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Finally a car manufacturer realizes it can't out-compete a software company at making good software. The reason infotainment sucks so hard is that car companie

by nimish 8y ago

Finally a car manufacturer realizes it can't out-compete a software company at making good software. The reason infotainment sucks so hard is that car companies want to "own the experience" and also want to cut costs, so they underinvest and create poor experiences.

0x4f3759df 8y ago
I think there's a larger story, which I'll explain through a personal anecdote. I purchased the Samsung Gear 3 LTE smartwatch because I've always hated how mobile phones get in the way of personal interaction, but then was very disappointed to find out it ran Tizen and not Android Wear, which means no Google Assistant. So one the one hand you have Google Assistant: great voice recognition and queries against the Google search engine, and on the other hand you have Samsung which doesn't own a search engine and can't compete in the voice search market. So it looks like Google is going to dominate the entire hands-free computing world (smartwatch, cars, and home assistants) Google I/O is tomorrow so hopefully they'll announce some Android Wear with LTE and voice assistant.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  Do you really think Google has a stake in the wearables market? Last I heard they were ready to pull out with most of the market going to Apple.
  - Roritharr 8y ago
    It was mostly attributed to Qualcomm who left them hanging dry until this February.
  - jacksmith21006 8y ago
    Heard where? Highly doubt Google is going to pull out of the wearable space.
  - bitmapbrother 8y ago
    Wear OS currently accounts for about 18% of the wearable market share. There's also a WearOS session scheduled for I/O so they're still interested. The major hurdle has been the SoC. WearOS devices are still using the antiquated 28nm Snapdragon 2100 SoC which was created in 2014.
Dwolb 8y ago
Nope. There's a current mismatch between automotive hardware life cycles and consumer software life cycles. This Volvo hardware is going to be a minimum of 3 years old before it ships and will have to function for 10 years+. How good is your 10 year old phone? How does it match up to the average consumer experience today? How's the speakers, camera, audio, OTA software, and display compare to what's available today? Not owning the software ecosystem is a good first step but will be severely hampered by not aligning hardware development cycle expectations.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  Counter-example: My vehicle's infotainment unit (new in 2016) has received exactly zero updates. If Android is supported for "only 2-3 years" that's still a step up, not a step down from the status quo. PS - I should clarify that the engine's computer received at least two recall updates. But Android doesn't try and replace that.
- eslaught 8y ago
  Hardware improvement cycles are not some the same curves they were 10 years ago. So, short of a massive breakthrough, the improvement we can expect in the next 10 years will much, much smaller than what we saw in the last 10 (which was already much smaller than what we saw in the 10 before that). They can still shoot themselves in the foot by intentionally buying underpowered hardware, but that won't be the fault of hardware trends, it'll be the fault of making a bad initial choice.
  - whichdan 8y ago
    I mean, the iPhone is only 10 years old, and the difference between the first generation and the iPhone X is astounding. That said, I generally agree with you: I think a lot of the advancement we'll see in the coming years will be in the VR/AR space, which will present a different enough experience that users won't be comparing it to existing interfaces.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- 8y ago

by nimish 8y ago

0x4f3759df 8y ago

I think there's a larger story, which I'll explain through a personal anecdote. I purchased the Samsung Gear 3 LTE smartwatch because I've always hated how mobile phones get in the way of personal interaction, but then was very disappointed to find out it ran Tizen and not Android Wear, which means no Google Assistant. So one the one hand you have Google Assistant: great voice recognition and queries against the Google search engine, and on the other hand you have Samsung which doesn't own a search engine and can't compete in the voice search market. So it looks like Google is going to dominate the entire hands-free computing world (smartwatch, cars, and home assistants) Google I/O is tomorrow so hopefully they'll announce some Android Wear with LTE and voice assistant.

saagarjha 8y ago
Do you really think Google has a stake in the wearables market? Last I heard they were ready to pull out with most of the market going to Apple.
- Roritharr 8y ago
  It was mostly attributed to Qualcomm who left them hanging dry until this February.
- jacksmith21006 8y ago
  Heard where? Highly doubt Google is going to pull out of the wearable space.
- bitmapbrother 8y ago
  Wear OS currently accounts for about 18% of the wearable market share. There's also a WearOS session scheduled for I/O so they're still interested. The major hurdle has been the SoC. WearOS devices are still using the antiquated 28nm Snapdragon 2100 SoC which was created in 2014.

Dwolb 8y ago

Nope. There's a current mismatch between automotive hardware life cycles and consumer software life cycles. This Volvo hardware is going to be a minimum of 3 years old before it ships and will have to function for 10 years+. How good is your 10 year old phone? How does it match up to the average consumer experience today? How's the speakers, camera, audio, OTA software, and display compare to what's available today? Not owning the software ecosystem is a good first step but will be severely hampered by not aligning hardware development cycle expectations.

Someone1234 8y ago
Counter-example: My vehicle's infotainment unit (new in 2016) has received exactly zero updates. If Android is supported for "only 2-3 years" that's still a step up, not a step down from the status quo. PS - I should clarify that the engine's computer received at least two recall updates. But Android doesn't try and replace that.
eslaught 8y ago
Hardware improvement cycles are not some the same curves they were 10 years ago. So, short of a massive breakthrough, the improvement we can expect in the next 10 years will much, much smaller than what we saw in the last 10 (which was already much smaller than what we saw in the 10 before that). They can still shoot themselves in the foot by intentionally buying underpowered hardware, but that won't be the fault of hardware trends, it'll be the fault of making a bad initial choice.
- whichdan 8y ago
  I mean, the iPhone is only 10 years old, and the difference between the first generation and the iPhone X is astounding. That said, I generally agree with you: I think a lot of the advancement we'll see in the coming years will be in the VR/AR space, which will present a different enough experience that users won't be comparing it to existing interfaces.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
8y ago