Honda Introduces HondaLink™

New Cloud-Based HondaLink™ Connected Car System Helps Drivers Put Away Their Phones While Maintaining Intuitive Access to Their Favorite Media

HondaLink™ provides first-ever OEM application of Aha™, delivering robust digital content via preset smartphone app

July 18, 2012

TORRANCE

Honda today unveiled HondaLink™, a new in-vehicle connectivity system that will debut this fall on the all-new, ninth-generation 2013 Honda Accord. Featuring the first automotive OEM application of Aha™ by Harman, HondaLink will provide a personalized experience connecting drivers to thousands of cloud-based news, information and entertainment feeds from around the world, using an intuitive, audio-system based interface.

"HondaLink will enable customers to put away their phone and still stay connected to the people, music and media they love," said Vicki Poponi, assistant vice president of product planning for American Honda. "By creating an intuitive and customizable user interface, HondaLink allows drivers to access digital content as easily as choosing a radio station."

Honda's intuitive new HondaLink smartphone application allows owners to preset content on their phone. Once in the car, consumers can enjoy personalized content accessible via voice recognition, steering-wheel mounted controls and in-dash audio system controls. With a tethered smartphone serving as a conduit to a wealth of cloud-based media, HondaLink creates a unique, connected driving experience.

"Honda's strategy is about leveraging the cloud to bring a wealth of new information and services to Honda owners," said Charles Koch, American Honda manager of new business development. "This is the next evolution of the connected car and the connected customer."

Through the Aha service, for example, HondaLink users can listen to Facebook and Twitter audio newsfeeds, podcasts from NPR, location-based personalized restaurant listings from Yelp!, and access internet music services such as Slacker. The service is free and instantly accessible from the cloud.

Aha delivers a user-friendly experience requiring infrequent smartphone software updates, with in-vehicle content and channel access updating simply and automatically throughout the vehicle life. And content available from HondaLink will grow as the system continues to expand its services for Honda owners. HondaLink will also incorporate Pandora internet radio and voice-to-text SMS text services with pre-programmed responses, which Honda introduced on the 2012 CR-V.

HondaLink EV

The HondaLink family also includes HondaLink EV, specifically designed for the all-new Fit EV all-electric vehicle and the upcoming Accord Plug-In Hybrid. Owners of these electric vehicles will have access to unique applications designed specifically to maintain connectivity to their vehicle. The HondaLink EV application will allow the user to remotely view the state of charge, initiate charging, and activate the air conditioning and heater to pre-condition the vehicle while connected to the grid to maximize battery range on start-up. HondaLink EV will launch with the Fit EV, which will be available for lease in California and Oregon beginning on July 20, 2012

Source;
http://www.hondanews.com/channels/corporate-headlines/releases/new-cloud-based-hondalink-connected-car-system-helps-drivers-put-away-their-phones-while-maintaining-intuitive-access-to-their-favorite-media

Honda Showing Sync Competitor this Summer

By Damon Lavrinc of www.wired.com

Honda has been playing it safe in the infotainment game, as competition from Ford and General Motors push ahead with ambitious systems that leverage driver’s devices and the cloud. But next month the Japanese automaker plans to reveal its next-generation infotainment solution, HondaLink, before it becomes available on the 2013 Accord this fall.

A cursory glance at Honda’s current navigation and infotainment offerings leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the functionality is still stuck in the mid-2000s, primarily comprised of basic navigation functionality and a complete lack of streaming audio solutions, outside of satellite and terrestrial radio.

That’s about to change with the introduction of the revamped HondaLink system, which debuts first on the Fit EV, an electrified version of the brand’s popular sub-compact hatchback.

Honda is in the midst of moving many of its connected services away from satellite data, although Honda representatives speaking with Wired haven’t determined if the automaker will move towards a built-in, always-connected modem in its vehicles or rely on driver’s smartphones to provide data services.

At CES this January, Honda announced a partnership with Aha Radio to begin providing streaming audio services in its 2013 models, and the first vehicle to benefit from that tie-up will be the all-new Accord.

The Aha Radio app – available for both iOS and Android devices – allows drivers to access thousands of streaming audio feeds, including podcasts, NPR, Rhapsody and MOG integration, through the vehicle’s head-unit.

Honda’s infotainment initiative won’t be fully disclosed until the middle of July, and that gives the automaker time to get its data situation sorted and possibly bring other content partners on board.

Source;
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/06/hondalink-summer/