 supports the concept of separate threads, called workers, that can handle events asynchronously. Although workers have some restrictions, such as the inability to modify the Document Object Model (DOM) or access globals, they should still be able to handle most asynchronous events. Maximum flexibility may require additional support from the HTML5 engine. To that end, QNX Software Systems has invested a lot of time in improving WebKit to allow code to run in separate engine web views, in different threads, in different processes, and even in completely independent HTML5 engine instances.

Stay tuned for Part II, where I plan to tackle questions on web browsers, web servers, and instrument clusters.

Which QNX concept car would you rather drive?

2012-02-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

Paul Leroux

Last year, my QNX colleagues created a concept car out of a Chevy Corvette. This year, they created one out of a Porsche 911 Carrera. Both cars are tricked out with cool QNX-based infotainment systems, though the systems in the Porsche, being newer, are decidedly more sophisticated and forward looking.

But let's ignore the infotainment features for a moment. If you had an opportunity to drive both cars at full throttle, which do you think you'd prefer?

I've yet to drive the Porsche, and I haven't had a chance to red-line either car. So realistically, I couldn't begin to draw a comparison between the two. In any case, the old saw about comparing apples to oranges quickly comes to mind. But for anyone who likes shoot-outs between raw American power and refined European performance, here's a new Motor Trend video that pits a Corvette Grand Sport against a 911 Carrera S. These aren't the exact same models used by QNX, but it's a great head-to-head video nonetheless:

So, tell me, are you a Corvette man (or woman)? Or are you 911 the way? And did the video change your mind any?

Mark your calendars: FOTA webinar this week

2012-02-06T10:05:00.005-05:00

Paul Leroux

A heads-up that, in two days, QNX Software Systems and Red Bend will deliver a webinar on keeping connected cars up to date with Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) technology.

Here's a summary of the webinar:

The connected car is revolutionizing the automotive industry. It brings together wireless connectivity, IP communications infrastructure, middleware and applications to transform the driving experience. Yet as the amount and the complexity of software inside cars increases, so too does the need to update the software in order to provide new functionality and perform software maintenance. To help streamline these activities, OEMs can use proven firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updating technology to deliver software improvements efficiently and reliably.

Please join QNX Software Systems and Red Bend Software as they present how QNX CAR 2 application platform supports the latest advancements in performing over-the-air software management and application updates in connected cars.
And here are the coordinates:

Details and registration

The folks delivering the webinar are Yoram Berholtz from Red Bend Software, an industry leader in FOTA, and my inimitable colleague Andy Gryc. If you can't catch the webinar — or even if you can catch the webinar — I invite you to check out Andy's article on the Red Bend website, Fill the Tank, Check the Oil, and Update the Software.

Do the 1/4 mile in 9.1 secs and win a '59 El Camino

2012-02-02T20:44:00.002-05:00

Paul Leroux

I must confess, I have the attention span of a gnat. Watching movies? Forget it. I'm too restless. Same goes for watching baseball, hockey, or any other popular game sport. They all take too long to come to an end.

Compare these to drag racing. It's a sport of many shorter outcomes, most of which are decided in 10 seconds or less. Which may explain why I watched the entire 11 minutes of this video of the 1959 national drag racing championship. Of course, it didn't hurt that the soundtrack consists mainly of roaring engines — I'm a sucker for a blown V8 in full cry.

Among other things, you'll notice there's no Christmas tree; the countdowns were performed by a live human being. Other highlights include a trophy for the safest dragster (seriously?), Art Arfons establishing a new track speed record, and a grand prize of a 1959 El Camino. In case you didn't know, Art held the world land-speed record three times during the mid 60s. And if you're really into trivia, note that GM introduced the Camino in 1959 in response to the success of the Ford Ranchero.

Okay, enough of that. Roll the tape...

And hey, did you notice? People were way thinner back then.

OnStar Interview: Standards, HTML5, and the OEM

2012-02-01T13:13:00.003-05:00

Have you ever explained to your kids why the solid rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle are the width of two Roman warhorses standing side-by-side? If you haven’t, I suggest you do. The incredulous looks are well worth it. For additional bonus laughter from the younger crowd, you may want to add in the fact that we’re talking about the rear ends of horses.

What this little bit of trivia does for us, the 'older' crowd, is offer a lesson in standardization. A set of specs, rules, measurements, and so on can have long-lasting repercussions. And so, on the one hand, it behooves us to choose wisely; while on the other hand, it reminds us about the importance of being open to change.

Steve Schwinke, director of advanced technology for OnStar, is among a growing number of industry leaders who believe that HTML5 has the potential to dramatically change our industry for the better. Steve believes in strength in numbers and has great faith in the OEM community to work together to help shape the standard and promote its widespread adoption.

Here’s what Steve had to say about HTML5 when we visited him in Detroit just before the holidays in December.

This interview of Steve Schwinke is the fifth in a series from QNX on HTML5.

HTML5 Hackathon

2012-01-27T16:44:00.001-05:00

Learn how to put together HTML5 apps at the HTML5 Hackathon. You'll get hands-on experience with WebWorks, which is the BlackBerry tool for building applications with HTML5.

That'll get you primed for building HTML5 apps for the QNX CAR 2 application platform!

QNX concept car makes detour at TI headquarters

2012-01-25T21:50:00.000-05:00

Guest post by Kroy Zeviar, QNX strategic alliances

My colleague Mark Rigley must feel (justifiably) proud these days. He is, after all, head of the team that created the new QNX concept car, which took home a Best of Show award from 2012 CES.

You'd think that Mark and I would be anxious to get home after a hectic, albeit gratifying week at CES. And indeed, we were. But we made a slight detour and stopped over in Dallas to show off the car to our friends at Texas Instruments.

Everyone loved it. The car, based on a Porsche 911, takes advantage of TI's OMAP4 and wireless connectivity solutions, so folks were naturally excited to see what their technology had helped enable.

Better yet, TI brought in a pro photographer to take these cool pix...

Upwards of 400 folks came out to see the car

Checking out the new head unit and digital cluster

Mark, in the passenger seat, giving one of many demos

Best of CES 2012 winner. Woo-hoo!

This shot is just cool.

And speaking of cool, a huge shoutout to the TI OMAP and
wireless solutions teams for all their great support!

The Coolest Cars at NAIAS

2012-01-13T22:45:00.000-05:00

Here's the Cliff Notes version of North American International Auto Show industry preview. (Cole's notes for my Canadian followers.)

The show was a great one, especially compared to last year. Industry people were there from across the globe, and most of the exhibits were packed. (The pictures below that were absent of people required patience, timing, and retakes.) NAIAS was strong, despite some debate about how it may be losing relevance with Europeans or Asians. Jaguar LandRover was missing this year. But it's still the show where the big three pulls out all the stops; very few other major automakers want to risk being absent. Cobo hall was filled with absolutely massive displays of new models, concept cars, and interactive displays from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, Fiat, Ford, GM, Hyundia, Kia, Toyota, Volkswagen, and many others.

There was a lot to see. Unfortunately due to my other show duties, I didn't get a lot of time on the show floor. What I saw was pretty darn cool, and here are the highlights.

Smart Art

Not your father's Mercedes

Honda Fit - an Insightful design

The ultimate jacked suspension on a Ford Raptor

F-150 King Ranch. Sweet! (Except I don't do leather)

Chevy Miray concept. Holy gull-wing, Batman!

Miray from the back looks just as wicked

TRU 40S — another very cool GM concept. Love the white satin finish

Lexus LF-LC. Concept based on Lexus LFA. Looks fast (that's why it's blurry).

LF-LC from the rear. This is the view you'll normally have, but far smaller.

Nothin' but sliver Porsches. Drool.

VW Bugster. Combination bug and roadster. Huh.

Via. Don't know what it is, but it sho' looks cool.

Audi R8GT. Nice side vents to cool off those brakes.

I just liked this mini hung up on the wall. Looked cute — want one in my den.

BMW concept car. Tron, anyone?

BMW Active Hybrid; a little more practical than the above pic

Audi e-tron

Audi RS 5 Coupe -- aggressive grille!

Another Smart concept car--perfect for the city (bikes in the back)

Chrysler 700C. Now this is a minivan any man would agree to

Another view of the 700C

300SRT8. Didn't know SRT made normal cars

SRT Challenger

SRT Yellow Jacket - Starsky

SRT Super Bee - Hutch

QNX drives home with a Best of CES award

2012-01-12T15:16:00.003-05:00

Paul Leroux

This just in: QNX Software Systems has won a Best of CES Award, in the Car Tech category, for its recently announced QNX CAR 2 application platform.

QNX received the award about an hour ago, at the CES awards ceremony in Las Vegas. I'm still kind of pumped and at a loss for words, though two come to mind: WOO HOO!!! :-)

For a glimpse of why the folks at CES think so highly of QNX CAR 2 (and of the QNX concept car designed to showcase CAR 2's capabilities), check out this video from CNET's Antuan Goodwin and the photos I posted on my personal blog, On Q.

The new QNX concept car, which showcases the capabilities of the QNX CAR 2 platform,
features one-touch NFC smartphone pairing, tablet-based rear-seat entertainment, ultra
HD voice technology, and a reconfigurable instrument cluster.

New CNET video takes you on guided tour of QNX concept car

2012-01-11T17:00:00.002-05:00

Paul Leroux

This just in: Antuan Goodwin of CNET has posted a video walkthrough of the new QNX concept car, which showcases the many capabilities of the QNX CAR 2 application platform.

