The Connected Vehicle in the Internet of Things

By Rob Cadena

It has been predicted that by 2020, there will be 75 billion connected devices – about 10 devices for every person on earth. This eye-opening statistic prompted me to understand how many devices I manage already. To my surprise, I already own or manage 21 fully connected devices and 12 partially connected devices, as shown in the diagram below. Not surprisingly, I am astounded by the amount of time and effort it takes to keep all of these devices up to date and communicating properly. Today’s reality imposes a huge cognitive load on consumers, who just want their devices to work and to communicate with each other through the cloud.

Internet of Rob’s Things

Vehicles Need to be Connected

The amount of time that people spend in their vehicles is too significant for them to be disconnected while driving. How many times have you been stuck in traffic wondering if there was a faster way to get to your destination?  Wouldn’t you like to access your music, news and social connections the same way as on your smartphone? Wouldn’t you want your car to update itself easily and automatically without visiting a dealership?

Because the population of connected vehicles is too small, app designers haven’t yet focused on automotive applications --- but once the vehicle becomes connected, the industry will start to see some of the coolest vehicle apps.

Vehicle Interconnection with Mobile Devices is Key

Not only do vehicles need to be connected, but they need to interact with the other devices you already own. When the vehicle cloud is connected to your device cloud and your home cloud, the possibilities are staggering. When I reviewed my personal Internet of Things, shown in the diagram, I noticed the best applications work across the PC, phone and tablet platforms – allowing me to continue using an app or service on one device exactly where I left off earlier on a different device. I am able to configure preferences and settings easily on a PC and apply them to the service running on any device. However, my television Blu-Ray players, satellite and audio/video receivers interact only to their manufacturer’s cloud using a clumsy built-in user interface. To improve this experience for the vehicle owner, carmakers will allow you to configure your vehicle’s preferences using a mobile device app or website. Vehicles must be able to interact with today’s consumer apps and those that will be released over the next 10 years.

To discuss the “Internet of vehicle things” with me further, catch me at the GENIVI All Members’ meeting May 20-23 in Gothenburg, Sweden, where I will showcase our OpenAir infotainment systems, or at Telematics Update Detroit on June 4-5, where I will participate on a panel discussing vehicle Internet of Things opportunities.

Rob Cadena is infotainment manager and a technical fellow at Visteon, responsible for leading infotainment development. Rob has been involved in the design and development of automotive audio and infotainment systems for 14 years. He received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, with a concentration in digital signal processing. Rob is an avid triathlete, musician and Detroit Lions fan.

Virtual Controls are on the Horizon

By Shadi Mere

Consumer research is a crucial part of our innovation process at Visteon. Among many other benefits, it gauges consumer acceptance and perceptions of the new technologies and experiences that we are creating. This is important because, as new technologies are investigated and developed, it can be easy to lose sight of the consumer problems that we are trying to help vehicle manufacturers solve. As the old idiom goes, it’s easy to “lose sight of the forest for the trees.” Consumer research provides a good way to step back and objectively evaluate our concepts. We learn which problems are being effectively solved, and are alerted to opportunities for improvement.

During one of our consumer clinics in Chicago last year, I had a very interesting encounter with a research participant – a pleasant elderly gentleman. Upon introduction to our Horizon cockpit concept, and before he could even start the testing, he paused and asked, “Why are you guys doing this? Leave my radio alone and let me keep my knobs and buttons.” After a quick exchange, he grudgingly went through the testing procedure for our concept. Then an interesting thing happened. After interacting with the concept, he completely changed his perception ...  and ours! I will circle back and explain how.

The Horizon concept shown above has an open, spacious and minimalistic cockpit design. There are no visible buttons or controls.  The concept lets consumers experience the transition from physical controls (knobs, buttons, dials, etc.) to communication tools that people naturally use – such as voice and hand gestures – and both visual and sensory feedback. 

When a new technology is introduced, companies are always faced with questions. “Is this technology for technology’s sake or does it add real value?” The learning curve of a new technology is a big part of the answer. In general, the higher the learning curve, the worse the perception and the lower the adoption rate.  Furthermore, if users learn a new technology and still can’t perceive its benefits, the technology is likely unnecessary. Another important question is whether or not the experience resolves an issue. As we implemented gesture-based controls in the context of a vehicle cockpit, we took great care to ensure that we were solving problems for consumers – and not creating new ones.

Let’s go back to the elderly gentleman from our consumer research clinic. The concept that this gentleman tested enables users to interact with their vehicles through a combination of voice and gesture recognition. One feature allows users to simply rotate their hand in space to turn a virtual knob. Furthermore, users can change the function of the knob with their voice. For example, if the user says “knob volume,” his or her hand now controls a virtual volume knob. This virtual knob can be re-purposed for a number of features, including adjusting temperature, changing radio stations, selecting songs from a playlist, etc.  The movement required is minimal and effortless, and the consumer does not have to perform the gesture in a precise location. Additional features identify what is happening with the system; an animated knob appears on the display that corresponds to the function being controlled, and audio feedback is given to the user to indicate action is being taken.

As the elderly gentleman used the system, he called out "knob-volume," and he rotated the knob in space. He heard the lowering of the music volume as he moved the knob. At that point, he seemed delighted. He thought for a moment, and said, “I like this a lot, since I have problems reaching and gripping the knobs in my car due to my arthritis. A lot of times, I’m not sure where functions are buried in menus.  With this, I can call out any function, control it with my hands, and I don’t even have to look at the screen.” His experience and response altered our perception of the appropriate target consumer for this technology. Generally, we assume that users from younger demographic age groups will embrace new technologies more readily than those in older demographic groups. However, this encounter inspired us to look at Horizon a bit differently. As we examined the data after the clinic, we realized that the Horizon concept resonated across all age groups and demographics. The reasons for consumers’ interest varied, but we learned that Horizon offers exciting benefits for consumers of all ages.

As we probed deeper into consumers’ comments and reactions to features in the Horizon concept, we gained a number of insights. What became apparent is that consumers were interested in technology that helped them communicate with the vehicle in a way that was natural for them. For gesture-based technologies, this meant that people wanted to use gestures that were similar to motions they often made with their hands – the simple rotation of a virtual knob, or a natural movement of reaching toward a control to activate it. This insight was similar to what we discovered early on when we researched voice recognition – people are hesitant to learn a new “language” to communicate with their vehicle.

When automotive manufacturers add technology to vehicles, they have the best of intentions. Too often, though, these technologies can create problems of their own. The technology is too complex for consumers to comprehend, the implementation is too complicated, or the use cases simply aren’t fleshed out well enough – all of which can lead to technology failures.

We need to continue to dig deeper and push our technology further to uncover the right applications, the right context, and the right implementations to deliver the ideal consumer experience. When it comes to innovation in the automotive electronics industry, sometimes we have to plant a few more trees before the forest appears.

Shadi Mere is an innovation manager with Visteon’s “Innovation Works” team. He works on advanced innovation, “disruptive” technology, human-machine interaction, creative design management, consumer experience research and high-technology trends. During his 18-year career, Shadi has worked in engineering design, advanced manufacturing, product development and strategy, and program management -- with a focus on bringing promising inventions to life.