Combined WEBLINK® and SiRFprimaII™ solution enables smartphone independent and future proof seamless connected car experience
CSR plc (LSE: CSR; NASDAQ: CSRE) and Abalta Technologies today announced a partnership to integrate Abalta’s connected car solution, WEBLINK®, with CSR’s highly advanced SiRFprimaII™ in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) location, connectivity and multimedia SOC (system-on-a-chip). As a result, CSR is able to provide its customers and OEMs with a leading automotive platform optimised for Display Audio applications, allowing consumers to have a consistently immersive user experience over the full lifecycle of their vehicles as WEBLINK is smartphone agnostic. The solution is available immediately and CSR and Abalta will demonstrate WEBLINK running on SiRFprimaII for the first time at the Telematics Detroit 2014 conference on 4 – 5 June.
Abalta’s WEBLINK technology enables IVI systems to render smartphone applications and utilise the smartphone browser. This enables a user’s phone to become the primary computing device, with the vehicle head unit acting as a ‘terminal’ to the phone. As a result, such systems no longer need a web browser and, as the vehicle ages, it will take advantage of the ever increasing power and capability of future smartphones as drivers swap out their old phones for new ones during the life of the vehicle. IVI systems can therefore be greatly simplified and built at a lower cost.
By integrating WEBLINK into the SiRFprimaII platform, CSR’s Tier one customers have another compelling solution to extend their IVI designs to include access to smartphone apps such as navigation, radio, and review sites. WEBLINK is a highly flexible solution that functions with all modern smartphones and facilitates the easy addition of new popular and relevant services and applications, enabling Tier one customers and their OEMs to future proof the vehicle’s infotainment system.
The increased processing power provided to the head unit by the smartphone, combined with the advanced video decoding capabilities of SiRFprimaII, means that there is no distortion to the images or icons being displayed. This meets the safety guidelines for automotive UIs set by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other regulatory bodies. Driver distraction is minimised as the driver need never look at their smartphone screen while on the road.
“Automotive OEMs and their tier one suppliers have been struggling for some time with finding the most optimal way to enable the use of smartphone based applications in the car,” says Anthony Murray, Senior Vice President, Business Group at CSR. “The challenge has been to marry the increasing functionality and power of the smartphone with in-vehicle safety demands to provide an ideal user experience while driving. WEBLINK meets the goals of optimal delivery of applications and services to the driver, allowing them to take full advantage of the fast-changing and increasing functionality of smartphones. The SiRFprimaII platform is designed to be a highly scalable, flexible, long-term and cost-effective solution for OEMs. By adding WEBLINK, we are ultimately broadening the appeal of the platform to a global customer base.”
“We are very pleased to be working with CSR, a global leader in automotive solution design,” says Michael O’Shea, President and CEO at Abalta Technologies. “Our OEM customers have told us time and again they are looking for global solutions whereby they can enable local services seamlessly through the use of a brought-in smartphone approach. WEBLINK running on CSR’s SiRFprimaII SOC solution will accelerate the adoption of this approach.”
