Inrix rolls open app platform for the connected car
Known to the public for its traffic data in the first place, Inrix has expanded its services to data services that are both location-based and relevant for car drivers. Examples are parking space occupancy, fuel pricing, or intermodal routing – all in real-time. OpenCar, backed for the last five years by a strategic partnership with Mazda Motor Corp, and like Inrix based in the area of Seattle, offers a programming environment for developers of apps targeting online services to the connected car that includes an application framework and an SDK.
From the perspective of automotive OEMs, OpenCar’s platform has a decisive advantage over competing technologies like Google’s Android Auto and Apple CarPlay: It does not extradite the carmaker to the owner of the respective world. Instead, it allows carmakers to customise the services to their own ideas and requirements. Plus, even more important, it leaves sensitive data to and from the car under the control of the respective carmaker – a feature the European carmakers cannot overestimate given their collective competition to the emerging competitors out of the digital world. This feature allows OEMs to roll out brand-, model- and region-specific services and to customise the user interface according to their needs. In addition, the automaker remains in command in questions as to where to store and how to use these data.
Despite the fact that the OEM remains the owner of the data, OpenCar’s platform cloud-based, scalable platform enables programmers to develop apps that can be deployed across different makes and models. Irrespective of the capability to be deployed across multiple brands, the respective OEM can set the rules for HMI and user experience. What’s more, the carmaker keeps control over the in-car apps lifecycle, explains Andreas Hecht, General Manager und Executive Vice President Automotive for INRIX. The functionality enables carmakers to validate the services, apply model and regional specific specifications and even perform over-the-air updates, a feature more or less all European carmakers are working on as feverishly as secretly.
The application ecosystem currently includes about 1300 developers. The apps cover accommodations, city guides, internet radio, and even less travel-related things like audio books.
At the same time as the OpenCar acquisition, Inrix announces the availability of Autelligent, a platform for next-generation driver assistance systems. Built around a cloud-based machine learning algorithm, the software learns the driver’s habits and preferences and accesses personal data stored in the driver’s calendar and contacts. On this basis, the software provides predictive routing – it automatically creates a daily, personalised itinerary of anticipated routes and trips. Since it is also aware of the current traffic situation, it provides smart pre-drive and drive-time alerts that take into account congestions, hazardous road conditions and vehicle sensor data.
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