{"id":9340,"date":"2019-03-05T19:55:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T00:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/why-is-your-car-screen-so-last-century\/"},"modified":"2019-03-05T20:05:12","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T01:05:12","slug":"why-is-your-car-screen-so-last-century","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/why-is-your-car-screen-so-last-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Your Car Screen So Last Century?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Car Infotainment Systems<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1930s, Motorola, then called Galvin Manufacturing Corporation, offered the first in-car AM radio system, retailing for $130, at a time when a whole car could be bought for $450. The introduction marked the beginning of in-car infotainment systems. In the decades that followed, they became more commonplace and incorporated a wider array of functionalities.<\/p>\n

The modern car infotainment system typically offers navigation \/ map, media playback, phone connectivity \/ address book, backup camera, vehicle information display (temperature, gas mileage, etc.) and settings (comfort features, suspension, etc.).<\/p>\n

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Technology Gaps<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Until quite recently, the infotainment systems offered in most cars are significantly behind their times in terms of functionality, performance and user experience, compared to their contemporary consumer electronic devices. The picture below shows the top-of-the-line infotainment system installed on the Subaru Forester in 2010, just months before Apple shipped its 100 millionth iPhone. [1]<\/p>\n

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In a world where smart mobile devices are ubiquitous, car infotainment systems seem like a glaring omission screaming to be revolutionized. The obvious question is: why can’t we just build an “iPad” into a car’s dash? Unfortunately, no. The reason is twofold:<\/p>\n

Product development cycle and reliability<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

Light passenger vehicles typically have a product lifecycle of 7 years. Partly a result of the high requirements on safety and reliability, as well as the potential liability from product flaws, the product development and testing process often spans over 3-4 years. The design of the car’s components are “frozen” long before they hit the market. As a result, the infotainment system is at least a few years old even if they are state-of-the art when they were designed, which is often not the case. During the 7 years typical car models are sold on the market, and the 10+ years they are used by consumers [2], their infotainment system barely receive any updates.<\/p>\n

Economic incentives for keeping closely guarded system<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

Up until today, car manufacturers (OEMs) have ultimate control over what gets installed in a car. Upgraded infotainment systems historically commanded hefty prices and served as a significant profit driver for OEMs. For example, Toyota used to charge $3,000 for adding the GPS navigation feature in a $26,000 family sedan, a car already equipped with a CD\/cassette player as standard. Controlling the infotainment system gives opportunities to sell additional high-margin features requiring integration with the infotainment system, such as back-up camera, heads-up display, LCD instrument clusters, etc.<\/p>\n

Automotive OEMs and their tier 1 suppliers often lack the scale and capability to develop infotainment systems competitive with popular consumer devices.<\/p>\n

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Disruptions on the Horizon<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Screen mirroring solutions<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n

As the creator and operator of the two largest mobile operating system and ecosystems (iOS and Android), Apple and Google have long coveted in-car infotainment market for years with limited success, for reasons mentioned above. Recognizing the challenges with installing Android \/ iOS infotainment systems in cars directly, the tech giants worked out their respective intermediary solutions – Android Auto (Google) and Car Play (Apple). They are essentially a screen projection feature integrated into OEM’s existing infotainment systems allowing users to project key apps running on their phones (map, music, phone, contacts, etc.) to the in-car display with certain visual enhancements for driving.<\/p>\n

OEMs agreed to integrate these features because 1) they do not replace the existing infotainment systems (e.g. many Car Play equipped cars still have built-in navigations systems although users rarely use them); 2) OEMs need to offer such feature as a competitive hedge as more OEMs are offering it in their cars.<\/p>\n

While the screen mirroring delivers many benefits of modern mobile devices, it is not without limitations:<\/p>\n