Antuan touches on all of the car's salient features, including one-touch smartphone integration, backseat entertainment, video streaming, rich app support, ultra HD voice technology, and the reconfigurable digital instrument cluster. Check it out:

Cool! QNX concept car shortlisted for Best of CES 2012 award

2012-01-11T14:28:00.007-05:00

Paul Leroux

This just in: The new QNX concept car, which showcases the many capabilities of the QNX CAR 2 application platform, has been selected as a finalist for a Best of CES 2012 award. WOO-HOO!!! (Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system.)

Other finalists include über-cool cameras from Nikon and Canon, as well as state-of-the-art TVs from LG, Panasonic, and Samsung. Dell, HP, Pioneer, and Sony are also in the running.

CNET members vote for who will take home the award. CNET will announce the winners tomorrow at 11 am Pacific Time — stay tuned!

For more photos of the car, check out my post on the On Q blog. And while you're at it, check out the CNET article by Antuan Goodwin.

CrackBerry posts first peek at OnStar RemoteLink for BlackBerry PlayBook

2012-01-11T12:57:00.003-05:00

Paul Leroux

This morning at CES, CrackBerry.com met up with QNX's Andrew Poliak for a walkthrough of the new OnStar RemoteLink app for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

If you aren't familiar with RemoteLink, it provides a very cool and powerful connection to OnStar-equipped vehicles. From the convenience of your tablet or phone, you can access gas mileage, tire pressure, and other information in real time; you can even remotely start your vehicle and unlock its doors.

Cooler yet, the new version running on the PlayBook boasts a user interface built entirely in HTML5. But enough blather from me. Roll the tape...

Did you know? QNX is the core OS for the PlayBook, but it's also the OS for OnStar and OnStar FMW.

The Chassis

2012-01-11T11:02:00.003-05:00

Welcome to a new series of guest posts from Matt Watson, product line manager of
Texas Instruments' automotive infotainment group. In this installment, Matt discusses
how a key aspect of infotainment systems can get (unjustifiably) overlooked.

Matt Watson

I had an interesting revelation recently. Last fall I was at Japan’s Narita airport, waiting to board a flight, when someone jostled my backpack free of my shoulder. The backpack crashed to the floor and the impact crippled the screen on my 5-year old trustworthy portable music player (ok, iPod). The iPod would still play music, but I couldn’t “drive” it.

I wasn’t particularly interested in navigating this product blind, so I had already mentally picked out a replacement during my flight back to Texas. When I landed, I got into my car to drive home and, out of habit, plugged the iPod into my car’s USB port and listened to my normal playlist. It didn’t dawn on me immediately, but I soon realized that I was navigating the iPod from the car’s radio UI. So my iPod wasn’t useless, after all, and still provided me with its primary function — audio playback in my car.

Here was my (three-part) revelation:

My wife was right: I bought my car only as an iPod accessory
I wasn’t going to get spouse approval for the iPod upgrade I had already ear-marked
Sometimes we tend to forget the primary function (I had an alternative way to access the control of the iPod even without the display!)

At this point, I’d like to draw an analogy between the automotive infotainment system and the car itself. Let’s consider the infotainment system as a combination of a strong chassis (engine, powertrain, suspension, braking system, etc.) and a body (outside body, seats, user-interacting components):

Chassis = radio, multimedia and vehicle connectivity functions
Body = user interface, including cutting-edge features that resemble consumer/mobile experiences

In the world of automotive infotainment, the focus of attention is often on the ”body”: the functionalities mirroring the latest in consumer trends. Meanwhile, the workhorse “chassis” is overlooked. No doubt, these consumer-tracking capabilities are important, as they drive innovation, ease of use, and connectivity with existing devices. But I want to focus here on the “chassis” of the infotainment system, which handles radio, audio, voice/speech, and vehicle connectivity, and which exists in every vehicle, be it luxury or entry.

In future posts, I’ll look at some of the areas of innovation that we are driving at Texas Instruments in the area of smart integration from a processing perspective for the infotainment “chassis”. I’ll describe these from a few different perspectives: CPU/peripheral integration, system, and software integration. I’ll also explain how QNX technologies can be leveraged to further the cause of easy integration in the vehicle, including the newer QNX technologies such as the Persistent Publish/ Subscribe (PPS) service, as mentioned by Sheridan Ethier in his recent interview on HTML5.

For now, I’ll leave you with a picture of my (still functioning) iPod — note the blank screen and imagine audio playing back just fine…

Editor's note — Here's a little more about Matt:

Matt Watson is the Product Manager for the TI Audio and Automotive Infotainment Processors at Texas Instruments. At TI, Matt has also held roles managing software development for audio, multimedia, and infotainment groups over the last 10 years. Prior to joining Texas Instruments, Matt held positions at Dolby Laboratories (focusing on low-bit rate audio coding) and Motorola (developing software for floating-point audio Digital Signal Processors).

CES press: This just in!

2012-01-10T17:25:00.000-05:00

OK well, maybe not 'just in' but these articles and releases were posted yesterday and are quite exciting if you are following QNX technology:

TeleCommunication Systems Supplies Advanced Navigation for QNX CAR 2 Application Platform

TI Takes The Driver’s Seat With An Unrivaled, Full System Solution For Connected Automotive Infotainment

AT&T's Watson coming to cars: won't mind if you ask it if you're there yet

Gearing up for CES

2012-01-10T11:35:00.002-05:00

I arrived in Las Vegas last night, gearing up for the CES show. I know I must be in Vegas: When I woke up at 4:30 am (my body is stuck in eastern time), there was still a buzz around the hotel — people just do not stop here.

I’m looking forward the show. Our automotive development team has been hard at work on some exciting new technology, and I can hardly wait to show it off.

First, we are demonstrating our new concept car, based on a Porsche Carrera. This thing is loaded with goodies to demonstrate how you can use your smartphone and tablet to improve the driving experience. For instance, the car supports Near Field Communications (NFC) pairing: You simply touch your phone to the car and the two become instantly paired — no more fumbling with unintuitive menus and security codes.

The new concept car features one-touch smartphone pairing, tablet-based rear-seat
entertainment, ultra HD voice technology, and a reconfigurable instrument cluster.

We’re also showing a level of integration beyond a simple voice-dialing list. For instance, you can use your phone’s contact list to direct your navigation system or to automatically contact meeting invitees when your car knows you’ll be late for an appointment. We will also demonstrate our ultra HD voice technology, which provides full stereo sound for handsfree calls — you’d have to hear this to get the real impact. It’s like you're sitting right next to the person on the other end of the call. (I hope this works well in the noisy show floor environment!)

We're also launching the QNX CAR 2 application platform, which will allow automakers to leverage the power of the mobile development community and to keep in-car infotainment software fresh for consumers. We are doing some pretty unique things with HTML5, including the ability to write and package applications for deployment to the car. Another cool feature is the ability to dynamically detect and play media that is added to the system – try doing that with a standard browser!

Just writing this has me looking forward to getting started. See you at 2012 CES!

Next week: CES, CTS, AT&T, NAIAS. Phew!

2012-01-06T15:25:00.001-05:00

It has been a hectic week back from Christmas vacation trying to get all the last minute preparations ready for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Consumer Telematics Show (CTS) in Las Vegas and the North American International Automotive Show (NAIAS) in Detroit.

CES has become a "must attend" show for automotive, due to the continued convergence between the consumer and automotive industries. (Yes, that's an intentional pun, and SAE Convergence is this year, but thankfully not until October.) Our CES QNX booth is tucked right behind the RIM booth #30326 in the main hall. We'll have some really cool new demos that you'll definitely want to check out! I can't give you details until next week, but trust me they are worth the wait.

We've got QNX representatives speaking both at CTS, which is the Monday before in Mandalay Bay, and at the AT&T Developer Conference which is the Sunday and Monday before at the Palms hotel.

And finally there's NAIAS at Cobo Hall. I'm skipping CES this year to give some love to my home town. I'll be back in Detroit, keepin' it old school. If I don't see you there, look me up. Peace out.

HTML5 is a great option for the risk-adverse

2012-01-04T16:43:00.003-05:00

The conservative nature of automakers makes them ideal candidates for the brand-spanking new HTML5. Say what?

While this seems paradoxical, it is an interesting take-away from the discussion between TCS' director of engineering Michael Camp and our very own Andy Gryc. If you've got three minutes to spare, watch the latest video in our HTML5 series for the whole story. (As usual, don't miss the ending. ;-)

This interview of Michael Camp is the fourth in a series from QNX on HTML5.

HTML5 and the software engineer

2011-12-27T23:01:00.006-05:00

HTML5 appears to have a number of benefits for consumers and car manufacturers. But what is often good for the goose is not necessarily good for the developer. Talking to the guys in the trenches is critical to understanding the true viability of HTML5.

Andy Gryc and Sheridan Ethier, manager of the automotive development team at QNX, pair up for a technical discussion on HTML5. They explore whether this new technology can support rich user interfaces, how HTML5 apps can be blended with apps written in OpenGL, and if interprocess communication can be implemented between native and web-based applications.

So without further ado, here’s the latest in the educational series of HTML5 videos from QNX.

This interview of Sheridan Ethier is the third in a series from QNX on HTML5.

Is HTML5 a good gamble?

2011-12-19T16:03:00.010-05:00

As the consumer and automotive worlds continue to collide, HTML5 looks like a good bet. And not a long shot either. In fact, the odds are all automakers will eventually use it. But since the standard won’t be mature for some time yet, should you take a chance on it now?

To answer this, Andy Gryc talks to Matthew Staikos of RIM. Matthew is the manager of the browser and web platform group at RIM, and has over 10 years of software development experience with a strong focus on WebKit for mobile and embedded systems. Matthew co-founded Torch Mobile, which was acquired by RIM for their browser technology.

