The World's Most Expensive Headset: Your CarThe World's Most Expensive Headset: Your Car

There is considerable jockeying afoot between car makers and the consumer electronics industry regarding the next generation of in-vehicle systems.

There is considerable jockeying afoot between car makers and the consumer electronics industry regarding the next generation of in-vehicle systems. On Monday, Apple announced that Volvo, Ferrari and Mercedes will be using its CarPlay technology in some of their vehicles later this year, and a number of other manufacturers including GM, Ford, Toyota, and Honda plan to use it in the future.

In January a group called the Open Automotive Alliance announced that Google will be partnering with Audi, GM, Honda and Hyundai to bring its Android operating system to cars starting this year. Then last week, Ford announced it's cutting its ties with Microsoft and will be going with BlackBerry's QNX for its next generation of in-vehicle systems.

What we are seeing is a clear victory for the consumer electronics industry, but it's also a fundamental admission of defeat by the car makers. Frankly, once they got beyond the basic car radio, most in-vehicle systems have been a lame alternative to what the consumer electronics industry has put in your pocket. Sirius was a good idea, but it didn't come from the auto industry; rather, it was largely the creation of wireless entrepreneur David Margolese.

Many car makers have conceded as much and installed iPhone/iPod docks in their vehicles that allowed you to control them through the radio controls, while other take the simpler approach of providing an audio jack to connect the music player's headphone jack to the car's sound system. Probably the biggest boondoggle was the integrated GPS navigation system (often a $1,000+ option) that never even came close to the voice-activated, Web-enabled navigation capability you get for free with your smartphone.

While giving up on the idea of competing with consumer electronics is probably the smartest move the auto industry could make, in terms of "synergies", it's tough to meld a $500 smartphone you keep for 2-years with a $20,000+ vehicle you might keep for 10. That asymmetrical relationship means the automakers simply can't go for one-on-one alliances with specific consumer platforms. Consumers are not picking a car based on the smartphone they own, and they're not likely to change smartphones simply because one interfaces with their car better than another.

That means that vehicle systems will have to be compatible with some number of mobile platforms, just like Bluetooth is compatible with virtually every phone. However, the bar has been raised in that consumers are not just looking for an audio connection anymore, they will expect "the whole package" with the ability to voice-dial calls, interact with Siri or Google Voice Actions, use playlists, and get directions through the car's systems just like they would directly on the device.

That need to provide a fully-functional user interface (rather than a simple headset jack) could become yet another barrier for any vendor trying to break in on the effective iOS-Android mobile duopoly. A consumer might not change smartphones to suit their car choice, but if the integration capabilities are compelling enough, it could definitely reduce the buyer's search space to the two that work with any car.

Of course the other side of this is whether it's a good idea to be messing around with all of this gadgetry when you're supposed to be guiding a 2,000-pound projectile down a road at almost 100 feet per second. As David Teater, senior director at the National Safety Council puts it, "The auto industry and the consumer electronics industry are really in an arms race to see how we can enable drivers to do stuff other than driving."

Of course folks like Apple argue that it's safer to have drivers voice activating stuff than taking their hands off the wheel to push buttons. It's certainly safer to dictate your text with Siri than to try and type it.

What this car and smartphone convergence does is reinforce the basic point that there's really not much going on in smartphones right now. When you think about it, the last significant "innovation" we got was fingerprint readers, and they ripped that idea off from the laptop makers. The action is no longer in the smartphone, it's in all of the stuff that works with and through the smartphone.

Given what the car makers have given us in the way of in-vehicle electronics, I think turning this over to the consumer electronics guys will result in better capabilities and a vastly improved user experience. Coincidentally, it can also eat into the auto makers' profits, since they won't be able to charge as much for an interface to your smartphone as they did for a full-blown GPS system.

My big hope is that the same wild creativity that the consumer electronics industry has brought us with the new mobile world will also find new and more useful capabilities when combined with an automobile. Just keep your eyes on the road, if you don't mind.

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