Car Companies, Google Form Connected Vehicle Alliance

Photo courtesy Google.

By Danielle Lucey



Audi, GM, Google, Honda, Hyundai and NVIDIA Corp. have formed the Open Automotive Alliance, a collaboration that will see Android platform devices integrated with vehicles starting this year. 



The effort is aimed at offering connected vehicle technology, a goal that mirrors recent Department of Transportation work in Michigan with a vehicle-to-vehicle communications test bed. 



The OAA website says it has been in contact with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding its efforts. 



The alliance also wants to speeding up innovation using a singular software platform that could enable added safety and intuition with changing automotive interfaces, according to a press release.



“Millions of people are already familiar with Android and use it every day,” says Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps at Google. “The expansion of the Android platform into automotive will allow our industry partners to more easily integrate mobile technology into cars and offer drivers a familiar, seamless experience so they can focus on the road.” 



The addition of technology company NVIDIA adds a visual computation component to the alliance. 

 

“The car is the ultimate mobile computer. With onboard supercomputing chips, futuristic cars of our dreams will no longer be science fiction,” says Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer at NVIDIA. “The OAA will enable the car industry to bring these amazing cars to market faster.”



The alliance website says it welcomes new members from the automotive and technology communities. 



The alliance says its formation benefits drivers, who have been unsafely trying to access mobile devices while driving. The release says that while each automaker will have its own timeline for integration, they should all be underway by the end of 2014.