Andy’s conversation with Matthew is the subject of the following video, the second in an educational series designed to get an industry-wide perspective on HTML5.

This interview of Matthew Staikos is the second in a series from QNX on HTML5.

What’s HTML5 got to do with automotive?

2011-12-13T13:55:00.003-05:00

There’s been a lot of noise lately about HTML5. A September 2011 report by binvisions shows that search engines and social media web sites are leading the way toward adoption: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Twitter, and plenty more have already transitioned to HTML5. Some are taking it even further: Facebook has an HTML5 Resource Center for developers and the Financial Times has a mobile HTML5 version of their website.

It won’t be long before HTML5 is ubiquitous. We think automakers should (and will) use it.

To elucidate the technology and its relevance, we’ve created a series of educational videos on the topic. Here is the first in that series. Interviews with partners, customers, and industry gurus will soon follow.

This simple overview is the first in a series from QNX on HTML5. (Personally I like the ending the best.)

Seamless connectivity is for more than online junkies

2011-12-08T09:51:00.009-05:00

As much as I’m not always enamored with sitting behind a computer all day, I find being off the grid annoying. Remember this email joke?

wake up at 3:00 am to go to the bathroom and stop to check your email on the way back to bed
rarely communicate with your mother because she doesn’t have email
check your inbox. It says ‘no new messages,’ so you check it again

Even though this joke circulated several years ago, it still strikes a chord. The big difference now is that there’s no longer a subculture of ‘online junkies.’ From the time we wake up in the morning to the time we go to bed, we all want to be connected — and that includes when we get behind the wheel. So to this joke I would add:

resent driving because it means going off the grid

At QNX, we’re working toward a seamless experience where people can enjoy the same connectivity whether they’re texting their spouse from the mall or checking traffic reports while driving down the highway. See what I mean:

For more information about the technology described in this video, visit the QNX website.

Video: The secret to making hands-free noise-free

2011-12-06T14:05:00.001-05:00

Explaining a highly technical product to a broad audience is tough. To succeed, you must reach out to people on their own terms, without being condescending. Most people love a good explanation, but everyone hates being talked down to.

Case in point: The QNX Acoustic Processing Suite. This software runs in millions of cars and offers a benefit that everyone can relate to: clear, rich, easy-to-understand hands-free calls. But once you start explaining how the suite does this, it's easy to get mired in technical jargon and to forget the bigger picture — something that even a technical audience wants to see.

So we dropped the jargon and opted for a creative approach. It involves a marching band, a rock guitarist, and, for good measure, an electric fan with a really long extension cord. Seriously.

Intrigued yet? Well, then, grab some popcorn and dim the lights:

Interested in learning more about this technology? Check out the acoustic processing page on the QNX website.

BTW, companies that use the QNX Acoustic Processing Suite in their products include OnStar, whose FMV aftermarket mirror recently won a CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award.

Posted by Paul Leroux

Brand exposure

2011-12-06T12:53:00.002-05:00

QNX has a knack for turning up where I least expect it. Sometimes, I'm even surprised by how our technology partners use it — and I head up strategic alliances at QNX Software Systems. In this case, at least, I can claim ignorance based on distance.

Last week, Tokyo Weekender published a story on Freescale Japan from the perspective of David Uze, the company’s president. Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting David knows he’s super passionate about his mission. And arguably, it must be a challenging one, for the market in Japan has a long history of being dominated by national silicon suppliers. But, from an automotive perspective, recent consolidations of some of those suppliers, along with the trend towards standardized architectures, have opened the door for companies like Freescale.

The article talks about Freescale’s planned expansion in Japan, recovery from the earthquake, the advantages of being a global company, and the Freescale Cup, a robotics competition for university students that will be launched in Japan next year.

This, for me, is David’s most interesting comment:

“The reason I believe we must focus on Japan is because it is the most macro-economically focused culture in the world. Japan is the only country I know of where companies routinely create 50 -year plans to ensure they are a strong economic force in the long term.”

I find this incredible, especially if it applies to high-tech companies. Most would struggle with a concise 5-year plan, let alone 50!

But back to QNX. If you look at the article's opening photo (see below), you'll a car emblazoned with the logos of several Freescale suppliers, including a QNX logo that appears right below the Freescale wordmark. The QNX logo also appears in another photo, on a banner hanging above the head of Freescale CEO Rich Breyers, as he addresses the crowd at an FTF event.

Talk about international brand exposure! Thanks, David!

Pimp your ride with augmented reality — Part II

2011-11-30T18:42:00.000-05:00

Last week, I introduced you to some cool examples of augmented reality, or AR, and stated that AR can help drivers deal with the burgeoning amount of information in the car.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s look at some use-cases for both drivers and passengers. Remember, though, that these examples are just a taste — the possibilities for integrating AR into the car are virtually endless.

AR for the driver
When it comes to drivers, AR will focus on providing information while reducing distraction. Already, some vehicles use AR to overlay the vehicle trajectory onto a backup camera display, allowing the driver to gauge where the car is headed. Some luxury cars go one step further and overlay lane markings or hazards in the vehicle display.

Expect even more functionality in the future. In the case of a backup camera, the display might take advantage of 3D technology, allowing you to see, for example, that a skateboard is closer than the post you are backing towards. And then there is GM's prototype heads-up system, which, in dark or foggy conditions, can project lane edges onto the windshield or highlight people crossing the road up ahead:

AR can be extremely powerful while keeping distraction to a minimum. Take destination search, for example. You could issue the verbal command, “Take me to a Starbucks on my route. I want to see their cool AR cups”. The nav system could then overlay a subtle route guidance over the road with a small Starbucks logo that gets bigger as you approach your destination. The logo could then hover over the building when you arrive.

You'll no longer have to wonder if your destination is on the right or left, or if your nav system is correct when it says, “You have arrived at your destination.” The answer will be right in front of you.

AR for the passenger
So what about the passenger? Well, you could easily apply AR to side windows and allow passengers to learn more about the world around them, a la Wikitude. Take, for example, this recent video from Toyota, which represents one of the best examples of how AR could make long road trips less tedious and more enjoyable:

QNX-based nav system helps Ford SUVs stay on course down under

2011-11-29T15:53:00.009-05:00

Paul Leroux

This just in: SWSA, a leading electronics supplier to the Australian automotive industry, and NNG, the developer of the award-winning iGO navigation software, have created a QNX-based navigation system for Ford Australia. The new system has been deployed in Ford Territory SUVs since June of this year.

To reduce driver distraction, the system offers a simplified user interface and feature set. And, to provide accurate route guidance, the system uses data from an internal gyroscope and an external traffic message channel, as well as standard GPS signals. Taking the conditions of local roads into account, the software provides a variety of alerts and speed-camera warnings; it also offers route guidance in Australian English.

The navigation system is based on the iGO My way Engine, which runs in millions of navigation devices worldwide. To read NNG's press release, click here.

SWSA's new nav system for the Ford Territory is based on the Freescale
i.MX31L processor, QNX Neutrino RTOS, and iGO My way Engine.

QNX-powered OnStar FMV drives home with CES Innovation award

2011-11-27T20:44:00.001-05:00

Paul Leroux

This just in: The OnStar FMV aftermarket mirror, which brings the safety and security features of OnStar to non-GM vehicles, has won a coveted CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award.

To clinch this award, a product must impress an independent panel of industrial designers, engineers, and trade journalists. Speaking of impressions, it seems that OnStar FMV also made a hit with the folks at CNET, because they've chosen it as one of their Top Holiday Shopping Picks for 2011.

As you may have guessed, OnStar FMV uses QNX Neutrino as its OS platform. It also uses the QNX acoustic processing suite, which filters out noise and echo to make hands-free conversations clear and easy to follow. The suite includes cool features like bandwidth extension, which extends the narrow-band hands-free signal frequency range to deliver speech that is warm and natural, as well as intelligible.

Have time for a video? If so, here's a fun look at FMV's features, including stolen vehicle recovery, automatic crash response, turn-by-turn navigation, hands-free calling, and one-touch emergency calling:

Listen to the music

2011-11-22T10:41:00.000-05:00

The audio CD is on its last track... Internet radio, anyone?

I don’t think anyone will disagree with me when I say that music still represents the most important element in an infotainment system. Just look at the sound system capabilities in new cars. Base systems today have at least 6 speakers, while systems from luxury brands like Audi and BMW boast up to 16 speakers and almost 1000 watts of amplification.

For nearly as long as I can remember, cars have come with CD players. For many years they’ve provided a simple way to take your music on the road. But nothing lasts forever.

Earlier this year, Ford announced it would discontinue CD players in many of its vehicle models. Some industry pundits have predicted that CD players will have no place in cars in model year 2015 and beyond. A few weeks ago, Side-Line Music Magazine reported that major labels plan to abandon the CD format as early as 2012. This revelation has created a flurry of activity on the Net, but the labels have yet to confirm it’s true.

Steady decline
The fact is, CD sales have declined steadily for the last several years, down 16 percent in 2010 alone. Digital downloads (the legal kind), on the other hand, have been growing quickly and are expected to exceed CD sales for the first time in 2012.

Where does that leave us in the car? Obviously, media device integration will be key in the coming years. QNX Software Systems has long supported Apple iPod integration and supported Microsoft’s ill-fated Zune for a while. USB connectivity is a given, and soon you’ll be able to stream music from your phone.

Radio redefined

The QNX-powered Toyota Entune system
supports both Pandora and iHeartRadio.

But what’s more exciting is how radio is evolving in the vehicle. Along with the steering wheel, radio has been a staple of car pretty much since day one. As the connected vehicle moves to the mainstream, internet radio will become a huge part of the automotive experience.

