Huawei's consumer business group CEO Richard Yu said connected vehicles are becoming the largest 'smart' mobile terminals, as the company announced a collaboration with German car maker Volkswagen Group.
Yu said that the two companies will drive seamless entertainment experiences for drivers utilising in-vehicle smart devices, data and cloud platforms. The consumer business group chief made the comments as Huawei and Volkswagen announced they are working to develop technology that allows drivers to access smartphone functionality while on the move.
The companies demonstrated their progress to date at the International Consumer Electronics Show Asia in Shanghai last week. On display were apps linked to vehicles' GPS and infotainment equipment based on MirrorLink, an open technology standard focused on interoperability between smartphones and vehicle systems.
Sven Patuschka, EVP for R&D at Volkswagen Group China, said the collaboration with Huawei aimed to blur the lines between smartphone functions and in-vehicle systems. "All content on the phone will be shown in real time on the car's infotainment touch screen," he noted, adding: "The result is smart and convenient interaction between phone and car."
Volkswagen is currently gearing up to launch its first 'connected' cars in China, and plans to embed MirrorLink in all new models exported to the country from 2016.
While interest in connecting vehicles is currently soaring--Qualcomm, for example last week announced a deal to equip Daimler vehicles with 3G and LTE connectivity--research company Machina Research has cast doubt on whether wireless networks are ready for a deluge of additional traffic.
In a report prepared for network assurance and analytics company TEOCO, Machina Research said the rise of the connected vehicle could see the real-world rush hour replicated on wireless networks, as thousands of vehicles hit the roads at the same time at the start or end of each working day.
Some cell sites could experience a 97 per cent surge in data traffic during the next decade, with connected vehicles set to be the main driver of the increase, the company wrote.
For more:
- see Huawei and VW Group's announcement
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