Everybody loves a comeback story. A couple of years ago telematics, the technology that enables electronics embedded in a vehicle to connect wirelessly to external sources, had been pretty much written off for applications other than emergency monitoring services or hands-free wireless phones. That’s not a knock on emergency services. Last year, for instance, GM's Onstar service had 50,000 requests to unlock car doors from a remote location. GM has more than 3-million OnStar subscribers and recently announced it plans to offer OnStar as standard equipment on all its passenger cars by 2007.

Still, both the aftermarket and the automotive industries recognize the big commercial potential of telematics resides in the information and entertainment realm, including TV, movies and games piped into the car wirelessly. But there also is general consensus that during the last few years, the industry tried to build a house without starting with the foundation. Put another way, there was no standardized gateway into the vehicle’s electronic network.

That’s changing, and quickly. For starters, in June 2004 CEA’s Mobile Electronics Committee adopted a new standard, designated CEA-2012 and based on the MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport) Cooperation specification. MOST is a fiber optic automotive network for real-time data transfer that allows components from different brand aftermarket suppliers to interact with each other. The MOST Cooperation is a group of 19 international auto manufacturers and more than 60 component suppliers working together to create a common standard for automotive multimedia networking.

CEA is leading an effort to develop a gateway into the MOST network to ensure that aftermarket products will be able to interface with these vehicles. At the moment some 30 different car models from major car companies of the world use the MOST high-speed network for in-vehicle entertainment and multimedia applications. The MOST camp counts among its users Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Ford, Honda, VW, Land Rover, Jaguar, Saab, GM and Volvo also are now or will soon implement MOST in-car networks. Aftermarket supplier members of the MOST group include Alpine, Clarion, Kenwood, Motorola, Delphi, Panasonic, Sanyo and Sony.

“Every consumer has the right to replace or upgrade the consumer electronics in their vehicle,” said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro. “We believe working with the MOST Cooperation can help alleviate challenges to connectivity and support the rising sale of mobile video, navigation devices and aftermarket autosound equipment and provide consumers with more choices in determining their in-vehicle products.”

Some of the most common aftermarket upgrade challenges include: radios linked with climate controls, serial networks that require expensive adapters for audio and security upgrades, loss of features such as tire pressure monitoring and oil life expectancy displays if the radio is removed and a negative affect on automaker warranties. The CEA gateway would allow audio products to connect seamlessly to the MOST network with two-way controls that would eliminate these challenges. CEA expects a gateway reference model, based on CEA-2012, to be released during 2005.

Automobile
In other telematics developments, some time this year or early next Delphi Corp. and Comcast plan to develop and bring to market new ways to allow consumers to select video content, transfer it to an in-vehicle entertainment system and take it with them on- the -go. For its part Delphi will work to develop an electronic consumer device for use in vehicles that enables the transfer and user-selected playback of video, and Comcast will examine ways to allow users to access video content.

The goal is to leverage the IEEE 802.11 – or as it is more commonly known, “Wi-Fi”– wireless networking platform available on Delphi’s rear-seat video system and allow users to transfer content securely to their vehicles.

Microsoft Corp.'s Automotive Business Unit is collaborating with Samsung Electronics, ScanSoft, Siemens, SiRF, Xilinx and Magneti Marelli to develop a flexible, low-cost telematics system to be integrated into every new Fiat Auto car. Based on a reference design defined by Microsoft and Fiat, the system will incorporate key aspects from each collaborator, including a chip set, processors, a telecommunications module, a speech engine and hardware development. All applications and services for the system will be based on Microsoft's telematics platform.

The joint telematics solution being developed will provide drivers with easy access to applications for talking on the phone, enjoying their personal music selection and looking for addresses while driving. The system will allow diagnostic data to be transferred to and analyzed by the manufacturer and the car dealer.