Companies like Slacker extend the concept of radio beyond audio to include artist bios, album art, photos, reviews, and more. Pandora, through its work with the Music Genome Project, expands the musical experience by playing songs it predicts you will appreciate. iHeartRadio aggregates American radio stations for replay throughout the US. TuneIn takes it one further with a global view. Driving down highway 101 in California, you’ll be able to tune in all your favorites from around the world.

Beyond entertainment
These services are changing the way people consume music. Today, I rely on my car radio not only to entertain but also to educate by constantly exposing me to new artists and content. Internet radio in the car will expand my horizons even further. And as online music stores like 7Digital integrate their service with the internet radio stations, I’ll be able to download the song I just heard at the push of a button. Not good for CD sales, but it seems that’s the way of the future anyway.

We are, of course, working with the leaders in internet radio and online music services to bring them to a car near you.

Pimp your ride with augmented reality — Part I

2011-11-21T11:52:00.000-05:00

The use of electronics is exploding in automotive. Just last week, Intel proclaimed that the connected car “is the third-fastest growing technological device, following smartphones and tablets.”

Ten years ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find a 32-bit processor in your car. Now, some cars have 4 or more 32 bitters: one in the radio, another in the telematics module, yet another in the center display, and still another in the rear-seat system.

Heck, in newer cars, you’ll even find one in the digital instrument cluster — the QNX-powered cluster in the Range Rover, for example. Expect to see a similar demand for more compute power in engine control units, drive-by-wire systems, and heads-up displays.

The Range Rover cluster displays virtual speedometers and gauges, as well as warnings, suspension settings, and other info, all on a dynamically configurable display.

What do most of these systems have in common? The need to process tons of information, from both inside and outside of the vehicle, and to present key elements of that data in a safe, contextually relevant, and easy-to-digest fashion.

The next generation of these systems will be built on the following principles:

Fully integrated cockpits — Vehicle manufacturers see system consolidation as a way to cut costs and reduce complexity, as well as to share information between vehicle systems. For instance, your heads-up display could discreetly let you know who is calling you, without forcing you to take your eyes off of the road. And it could do this even if the smarts integrating your phone and your car reside in another cockpit component — the telematics module, say.
Augmented reality — With all of the data being generated from phones, cloud content services and, perhaps more importantly, the vehicle itself, presenting the right information at the right time in a safe way will become a major challenge. This is where augmented reality comes in.

Augmented reality is a cool use of cameras, GPS, and data to create smart applications that overlay a virtual world on top of the real world. Here are some of my favorite examples:

AR Starbucks cups — Use your phone to make your coffee cup come alive:

AR Starwars — Blast the rebel alliance squirrels!

AR postage stamp — Add a new dimension (literally) to an everyday object:

And here are a couple more for good measure:

AR ray gun — Blast aliens around the house!

Wikitude AR web browser — Explore the world around you while overlaying social networks, images, video, reviews, statistics, etc.

Stay tuned for my next post, where I will explore how AR could enhance the driving experience for both drivers and passengers — Andrew.

I've always wondered about Android support...

2011-11-18T13:34:00.001-05:00

My colleague Jeff Schaffer sent me this link, which gives an interesting analysis of Android support on various devices.

Clearly, it's pretty tough to stay on top of the Android release game. One very good reason for car makers to be wary, as they'll be bound to move even slower than handset makers.

The need for green in automotive

2011-11-17T10:40:00.006-05:00

The need for environmentally friendly practices and products has become so painfully obvious in recent years that it’s no longer possible to call it a debate or a controversy. Nowhere is this more conspicuous than in the automotive industry.

US Environmental Protection Agency

Working at QNX has given me insight into just how complex the problem is and how going green in automotive is not going to be a revolution. I've come to realize that it will require a good number of players on a large number of fronts.

An example of what happens when
your car takes way too long to boot. :-)

What we at QNX are doing to move the cause forward is called fast booting. Some operating systems take up to 60 seconds to boot. Can you imagine getting in your car, turning the ignition, and waiting a minute for your radio to work? Me either.

To prevent such undignified delays, these systems typically do not power down completely. Instead, they suspend to RAM while the vehicle is off. This lets the system boot ‘instantly’ whenever the ignition turns over. But because there’s a small current draw to keep RAM alive, this trickle continually drains the battery. This might have minimal consequences today (other than cost to the manufacturer, which is a whole other story) but in the brave new world of electric and hybrid cars, battery capacity equals mileage. Typical systems thus shorten the range of green vehicles and, in the case of hybrids, force drivers to use not-so-green systems more often. More importantly perhaps, these systems give would-be buyers ‘range anxiety’. Indeed, according to the Green Market’s Richard Matthews, battery life is one of the top reasons the current adoption rate is so low.

A little-known feature of QNX technology helps solve this problem.

Architects using the QNX OS can organize the boot process to bring up complex systems in a matter of seconds. Ours is not an all-or-nothing proposition as it is with monolithic operating systems that must load an entire system before anything can run – Windows and Linux are prime examples. QNX supports a gradual phasing in of system functionality to get critical systems up and running while it loads less-essential features in the background. A QNX-based system can start from a cold boot every time. Which means no battery drain while the car is off.

And while this is no giant leap for mankind it is certainly a solid step in the right direction. If the rest of us (consumers, that is) contributed similarly by trading in our clunkers for greener wheels, the industry could undoubtedly move forward in leaps and bounds. I suppose this means I’m going to have to take a long hard look at my 2003 Honda Civic.

Can HTML5 keep car infotainment on track?

2011-11-14T13:09:00.003-05:00

Paul Leroux

True story: When a train on the Trans-Mongolian Railway crosses from Mongolia into China, it must stop and have all of its wheel assemblies replaced. Why? Because the track gauge (distance between the rails) is 1520 mm in Mongolia and 1435 mm in China. Oops!

The rail industry realized long ago that, unless it settled on a standard, costly scenarios like this would repeat themselves ad infinitum. As a result, some 60% of railways worldwide, including those in China, now use standard gauge, ensuring greater interoperability and efficiency.

The in-car infotainment market should take note. It has yet to embrace a standard that would allow in-car systems to interoperate seamlessly with smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Nor has it embraced a standard environment for creating in-car apps and user interfaces.

Of course, there are existing solutions for addressing these issues. But that's the problem: multiple solutions, and no accepted standard. And without one, how will cars and mobile devices ever leverage one another out of the box, without a lot of workarounds? And how will automakers ever tap into a (really) large developer community?

No standard means more market fragmentation — and more fragmentation means less efficiency, less interoperability, and less progress overall. Who wants that?

Is HTML5, which is already transforming app development in the desktop, server, and mobile worlds, the standard the car infotainment industry needs? That is one of the questions my colleague, Andy Gryc, will address in his seminar, HTML5 for automotive infotainment: What, why, and how?. The webinar happens tomorrow, November 15. I invite you to check it out.

Tech-nimble

2011-11-10T14:03:00.001-05:00

After working more than 20 years in high tech, I've settled on a mantra: This too shall pass. (Hey, I didn’t say it was original!) To that end, patience is critical, as is flexibility. And ultimately, success depends less on predicting technology trends and more on responding to them. You've got to be tech-nimble, which requires not only the willingness to change, but the technology to accommodate — and profit from — that change.

Yesterday, Adobe announced a restructuring based on a change in direction, from mobile Flash to HTML5. Some might consider this development as proof that Adobe lost the battle to Steve Jobs. But to my mind, they've simply recognized a trend and responded decisively. Adobe has built a product portfolio based heavily on tooling, including tools for HTML5 development. So they definitely fall into the tech-nimble category.

QNX has an even greater responsibility to remain tech-nimble because so many OEMs use our technology as a platform for their products. Our technology decisions have an impact that ripples throughout companies building in-car infotainment units, patient monitoring systems, industrial terminals, and a host of other devices.

So back to the Flash versus HTML 5 debate. QNX is in a great position because our universal application platform approach enables us to support new technologies quickly, with minimal integration effort. This flexibility derives in part from our underlying architecture, which allows OS services to be cleanly separated from the applications that access them.

Today, our platform supports apps based on technologies such as Flash, HTML5, Qt, native C/C++, and OpenGL ES. More to the point, it allows our customers to seamlessly blend apps from multiple environments into a single, unified user experience.

Now that’s tech-nimble.

Adobe’s out of mobile? Read the fine print

2011-11-09T16:36:00.009-05:00

The blogosphere is a-buzz with Adobe’s apparent decision to abandon Flash in mobile devices. I get the impression, though, that many people haven’t bothered to read Adobe’s announcement. If they did, they would come away with a very different conclusion.

Let me quote what Adobe actually said (emphasis mine):

"Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.

What’s being discontinued is the Flash plug-in for mobile browsers. Adobe will still support and work on Mobile AIR, and on the development of standalone mobile applications.

A number of cross-platform applications today are implemented in Adobe AIR, and that’s staying the same. Adobe is being smart — they’re picking and choosing their battles, and have decided to give this one to HTML5. We’re big believers in HTML5, and Adobe's announcement makes complete sense: Don’t bother with the burden of Flash plug-in support when you can do it all in the browser. You can still build killer apps using Adobe AIR.

A cool and innovative speedometer... for 1939

2011-11-09T12:12:00.003-05:00

Paul Leroux

Earlier this week, I referred you to a whitepaper written by my colleagues Scott Pennock and Andy Gryc. In the paper, Scott and Andy argue that driver distraction is not, in fact, a problem of distraction, but of situational awareness, or SA. Boost a person's SA, and you improve their ability to drive safely.

