Honda will use the Eleventh-generation Accord as a check mattress for its first integration of Google — a step that guarantees the longer term potential to make modifications in present autos.
The system, referred to as Google Constructed-In, might be supplied on the highest Touring trim solely. It primarily tethers the car to its proprietor through their Google profile to allow a related in-car expertise with out using a cellphone.
Google Constructed-In has three key apps: Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Play. It runs by means of a responsive 12.3-inch contact display with crisp, clear graphics. Google Assistant is on the middle of all of it, offering a solution to continuously fussy onboard voice-recognition programs.
However the know-how presents greater than a streamlined expertise for the driving force, Honda says. It represents the automaker’s first step towards the subsequent part of car possession, which incorporates the flexibility so as to add capabilities through over-the-air updates.
“What this permits down the street is not only the options it has now, however the potential to over-the-air replace to offer plenty of new options and capabilities that weren’t even developed on the time the automobile went on sale,” stated Jay Joseph, American Honda Motor Co.’s vice chairman of CASE and Power.
CASE stands for Linked, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified and is a newly created division tasked with accelerating Honda’s initiatives in these areas.
“We predict the concept of proudly owning a automobile that may add perform two, three or eight years after it has been bought can actually change the dynamics of the possession expertise and the used-vehicle market,” Joseph stated.
“Our focus is de facto to place the shopper in the course of the equation, so in that sense, the connected-vehicle expertise it presents is important,” he stated.
Facilitating over-the-air software program updates will not be a brand new concept in automotive.
Joseph says Honda already has been delivering content material to lots of its autos over the air to reflash present programs or give service updates.
“The brand new worth of OTA,” he stated, “is evolving to incorporate improve alternatives.
“By combining the {hardware} with the software program, we will optimize the expertise for every particular person the place they’ll change performance or efficiency after the car buy.”
Along with controlling instructions comparable to navigation and music, Google Constructed-In can function the local weather system. (“Hey Google, activate the seat heaters for the entrance passenger.”)
In response to Honda, it is simply the primary iteration of enabling automobile capabilities with know-how, and sooner or later customers will be capable to settle for updates to make their autos inherently higher or smarter.
In November, Honda introduced its Honda Sensing 360 system, which can add extra sensors and enhanced collision-avoidance capabilities to all Honda and Acura autos by 2030. That elevated sensor capability may additionally allow Honda so as to add options and capabilities after a car is bought.
“Possibly one thing requiring extra improvement, like self-parking or auto summon,” Joseph advised.
He declined to say whether or not different Honda autos would possibly undertake Google Constructed-In, however he famous that the idea of layering software program on prime of {hardware} suits higher with electrical autos due to how related they already are.
“The digital platforms of EVs are extra appropriate with this community connectivity idea than standard automobiles,” Joseph stated. “And that creates new potentialities within the electrified period with a software-defined car.”