May 21, 2024

A article lets you understand the car OS: mainstream car infotainment system big PK

If I ask you "How many computing devices do you have?" You will most likely think of your home PC and laptop, then think of your smartphone and tablet. People who know more about technology may also think of smart watches, televisions and video game consoles. But there are a lot of computing devices that many people see as computing devices: car infotainment systems.

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Like any other computing device, an infotainment system is also a computer with a processor, operating system, and applications. Well-known companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Samsung hold major conferences every year to release the latest hardware and software products, and promote better performance configurations and well-known sub-brands such as iPhone, Surface, and Galaxy.

However, you hardly see how much the car company announced their new infotainment system RAM; most car dealers don't mention the configuration of the system or even the software it carries. Of course, the main purpose of the car is to drive, so horsepower, safety and comfort are top priorities. But in addition to the steering wheel, pedals and turn indicators (for some drivers), infotainment systems are one of the most common interfaces for cars. If it's bad, you're likely to feel bad.

So today we will look at the on-board computer as we look at any other type of computer and see how the car companies adapt to the era of smartphones. Consumers are asking automakers to offer a more complex combination of technology capabilities, and some members of the 100-year-old industry are better at adapting to this than others.

Welcome to the "Wild West" in the field of infotainment systems

In the early days of the PC era, there were many different operating systems - DOS, Mac OS, OS/2, Windows, BeOS, AmigaOS, and so on. In the end, the PC platform entered a mature period and basically evolved into a duopoly situation - Microsoft's Windows and Apple's Mac OS. In the early days of smartphone development, there were also a variety of operating systems - Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Brew, and more. In the end, the smartphone platform matured and basically evolved into a duopoly situation - Google's Android and Apple's iOS. Since the on-board computer is currently in the "initial" development stage, we will also explore its development status from this perspective.

At present, there are not a few car operating systems on the market, all of which are highly customized and are exclusive to various car manufacturers. Common operating system platforms include QNX for BlackBerry, Windows Embedded Automotive for Microsoft, many custom operating systems based on Linux, and many Android Open Source Project (AOSP) based operating systems (they are also Linux based). Car companies typically develop custom interfaces based on these operating systems and then advertise them as self-developed systems, giving them brand names such as "Ford Sync" and "Audi MMI."

Among the "big three" of consumer operating systems - Microsoft, Google and Apple - only Microsoft is currently competing in the automotive operating system market. Both Apple and Google have "projection" in-car interfaces - CarPlay and Android Auto. But both are based on smartphones and are only delivered to the car screen. They are not really a car-mounted operating system, but they are actually just running applications on the above-mentioned car operating system. There is also a similar "MirrorLink" system that can transfer your entire phone screen to the car screen as long as the car is compatible with the phone.

Microsoft's in-vehicle platform seems to have been around for a long time, dating back to 1998's Windows CE 2.0-based "Auto PC." Its on-board platform (which has been renamed about five times in those years) has relied on Ford Sync, which was built with Ford, to take a pivotal position. But after Ford switched to QNX for BlackBerry, many people doubt whether Microsoft has a future in the infotainment market. The company recently entered into a cooperation agreement with Renault-Nissan, but in the short term it should not be able to produce substantial products.

There are currently several cars equipped with Google's Android operating system, but those systems are all derivatives of the Android open source project, and Google has not participated in the development. As this Android system continues to spread, Google is seeking to replicate its smartphone strategy to the automotive market. Google’s Open Handset Alliance is an organization of smartphone OEMs that promise to use Google’s Android distribution. And Google’s “Open Auto Alliance” in the auto market has already had 50 auto brand members. These members signed the contract to comply with Google's Android compatibility requirements, and we have seen specific automotive terms begin to appear in Google's compatibility documentation.

At the show, Google showed two different Android car operating system concepts: one is a Google-designed interface, similar to the "Pure Google" Pixel phone; the other is a custom interface from Fiat-Chrysler, similar Android smartphone partners such as Samsung and LG have done it on the mobile phone interface. A whole concept can be a complete copy of Google's smartphone strategy. But after seeing the situation in the smartphone market, how many automakers are really willing to ship the Google car operating system?

As for Apple, if it follows the strategy of vertical integration of hardware and software, it will only build a car operating system if it is built. It is rumored that Apple has been working on an unmanned electric vehicle project called Project Titan since 2014. According to the New York Times, the original 1000-person Project Titan team recently launched a “restart” involving some employee cuts. Obviously, the project is shifting its focus from designing a car to "building the basic technology for driverless cars." So, for the foreseeable future, CarPlay seems to be the company's in-vehicle solution.

Given that large consumer software providers have become bystanders, the current state of the automotive operating system looks a lot like the competitive landscape of smartphone platforms before iOS or Android prevails. Every car manufacturer is building an in-vehicle operating system that is not compatible with any other in-vehicle operating system, so it is impractical to set up an "vehicle operating system application store." This market is a nightmare for application developers. In a car, you can get no more than 10 native apps.

Take a look at Pandora's crazy "How to listen to Pandora in the car" support page, and you'll know what the current wide range of car support is. This page lists the customers of Pandora. Among automakers and stereo components, Pandora lists 33 different brands with Pandora applications. Some of those car brands are owned by the same company, sharing an infotainment platform, and Pandora or licenses share some code in a particular version. But the company still has to develop applications for about 20 completely different customers.

Any operating system market often evolves from a number of operating system choices to a few options, and one important reason is application developers. Before the Android and iOS duopoly smartphone market, Google CEO Larry Page complained that his company’s studio had “more than 100 phones” to get Google’s mobile app maintenance, and the company’s “basically We can only develop our software for one device." The current automotive infotainment market is basically the same situation, and Pandora must have a garage full of cars to maintain its in-vehicle applications. For most third-party developers, copying Pandora's incredible automotive application development work is not economically viable. So many applications are not developed.

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Suzhou Ribao Technology Co. Ltd. , https://www.ribaoeurope.com