But how, exactly, do you improve SA? The paper discusses various techniques, and I couldn't possibly do justice to all of them here. But one approach is to supplement the driver's eyes and ears with indicators and warnings, based on information from sensors, roadside systems, and other vehicles.

Here's an example: A system in your car learns, through cloud-based traffic reports, that the road ahead is slick with ice. It also determines that you are driving much too fast for such conditions. The system immediately kicks into action, perhaps by warning you of the icy conditions or by telling you to ease off the accelerator.

Too bad the engineers who designed the 1939 Plymouth P8 didn't have access to such technology. I'm sure they would have embraced it totally.

You see, they too wanted to warn drivers about excess speed. Unfortunately, the technology of the time limited them to creating a primitive, one-size-fits-all solution — the safety speedometer.

Color coded for safety
From what I've read, these speedometers switch from green to amber to red, depending on the car's speed. I've only seen still photos of these speedometers, but allow me to invoke the magic of PhotoShop and reconstruct how I think they work.

The safety speedometer has a rotating bezel, and embedded in this bezel is a small glass bulb. At speeds from 0 to 30 mph, the bulb glows green:

At speeds from 30 to 50 mph, the bulb turns amber:

And at over 60 mph, the bulb turns red:

Given the limitations of 1939 technology, the Plymouth safety speedometer couldn't take driving conditions or the current speed limit into account. It glowed amber at 30 mph, regardless of whether you were cruising through your neighborhood or poking down the highway. As a result, it was more of a novelty than anything else. In fact, I wonder if people driving the car for the first time would have focused more on watching the colors change than on the road ahead. If so, the speedometer may have actually reduce situational awareness. Oops!

Compare this to a software-based digital speedometer, which could take input from multiple sources, both within and outside the car, to provide feedback that dynamically changes with driving conditions. For instance, a digital speedometer could acquire the current speed limit from a navigation database and, if the car is exceeding that limit, remind the driver that they risk a speeding ticket.

That said, I have a soft spot for anyone who is (or was) ahead of their time. Some enterprising Plymouth engineers in the 30s realized that, with faster speeds, comes the need for even greater situational awareness. Their solution was primitive but it offered a hint of what, more than 75 years later, can finally become reality.

Some people drive me to distraction

2011-11-06T17:56:00.010-05:00

Paul Leroux

Hey, have you ever panned your camera? It's really easy: You just track a moving subject with your camera and then squeeze the shutter while both you and the subject are in motion. It's a great technique for creating images that evoke a sense of speed, which makes it popular among photographers for Motor Trend, Car and Driver, and other automotive magazines.

When you pan, you never really know what kind of image you're going to get. Often, the results are interesting. And sometimes, they're downright interesting. Take this shot, for example:

Lattés and overdrive don't mix. Just sayin'.

Now, holding a cellphone while rocketing down the highway is just plain wrong. To anyone who does it, I have one thing to say: "You're endangering other people's lives for the sake of a f***ing phone call. Where the hell do you get off doing that?"

But look at this guy. He's isn't holding a phone, but a coffee — even worse. Just imagine if he gets into a situation that demands quick, evasive action. He will, in all likelihood, hold on to the cup for fear of burning himself. Whereas if he had a phone, he would simply drop it and put his hand back on the wheel.

Mind you, I have no data to prove that coffee cups poses a greater evil than cellphones. But the core issue remains: Cellphone use is just one of many factors that contribute to driver distraction. In fact, research suggests that cellphones account for only 5% of distraction-related accidents that end in injury.

So, even if every cellphone on the planet disappeared tomorrow, we would still have a massive problem on our hands. To that end, my colleagues Scott Pennock and Andy Gryc suggest a new approach to designing vehicle cockpit systems in their paper, "Situational Awareness: a Holistic Approach to the Driver Distraction Problem."

The paper explores how system designers can use the concept of situational awareness to develop a vehicle cockpit that helps the driver become more aware of objects and events on the road, and that adapts in-vehicle user interfaces to manage the driver’s cognitive load.

It's worth a read. And who knows, perhaps someone, someday, will develop a cockpit system that detects if you are sipping something and tells you what you need to hear: "Dammit Jack, put that cup down. It's not worth endangering other people's lives for the sake of a f***ing latté."

Building a hands-free future

2011-11-01T20:57:00.000-04:00

The end of my street is governed by a three-way stop. The other morning I was backing out of my driveway when someone rolled past the stop sign and came within inches of hitting me. I stopped, glared at him, and resumed driving. Two stop signs later, the same guy squeezed past my car (in the same lane), completely oblivious to what he was doing.

Why was he driving like this? Probably because he was deeply engrossed in a conversation on his cell phone.

Where I live, using a handset while driving has been illegal for over a year. You cannot talk, you cannot text, you cannot “Facebook”, you cannot Tweet — even if you're stopped at a red light. This makes perfect sense to me. As a driver, your primary responsibility is to control the vehicle. And yet I see people texting on the freeway, talking on their cell phones, and doing who knows what else on an alarmingly regular basis.

The QNX-powered BMW
ConnectedDrive system

Society has become obsessed with mobile devices, and it will take more than legislation to change its behavior. The answer, I think, is to embrace the behavior in a way that makes it possible to interact socially while maintaining control of the car. We’ve seen great progress in hands-free/phone integration, and BMW ConnectedDrive offers an example of how drivers can access email and other smartphone services more safely.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Integrating the handset with the infotainment unit is going to change the way you interact with your car. Intelligently designed apps, combined with multi-modal human machine interfaces, will let you Tweet or update Facebook using speech recognition, keeping your eyes on the road.

Without taking your hands of the wheel, you’ll be able to call a friend and decide that you want to go to dinner, do a local search to find out what’s available, check a restaurant review on Yelp, make a reservation, text your friend back with the time and place, and aim your navigation system at the restaurant. And you’ll be able to do it using natural language. None of this “please say a name” stuff.

Seems futuristic? It’s not. People are working on it today. In fact, QNX-based systems, such as Toyota Entune, already offer a taste of this hands-free and highly personalized future.

Speech interfaces: UI revolution or intelligent evolution?

2011-10-30T19:52:00.003-04:00

Speech interfaces have received a lot of attention recently, especially with the marketing blitz for Siri, the new speech interface for the iPhone.

After watching some of the TV commercials you might conclude that you can simply talk to your phone as if it were your friend, and it will figure out what you want. For example, in one scenario the actor asks the phone, “Do I need a raincoat?”, and the phone responds with weather information.

A colleague commented that if he wanted weather information he would just ask for it. As in “What is the weather going to be like in Seattle?” or “Is it going to rain in Seattle?”.

Without more conversational context, if a friend were to ask me, “Do I need a raincoat?”, I would probably respond, “I don’t know, do you?” — jokingly, of course.

Evo or revo?

Are we ready to converse
with our phones and cars?

Kidding aside, systems like Siri raise an important question: Are we about to see a paradigm shift in user interfaces?

Possibly. But I think it will be more of a UI evolution than a UI revolution. In other words, speech interfaces will play a bigger role in UI designs, but that doesn't mean you're about to start talking to your phone — or any other device — as if it’s your best friend.

Currently, speech interfaces are underutilized. The reasons for this aren't yet clear, though they seem to encompass both technical and user issues. Traditionally, speech recognition accuracy rates have been less than perfect. Poor user interface design (for instance, reprompting strategies) has contributed to the overall problem and to increased user frustration.

Also, people simply aren't used to speech interfaces. For example, many phones support voice-dialing, yet most people don't use this feature. And user interface designers seem reluctant to leverage speech interfaces, possibly because of the additional cost and complexity, lack of awareness, or some other reason.

"Relying heavily on speech can lead
to a suboptimal user experience..."
As a further complication, relying heavily on speech as an interface can lead to a suboptimal user experience. Speech interfaces pose some real challenges, including recognition accuracy rates, natural language understanding, error recovery dialogs, UI design, and testing. They aren't the flawless wonders that some marketers would lead you to believe.

Still, I believe there is a happy medium for leveraging speech interfaces as part of a multi-modal interface — one that uses speech as an interface where it makes sense. Some tasks are better suited for a speech interface, while others are not. For example, speech provides an ideal way to provide input to an application when you can capitalize on information stored in the user’s head. But it’s much less successful when dealing with large lists of unfamiliar items.

Talkin' to your ride
Other factors, besides Apple, are driving the growing role of speech interfaces — particularly in automotive. Speech interfaces can, for example, help address the issue of driver distraction. They allow drivers to keep their “eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” to quote an oft-used phrase.

So, will we see a paradigm shift towards speech interfaces? It's unlikely. I'm hoping, though, that we'll see a UI evolution that makes better use of them.

Think of it more as a paradigm nudge than a paradigm shift.

Enabling the next generation of cool

2011-10-27T11:05:00.001-04:00

Capturing QNX presence in automotive can’t be done IMHO without a nod to our experience in other markets. Take, for example, the extreme reliability required for the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle. This is the selfsame reliability that automakers rely on when building digital instrument clusters that cannot fail. Same goes for the impressive graphics on the BlackBerry Playbook. As a result, Tier1s and OEMs can now bring consumer-level functionality into the vehicle.

Multicore is another example. The automotive market is just starting to take note while QNX has been enabling multi-processing for more than 25 years.

So I figure that keeping our hand in other industries means we actually have more to offer than other vendors who specialize.

I tried to capture this in a short video. It had to be done overnight so it’s a bit of a throw-away but (of course) I'd like to think it works. :-)

QNX and Freescale talk future of in-car infotainment

2011-10-25T11:18:00.001-04:00

Paul Leroux

QNX and Freescale enjoy one of the longest technology partnerships in the field of automotive infotainment. The roots of their relationship reach back to 1999, when QNX became a founding member of MobileGT, an industry alliance formed by Motorola (Freescale's parent company) to drive the development of infotainment systems.

