As part of the CES 2016 technology trade show in Las Vegas, Ford Motors announced on Monday that Toyota Automotive, QNX Software Systems and UIEvolution are adopting its SmartDeviceLink Platform. This platform enables users to connect their smartphones to their cars and control things like calls, text messages, music, reminders, navigation etc.
Last year, Ford announced it was open-sourcing its SmartDeviceLink software. The automaker wants to create an industry standard by encouraging other automobile manufacturers and suppliers to study and implement the open-source version of AutoLink into their cars and products.
On Monday, Toyota announced that they will be using Ford’s tech in their cars in the near future. Automobile suppliers QNX Software Systems and UIEvolution also have similar plans.
Shigeki Terashi, executive vice president, Toyota Motor Corporation, regarding the new platform said,
Developing a safer and more secure in-car smartphone connectivity service — which better matches individual vehicle features — is exactly the value and advantage an automaker can offer customers. We expect that many companies share our view and will participate in the industry SmartDeviceLink collaboration.
Ford also announced that PSA Peugeot Citroën, Honda, Subaru and Mazda are a few other automobile companies that are interested in utilizing SmartDeviceLink in their dashboards soon.
The Dearborn based company wants to give developers a unified-single universal platform to provide users with apps to interact with their smartphones through their cars.
The true benefit of a common smartphone app communications interface is that it creates an industry standard – enabling great experiences for customers while allowing different companies the freedom to differentiate their individual brands,
said Don Butler, Ford executive director, Connected Vehicle and Services, today.
Ford is making the software available as open-source, because customers throughout the industry benefit if everybody speaks one language.
Ford wants to up the stats of AppLink (or SmarDeviceLink) running on cars from 5 million today to 28 million by 2020.
Not just this, the company is also planning to provide Android Auto and CarPlay support for users who want them. All of Ford’s vehicles will support the aforementioned platforms by early 2017, according to the company.
