Audi recently put a tech show extravaganza and there were so many things on the agenda. There was everything from virtual reality to infotainment systems which are incorporated into the new Audi cars, to a future role for the car whereby it plays an integral part in our everyday lives. However, the last idea hinges on the future developments of connected cars.
Many people dislike the idea of connected cars but there are definitely benefits associated with the car. Audi would be able to benefit from the idea of a connected car just as other manufacturers such as Tesla who have been making better use of the idea by understanding the needs of their clients. Because of the connected car feature, Tesla has managed to gain a foothold in the privacy and security of clients’ cars.
There has been steady improvements in the conventional car from the radio, to the CD player, a steadily from then on up to the current MMI feature which is working now. The latest MMI Audi feature is also built on the same platform that the MIB 2 platform is built on.
MMI is thought to be the best out there by experts and the feature continues to get better. There is a connected car app for the MMI feature and it enables the car owner to make several changes with it such checking the car status, remote locking and unlocking. In other cars, the MMU app can also check the charge status of the cars and the AC.
Audi, just as other car manufacturers such as General Motors which recently launched the OnStar mobile app, Audi is working on making the smartphone a pathway to send maps, music and internet radio to cars and as easy as possible.
The future for plans will probably hinge on this features and they will be shaped into what the company is currently calling the Personal Intelligent Assistant. The PIA is more of a car that has been mashed together with search assistants such as Siri and Cortana. When the PIA gets to known the user, through machine learning, it becomes easy to use and will be able to make reminders to the car owner for everyday things. Such information means that PIA has to know a lot about you, and all the information it will gather will be stored in the cloud.
Audi has already made advances in the field of connected cars as it currently is testing with about 70 selected Audi company cars which began last year. When drivers join the program, a new and additional data recorder is put on the device. The regular data from the CAN system of the car is not accessible from the infotainment system. Approximately 850 different bus signals will be taken from one car alone and sent to a secure backend. The data is also pseudonymized so knowing the driver for a car is impossible.
Audi said it was taking the issue of data privacy and security seriously as they already have end to end encryption between the connected cars. An Audi spokesperson said that no one in the world could claim 100 percent security but that the company was making efforts to achieve optimum protection.