If you've read any of my blog posts on the QNX concept car (see here, here, and here), you've seen an example of how mixing QNX and Freescale technologies can yield some very cool results.

So it's no surprise that when Jennifer Hesse of Embedded Computing Design wanted to publish an article on the challenges of in-car infotainment, she approached both companies. The resulting interview, which features Andy Gryc of QNX and Paul Sykes of Freescale, runs the gamut — from mobile-device integration and multicore processors to graphical user interfaces and upgradeable architectures. You can read it here.

When will I get apps in my car?

2011-10-24T10:55:00.012-04:00

I read the other day that Samsung’s TV application store has surpassed 10 million app downloads. That got me thinking: When will the 10 millionth app download occur in the auto industry as a whole? (Let’s not even consider 10 million apps for a single automaker.)

There’s been much talk about the car as the fourth screen in a person’s connected life, behind the TV, computer, and smartphone. The car rates so high because of the large amount of time people spend in it. While driving to work, you may want to listen to your personal flavor of news, listen to critical email through a safe, text-to-speech email reader, or get up to speed on your daily schedule. When returning home, you likely want to unwind by tapping into your favorite online music service. Given the current norm of using apps to access online content (even if the apps are a thin disguise for a web browser), this begs the question — when can I get apps in my car?

Entune takes a hands-free
approach to accessing apps.

A few automotive examples exist today, such as GM MyLink, Ford Sync, and Toyota Entune. But app deployment to vehicles is still in its infancy. What conditions, then, must exist for apps to flourish in cars? A few stand out:

Cars need to be upgradeable to accept new applications — This is a no-brainer. However, recognizing that the lifespan of a car is 10+ years, it would seem that a thin client application strategy is appropriate.

Established rules and best practices to reduce driver distraction — These must be made available to, and understood by, the development community. Remember that people drive cars at high speeds and cannot fiddle with unintuitive, hard-to-manipulate controls. Apps that consumers can use while driving will become the most popular. Apps that can be used only when the car is stopped will hold little appeal.

A large, unfragmented platform to attract a development community — Developers are more willing to create apps for a platform when they don't have to create multiple variants. That's why Apple maintains a consistent development environment and Google/Android tries to prevent fragmentation. Problem is, fragmentation could occur almost overnight in the automotive industry — imagine 10 different automakers with 10 different brands, each wanting a branded experience. To combat this, a common set of technologies for connected automotive application development (think web technologies) is essential. Current efforts to bring applications into cars all rely on proprietary SDKs, ensuring fragmentation.

Other barriers undoubtedly exist, but these are the most obvious.

By the way, don’t ask me for my prediction of when the 10 millionth app will ship in auto. There’s lots of work to be done first.

Marking over 5 years of putting HTML in production cars

2011-10-19T10:29:00.001-04:00

Think back to when you realized the Internet was reaching beyond the desktop. Or better yet, when you realized it would touch every facet of your life. If you haven’t had that second revelation yet, perhaps you should read my post about the Twittering toilet.

For me, the realization occurred 11 years ago, when I signed up with QNX Software Systems. QNX was already connecting devices to the web, using technology that was light years ahead of anything else on the market. For instance, in the late 90s, QNX engineers created the “QNX 1.44M Floppy,” a self-booting promotional diskette that showcased how the QNX OS could deliver a complete web experience in a tiny footprint. It was an enormous hit, with more than 1 million downloads.

Embedding the web,
dot com style:
The QNX-powered Audrey

Also ahead of its time was the concept of a tablet computer that provided full web access. When I started at QNX, I was responsible for tablets, thin clients, and set-top boxes. The most successful of these pioneering devices was the 3COM Audrey kitchen tablet. It could send and receive email, browse the web, and sync to portable devices — incredibly sophisticated for the year 2000.

At the time, Don Fotsch, one of Audrey’s creators, coined the term “Internet Snacking” to describe the device’s browsing environment. The dot com crash in 2001 cut Audrey’s life short, but QNX maintained its focus on enabling a rich Internet experience in embedded devices, particularly those within the car.

The point of these stories is simple: Embedding the web is part of the QNX DNA. At one point, we even had multiple browser engines in production vehicles, including the Access Netfront engine, the QNX Voyager engine, and the OpenWave WAP Browser. In fact, we have had cars on the road with Web technologies since model year 2006.

With that pedigree in enabling HTML in automotive, we continue to push the envelope. We already enable unlimited web access with full browsers in BMW and other vehicles, but HTML in automotive is changing from a pure browsing experience to a full user experience encompassing applications and HMIs. With HTML5, this experience extends even to speech recognition, AV entertainment, rich animations, and full application environments — Angry Birds anyone?

People often now talk about “App Snacking,” but in the next phase of HTML 5 in the car, it will be "What’s for dinner?”!

BBDevCon — Apps on BlackBerry couldn't be better

2011-10-18T14:05:00.008-04:00

Unfortunately I joined the BBDevCon live broadcast a little too late to capture some of the absolutely amazing TAT Cascades video. RIM announced that TAT will be fully supported as a new HMI framework on BBX (yes, the new name of QNX OS for PlayBook and phones has been officially announced now). The video was mesmerizing — a picture album with slightly folded pictures falling down in an array, shaded and lit, with tags flying in from the side. It looked absolutely amazing, and it was created with simple code that configured the TAT framework "list" class with some standard properties. And there was another very cool TAT demo that showed an email filter with an active touch mesh, letting you filter your email in a very visual way. Super cool looking.

HTML5 support is huge, too — RIM has had WebWorks and Torch for a while, but their importance continues to grow. HTML5 apps provide the way to unify older BB devices and any of the new BBX-based PlayBooks and phones. That's a beautiful tie-in to automotive, where we're building our next generation QNX CAR software using HTML5. The same apps running on desktops, phones, tablets, and cars? And on every mobile device, not just one flavor like iOS or Android? Sounds like the winning technology to me.

Finally, they talked about the success of App World. There were some really nice facts to constrast with the negative press RIM has received on "apps". First some interesting comparisons: 1% of Apple developers made more than $1000, but 13% of BlackBerry developers made more than $100,000. Whoa. And that App World generates the 2nd most amount of money — more than Android. Also very interesting!

I can't do better than the presenters, so I'll finish up with some pics for the rest of the stats...

New release of QNX acoustic processing suite means less noise, less tuning for hands-free systems

2011-10-18T08:03:00.001-04:00

Paul Leroux

This just in: QNX has released version 2.0 of its acoustic processing suite, a modular software library designed to maximize the quality and clarity of automotive hands-free systems.

The suite, used by 18 automakers on over 100 vehicle platforms, provides modules for both the receive side and the send side of hands-free calls. The modules include acoustic echo cancellation, noise reduction, wind blocking, dynamic parametric equalization, bandwidth extension, high frequency encoding, and many others. Together, they enable high-quality voice communication, even in a noisy automotive interior.

Highlights of version 2.0 include:

Enhanced noise reduction — Minimizes audio distortions and significantly improves call clarity. Can also reconstruct speech masked by low-frequency road and engine noise.

Automatic delay calculation and compensation — Eliminates almost all product tuning, enabling automakers to save significant deployment time and expense.

Off-Axis noise rejection — Rejects sound not directly in front of a microphone or speaker, allowing dual-microphone solutions to hone in on the person speaking for greater intelligibility.

To read the press release, click here. To learn more about the acoustic processing suite, visit the QNX website.

The QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing Suite can run on the general purpose processor,
saving the cost of a DSP.

Wanted: Haunted Vehicles

2011-10-16T20:42:00.002-04:00

Halloween is just around the corner, and that reminds me of the haunted room at Lucent Bell Labs. Mind you, it wasn’t really haunted. But for a moment, I was convinced.

Let me explain. As I entered the room, I could hear two of my colleagues talking to each other, and by the sound of their voices, they were both sitting right in front of me. But when I looked, I could see only one person. Creepy, to say the least.

It took a few seconds, but I finally realized what was happening: The other colleague was in a different room, talking over a perfectly tuned prototype of a conference phone. The sense of presence was so real that I couldn’t help but feel we were all in the same room — even after I became aware of the “trick” being played!

It was then that I realized it: We don’t know what we’re missing until we experience it.

Making it real
Current telephone calls don’t sound like face-to-face conversations because the telephone network and terminals band-limit speech from about 50-10000 Hz down to 300-3400 Hz. To make matters worse, the phone’s single channel of audio eliminates spatial information about the sound source. As a result, we perceive most sounds as coming from the same point in space.

But here's the thing: The historical reasons for transmitting these single-channel narrowband speech signals no longer apply. Current technologies — such as wideband speech coders, spatial audio, and VoIP — are enabling speech communications with wider bandwidth speech and greater spatial information.

Many in the industry refer to these next-generation telecommunications systems as telepresence systems. “Telepresence” refers to the degree of realism created by a telecommunications system. Traditional systems have low telepresence while newer systems that use wider bandwidth speech and spatial audio have high telepresence.

Some people believe that a visual display is a must-have for a telepresence system. In reality, a display can decrease telepresence if its quality is poor. Experience shows that an audio-only system can have such high telepresence that people can't distinguish it from face-to-face communications — witness my haunting experience at Lucent Bell Labs.

Until recently, widespread deployment of telepresence systems has hit a roadblock: lack of standardization. Fortunately, the IETF CLUE Working Group and ITU-T Study Groups 16 and 12 are actively developing standards to remedy this situation.

