The Consortium rises…
Ford and Toyota have announced today their cooperation to bring new smartphone mirroring technology to market, formalising their intent on keeping their distance from tech giants Apple and Google. This is the first significant step by the two carmakers to bring an alternative to Apple CarPlay and AndroidAuto to market, as the Blue Oval’s plans seemingly stalled in 2013 with AppLink, while Toyota simply omits third-party smartphone mirroring software altogether.
Going public at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Nevada, the SmartDeviceLink Consortium will soon be joined by other carmakers, namely Mazda, the PSA Group (consisting of Peugeot, Citroen, and DS), Subaru, and Suzuki. On the supply front, the Consortium has already roped in Elektrobit, Luxoft, and Xevo, while we are receiving reports that Harman, Pioneer, and BlackBerry’s software arm QNX are showing strong intent to hop onto the bandwagon.
Toyota has said that they intend to introduce the first iteration of SmartDeviceLink on a production car sometime in 2018. This means there’s a long wait ahead for Toyota fans before they’ll see smartphone-mirroring tech in their cars.
The reason why SmartDeviceLink needs to exist is due to safety and privacy concerns that manufacturers hold when it comes to their data. While consumers enjoy access and control of various smartphone functions and apps through their cars, manufacturers are more worried about the sheer volume of data and information that tech companies can collect in the process. While many companies have conceded to customer demands, others have remained steadfast in their protection of data, while Ford seemingly treads the fence by offering Apple and Android smartphone mirroring in their Sync3 systems.
For more information on Ford, Toyota, or any of the aforementioned manufacturers, check out our Showroom.