Pimp my ride with telepresence
Telepresence systems have a lot to offer in an automotive environment. For instance, they could:

reduce driver distraction
make it easier to understand speech in the presence of vehicle noise
reduce the fatigue that comes from trying to understand a degraded voice signal

Moreover, a telepresence system makes the talker on the far end of the phone connection sound more like they are in the vehicle; it also makes the talker easier to identify.

Successful deployment of telepresence in an automotive environment depends on several factors:

attention to the design of vehicle platforms
use of high-performance acoustic processing algorithms (AEC, NR, etc.), such as those provided by the QNX acoustic processing suite
the ability to transport telepresence signals between telephony terminals — this is being enabled by increased VoIP availability (via LTE, for instance)

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the day when my vehicle is haunted like that lab in New Jersey!

For additional reading on this topic, download the whitepaper, "Wideband Speech Communications for Automotive: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".

Harman infotainment systems gear up with QNX technology

2011-10-11T22:09:00.000-04:00

Paul Leroux

If you've ever driven an Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes, or Porsche, chances are it used a sound system or infotainment unit from Harman International.

Mind you, Harman isn't just about the high end. They also offer a scalable infotainment platform that can target both higher-end and lower-end vehicles. And they aren't just about European cars, either. Earlier this year, they became the first non-Japanese supplier to supply an infotainment system (the QNX-based Entune system) to Toyota. They also supply systems to Hyundai, Lexus, Subaru, and Ssangyong.

Since 2003, Harman has used the QNX OS as the software platform for its infotainment products. (In fact, Harman owned QNX Software Systems for about 5 years, before QNX became a subsidiary of RIM.) In this video, Rick Kreifeldt, Harman's VP of global automotive research and innovation, discusses how QNX technology and expertise help Harman cut time-to-market and create greener products. Check it out:

A version of this post originally appeared on the On Q blog.

QNX Auto Summit Japan 2011

2011-10-07T06:01:00.004-04:00

How many car guys does it take to change a light bulb? Three normally, but only one if you've already lifted the engine block out of the way!

There's an actual reason for this joke which I'll explain in the epilogue. But let me shamelessly segue: there's a whole room full of car folks here in Nagoya, and they're working on something which needs a good more heavy lifting than needed to change that troublesome light bulb. They're building tomorrow's car systems. To help, QNX is hosting a full day event here in beautiful Nagoya, covering what the latest goings on are in the automotive space that's near and dear to our hearts--in-cab vehicle electronics.

Getting seated before the day begins

Our first presenter was Dr. Motoyuki Akamatsu, who broke the ice with a very entertaining video about an early 1966 study on driver distraction. The driver is wearing a device that looks like a giant eyelid that closes over his face on regular intervals, occluding his vision. The driver is coincidentally also the narrator, calmly describing the whole experiment as his view of the road is completely blocked every couple seconds or so. This is all while normal traffic is flowing around his car, totally unaware that this test driver could run into them at any moment. What they got away with in the sixties! The rest of his talk was equally informative; Akamatsu-san talked about how modern testing for driver distraction is done, and how mobiles can impact that.

I gave a talk about picking the right HMI (or UX if you prefer) framework for automotive infotainment. There's a ton of choice out there--HTML5, Adobe AIR, Qt, Android, Meego, EB Guide, OpenGL ES--I could go on and on. There are a lot of things to consider. Given that I didn't have an abundance of time and that it was all being dynamically translated into Japanese, I couldn't cover as much as I might have wanted. Look for a future blog from me where I can give the topic a little bit more space. (Mini-spoiler alert: I've listed my favorite first.)

The president of ARM Japan gave a talk about ARM use in vehicles. A short summary: ARM processors are on the rise everywhere in the car, and trending upwards. ARM licensed 6 billion CPUs last year, and they predict 100 billion devices by 2020. Japan is probably the only area where they aren't dominating (yet). A short roadmap then was presented about Cortex family--A8, A9, A15, and A5. Also he talked about the ARM M series. I must apologize that my jet lag affect my attention span during ARM M series (that architecture is almost irrelevant in infotainment, if that's an excuse). He also talked about ARM's Mali GPU built on Midgard architecture (supporting both OpenGLES 2.0 and DirectX9).

Alex Kinsella of RIM gave a talk about separation of personal and enterprise use of devices, in a way that gives simultaneously more freedom for the user and more options and security for the enterprise. All very cool stuff for enabling more OEM options to the vehicle.

Our very own Andrew Poliak talked about the various different connectivity options between cars and mobiles--both where we are today (MirrorLink, iPod Out, Remote Skin/BlueTooth SPP+A2DP) and where we see that they're going (HTML5, HDMI/MDL, USB 3.0).

Andrew explains OEM's evolving needs and timelines

Roger Lanctot of Strategy Analytics had a lot of interesting things to share about their in-depth research, covering current industry trends and some of Roger's predictions.

Global smartphones are right now 38% of the mobile market, with all signs of growth.
You need good traffic info that's predictive. If it's not, its worthless, and navigation and traffic services are still the biggest customer desire out of an in-car system.
Solve distraction problems before they are regulated out by governments.
Apps in the car will be very important. Their research shows over 55% buyers (world wide average) want it. OEMs though take note--this will sell cars, but there's no profit in it for the OEM themselves.
Many different connectivity options exist. Nobody has hmi nailed yet, so there's a big opportunity to get it right.
HMI solutions are converging on mobile device communications.

Roger lists every mobile connectivity solution known to man

Probably most emphasized facts of Roger's presentation were about China.

China is important. If you don't play there you're writing your own ticket for irrelevance. It's the fastest growing automotive market, with a rich aftermarket space.
China infotainment solutions are like the wild west right now, and include some crazy displays that Roger showed us with dozens of touch buttons. They've even got systems that have the ability to create and edit docs while driving! Microsoft Word at 70mph, here I come! I can't wait for the next IDE to have in-vehicle recognition so I can program while driving.
China has exceedingly complex HMIs with apparent disregard for any regulations that might exist.
China is not the safest place. They've got tons of new drivers, new infrastructure, and growth rates that exceed their experience. The World Health Organization estimates 200,000 vehicle fatalities (significantly higher than China's officially reported numbers). That's around 18% the world total vehicular fatalities. Wow.

Finally, our VP of Sales and Marketing Derek Kuhn ended up with a description of where QNX is going for the future automotive platforms with QNX CAR 2. In a word? Awesomeness. (Coincidentally, this is Derek's favourite word.) In ten? Full support for almost everything car makers ever dreamed of.

We wrapped up the day with a cocktail hour for all our guests and some Formula 1 race day ticket give-aways to some lucky attendees.

Guests having caught their taxis or trains, and the show nicely wrapped, the QNX staff gave secret surprise birthday wishes to our Alison Canavan, the world's best event coordinator, and to the world's most thoughtful person and our Auto Summit Japan emcee, Kosuke Abe.

All in all, a very busy and successful day. I'm pooped. And that's a wrap.

You've probably forgotten about the car guy lightbulb joke already, but I'll finish explaining it anyway. My girlfriend had one of her car's headlights burn out, and she asked me if I could fix it. My male chivalry and handyman pride made me jump at the opportunity to help! I naively went out to the car with a screwdriver, expecting to maybe loosen the screws around the light enclosure, pop out the bulb, put in the new one, and dust off my hands for a well deserved beer in one minute flat. It became immediately obvious that Honda had something much more nefarious in mind when they built the Civic. No screws. You had to remove the bulb from the back, but there wasn't any obvious way for a human hand (well, no adult human, anyway) to fit in the allotted space. I went back into the house, grabbed a handful of tools this time, and spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out what parts of the car needed to be disassembled to get at the light bulb. This wasn't immediately fruitful either, so I went back in the house, consulted the Internet, and lo and behold--I wasn't just an idiot. I found many other posts from many other delighted Civic owners. It looked like the most popular solution was to remove the battery, battery cage and power steering pump mounts, lift the power steering out of the way, and then you could get at the bulb. More of a challenge than I was really looking for, I'm afraid, so I went back to my girlfriend, tail between my legs, and shamefully recommended that she take it to the dealer.

I couldn't help smiling at her retelling of the dealer visit. The first mechanic came out, all confident with a line something like "well, many guys don't really know how to do car stuff, so we'll take care of it." Then he spent about 15 minutes digging around, trying to discover how on earth you get the stupid bulb out. He finally had to call over his boss to get assistance. They did end up replacing the bulb, but it was a little more complicated than he expected too! Tally it up--me and two mechanics--three guys to replace a light bulb.

Good thing that building automotive software is so much easier.

QNX Auto Summit Japan 2011 – ‘Automotive at the speed of Mobility’

2011-10-06T22:00:00.001-04:00

The QNX Auto Summit Japan 2011 will be starting soon, here in Nagoya, Japan. We’re expecting a good crowd of Tier 1s and OEMs from across Japan. QNX technology is being showcased in a BMW X5 and Audi A8 - as seen below - as well as in many of our partner demos. The theme of the event is ‘Automotive at the speed of Mobility’! Industry speakers will focus on how the worlds of automotive and mobility are converging at a break-neck speed, and what Tier 1s and OEMs will need to know to design for these next-generation systems. Should be interesting! Stay tuned for more.

Countdown to the Auto Summit Japan

2011-10-06T18:45:00.001-04:00

I’m here at the QNX Auto Summit Japan 2011 in Nagoya, Japan and really energized about our event! We’re being supported by some of our key partners including ARM, Redbend, Freescale, A&W, Elektrobit, Texas Instruments, Renesas and TCS.

There’s presentations, amazing car demos based on QNX and serious networking planned! Looking forward to meeting many of the Japanese Tier 1s and OEMs. More to come once the event starts.

Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) MirrorLink meeting, Chicago, September 29, 2011

2011-10-05T23:19:00.005-04:00

For those who aren't yet reset on "MirrorLink", it's the new term for what previously was called TerminalMode. The name change is a definite improvement. I informally polled people to ask them what they though when they first heard "Terminal Mode". Basically the answers fell into two camps: either a telnet replacement or a disease you really don't want your doctor saying that you have. Neither sound like a real ringing endorsement! MirrorLink as a term makes sense. Good job CCC.

Here are some of my observations and notes from the CCC show in Chicago last week.

MirrorLink will not be going away any time soon--there is enough industry momentum to keep it alive for a while. Sounds like roughly 60% of the car makers and 60% of the mobile makers are behind it to some extent or another.
QNX is very bullish on HTML5 as a replacement for MirrorLink-like features, but it doesn’t look like HTML5 is part of the future MirrorLink strategy at all. Instead, they’re looking at HDMI or MDL—direct video from the mobile with a control channel. This is a generic replacement for iPod out, and it's an approach that we've considered as well and will likely support, so this is a good alignment at least in direct video technology. Even though they don't see the wisdom of the HTML5 path yet (patience--they'll get there :-).
OEMs don’t seem to realize how badly this will impact their revenue chain or are taking the "cross your fingers" approach. Certainly many seemed to be focused solely on the value MirrorLink provides by enabling customers and building new markets. I think it's somewhat Pollyanna-ish to not admit MirrorLink has the potential to completely decimate in-vehicle navigation uptake. If I can bring my phone in for navigation for a half-way decent experience with a built-in screen, who's going to spend $3000 on a nav-only solution?
MirrorLink isn’t as focused as much on enabling third party apps (although they did talk about it), but more about mirroring custom-built phone apps into the car. Everything that was demoed in the demo room breakout was a customized app that provided an integrated experience. This is both bad and good. Bad because it definitely reduces the short-term promise of opening up a huge third party ecosystem. Good because I think it's the only reasonable way to go--there's really no other way OEMs can justify the liability of phone apps within the car, unless they can have some measure of control.
I still think that there's a significant amount of work they need to address safety concerns around driver distraction. MirrorLink the specification, and the general CCC communications contains "driver-safe" messaging. However, my take is that the actual participation level people, especially on the mobile side seem to discount their accountability when you bring third party apps into the car, and nothing in the specification really makes it possible for an automotive outsider to make a car-safe app. I highly doubt this approach will fly. The application level certification that is planned for a future MirrorLink 1.1 release seems almost a mandatory requirement before this issue can be put to bed.

Proposed app certification process

Interestingly, almost every car company I talked to had a different take on how MirrorLink will impact their strategy—some see it as a low-end only play, but others see it as a high-end play. There's still a lot of confusion as to where it slots into product lines. I didn’t talk to anyone there who isn’t going to do it at all (not surprising given that the show was completely MirrorLink-focused), but some didn't seem to put a lot of weight behind it. The perception I had was that some were doing it to "keep up with the Joneses."
I give the CCC credit for realizing that MirrorLink has a lot of danger for the fragmentation whirlpool that has plagued Android releases and that makes Bluetooth interop the biggest nightmare for those who implement it and test it. To that end, they're really trying to take this one head-on. It's still very early days to see if they will be successful, with the first MirrorLink 1.0.1 systems coming out in production. (Alpine's aftermarket ICS-X8 earns that "first to market" distinction.) I hold out hope that CCC can keep MirrorLink interop from becoming a quagmire, but this is a bugger of a problem to fix in an area that tries to tie "slow-moving" car tech with the mobile space, so keep your eyes peeled...

What’s next for the connected car?

2011-10-04T19:56:00.007-04:00

It’s been almost three years since QNX Software Systems launched its connected car concept, and I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look at what has been accomplished in the automotive industry around the connected car and how some of the concepts are evolving. When the QNX CAR Application Platform was introduced, we provided a simple way to look at a connected car, using four “dimensions” of connectivity:

Connected to portable consumer devices for brought-in media and handsfree communications
Connected to the cloud for obvious reasons
Connected within the car for sharing information and media between front and rear seats, between the center stack and the cluster, and for other similar functions
Connected around the car for providing feedback to the driver about the environment surrounding the car, be it pedestrians, other cars, or vehicle to infrastructure communications

We’ve seen significant advances and evolutionary thinking on all fronts. Although QNX is not (and cannot be) at the forefront of all of these, our primary emphasis has been on cloud and consumer device connectivity. Nonetheless, it is interesting to look at each area.

Connected to consumer devices, connected to the cloud
Why lump these two together? There is not exactly a clear line between the two since consumer devices are often just extensions of the cloud. If my car connects to a smartphone which, in turn, draws information from the cloud, is there much point in creating a distinction between consumer device and cloud connections? Although it made sense to differentiate between cloud and consumer device connections when phones provided only handsfree calling and simple music playback, today the situation is quite different.

Device integration into the car has been a beehive of activity over the last few years. Smartphones, superphones, and tablets are providing entertainment, social networking, news, and access to a myriad of other content and applications to consumers anywhere, anytime. Automakers want to take advantage of many of these capabilities in a responsible, non-distracting way.

The primary issue here is how to marry the fast-paced consumer electronics world to the lifecycle of the car. At present, there are solutions at the opposite end of the spectrum: standardized Bluetooth interfaces that allow the car to control the smartphone; and screen replication technologies (iPod Out, VNC/Terminal Mode/Mirror Link) where the smartphone takes control and uses the car as a dumb display.

Neither of these scenarios takes full advantage of the combined processing power and resources of the car and the brought-in device. This, to me, is the next phase of car and cloud connectivity. How can the power of the cloud, brought-in devices, and the in-car systems be combined into a cooperative, distributed system that provides a better driver and passenger experience? (If the notion of a distributed system seems a bit of a stretch, consider the comments made by Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler at CES 2011.)

When looking for technologies that can bring the cloud, devices, and car together, you do not need to look any further than the web itself. The software technologies (HTML5, Javascript, AJAX, peer-to-peer protocols, tooling, etc.) that drive the web provide a common ground for building the future in car experience. These technologies are open, low cost, widely known and widely accessible. What are we waiting for?

Connected within the car
The integrated cockpit has emerged as a prevalent automotive design concept. It is now commonplace in higher-end vehicles to see seamless integration between center stack functions and the instrument cluster and driver information displays. For example, turn-by-turn directions, radio tuning, and song now playing are all available to the driver on the cluster, reducing the need to constantly glance over to the main display. One such example is the Audi cluster:

Connected around the car

Three years ago, systems in this category were already emerging, so there really wasn’t much of a crystal ball required here. Adaptive cruise control has become one of the most common features that illustrate how a car can connect to its surroundings. Adaptive cruise control detects the car’s surroundings (cars in front of you) and adjusts your speed accordingly. Other examples include pedestrian detection (offered in Volvo S60 and other models)automatic parking, lane departure warning, and blind spot detection/warning systems.

These Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS) will become more common as cost reductions take place and the technology is provided in lower-end vehicles.

In contrast, vehicle-to-infrastructure communication that requires industry-wide collaboration is proceeding at a pace that you’d expect from an internationally standardized solution.

Ready to Rock and Roll !

2011-10-03T08:03:00.008-04:00

Paul Leroux

What single word best describes a perfectly executed piece of art? More often than not, I would choose the word seamless. Because when a painting, song, or story is done right, nothing feels out of place. Everything fits together so well that, almost magically, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

The same principle applies when you design a vehicle. Whether it's a dune buggy or an ultra-luxury sedan, your end product should evoke a consistent vision and emotional appeal. People don't want dune buggies with walnut dashboards, nor do they want Bentleys with rollbars. They want a vehicle, and a vehicle brand, that clearly embodies what they value most, be it styling, safety, reliability, or performance.

Well, that's the theory. But putting it into practice isn't easy. For instance, people now expect their cars to integrate with smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. By satisfying this demand, automakers have a real opportunity to win over consumers. But how does the automaker provide this integration without losing control over the user experience, and without sacrificing their brand identify to that of a third-party device? And lest I forget, without sacrificing safety?

Consumers, conditioned by smartphones and tablets, also expect in-dash user interfaces to be slick and intuitive. To create these interfaces, automotive developers are tapping into HTML5, Adobe AIR, OpenGL ES, and specialized toolkits. Problem is, none of these is a magic bullet. None addresses every problem. But what if you could take the best of each and seamlessly blend the results on an in-dash display, without breaking a sweat?

These are the kinds of problems that QNX is tackling. To create compelling products, our automotive customers must integrate numerous mobile and UI technologies, so we've created a platform to help make that integration as clean and simple as possible. I keep thinking of the 1950s, when some innovative musicians fused multiple styles — blues, boogie-woogie, country, gospel — into a thrilling new musical form. You've probably heard of it; it's called rock and roll. That's the kind of exciting synthesis we want to enable.

Simply put, we want to make our customers rock stars. Because when you create an automotive platform, you are judged by only one criterion: your customers' success. Little else matters. And speaking of stars, we've enlisted some remarkably knowledgeable and insightful people to contribute to this new blog. I can say that with confidence, because I have the privilege of working with many of them every day.

So buckle in, because it's going to be a great ride. Our goal is to keep you up to speed on what matters in automotive infotainment. Sure, we'll talk QNX now and then, but we're going to take the high road and cover everything from data plans to driver distraction. So make sure you don't miss a single post: subscribe to our RSS feed and follow us on Twitter at @QNX_Auto