In-car entertainment, using media inside the car
When you are on the highway for a while, sometimes you can’t help but to yawn. In such a case, drivers turn on the radio or listen to music. In-car entertainment, in other words, using media inside the car, is already a familiar service to us. Let’ take a look at the whole new in-car entertainment service in the smart car era.
From a one-way radio to on-demand contents era
Hyundai Motor Company and Kakao’s communicative assistant platform ’kakao i’
Radio was the easiest in-car entertainment service you could enjoy in the car. As there were DJs that rid your boredom with fun lines, music, and useful traffic information, it had been the core in-car entertainment service for a long time. But there were also many inconveniences such as different frequencies for different regions and poor reception when going into tunnels, etc. Moreover, radio is a one-way service. You can listen to the songs the DJ selects, but you can’t listen to it when you want to.
But as the smart phone era opened up, what used to be one-way service oriented in-car entertainment service developed further. You can now connect your smartphone to the car speaker through Bluetooth and listen to streaming music or podcast, freely using on-demand service in the car. You are able to enjoy the media service that reflect the taste and intention of a driver.
‘kakao i’ allows a driver to order convenient functions through voice
On top of that, we now have a voice recognition based personal assistant service which gave way for a safer in-car entertainment service. You can check various information during driving through many different voice recognition personal assistant services such as Google’s ‘Google Assistant’, Samsung Electronic’s ‘Bixby’, SK Telecom’s ‘Ari’, and KT’s ‘Genie’. These days the car itself becomes a communication terminal and allows you to enjoy various services without having to connect to the smartphone. Hyundai Motor Company already has collaborated with Kakao since 2017 and have installed a voice recognition communicative assistant service platform ‘kakao i’ onto their cars.
Such an on-demand service can provide a user customized service. Current in-car entertainment service recommends contents that would most please a driver based on the usual services the driver uses. For instance, the AI installed on the car recognizes destinations, driving time, traffic congestion, etc., and will recommend suitable music or podcast. Even if it’s the same road you take to get to work, depending on the weather or the traffic condition, you may be recommended different music. With communication function, in-car entertainment service is no longer the one-way service and is being upgraded further through AI technology.
New in-car entertainment for the automatic driving era
Kia Motors K7 Premier’s audio system, ‘Nature’s Sound’
At the moment, in-car entertainment service is mostly about ‘audio’ oriented contents. It’s of course to prevent any risk of accidents. Drivers can listen to music but must have their eyes on the road at all times.
Kia Motors implemented audio system ‘Nature’s Sound’ onto their K7 Premier. It provides a psychologically comfortable environment for a driver along with a ‘subliminal’ effect, where the sound stimulation affects your subconscious and induces stable brain wave.
This function, which can be operated through AVNT monitor, is consisted of 6 themes in total including vibrant forest, calm waves, rainy day, outdoor cafe, etc. Nature’s Sound was captured from the mother nature in person through audio expert advice; in case of ‘vibrant forest’ theme, sound was recorded from Wekiwa Springs State Park, Florida, U.S.
In-car entertainment contents are becoming more and more diverse as automatic driving technology develops and introduces even games that you can enjoy in the car
Recently, you can see cases that provide visual ‘games’ and Internet video services in the car. American electronic car company Tesla introduced games to be enjoyed inside the car at ‘E3’, the biggest game show in the world, which was held early in June. You can enjoy a few games like car racing and chess by using the touch screen installed in the car. The racing game drew much attention as you could operate the car in the game with your steering wheel.
At the moment, such games can only be played when the car is parked, for safety reasons. But in near future, you will be able to enjoy video/audio in-car entertainment service freely during driving. Tesla CEO Elon Musk emphasized the future of in-car entertainment by saying that when we fully enter the automatic driving era, we will be able to enjoy games and Netflix in the car while the car on the move.
You can also anticipate various entertainment services for the passengers as well as drivers. The number of screens in the car is increasing. We already have display boards for dashboard, center fascia, and back mirror; center fascia especially has implemented touch screen to display car status and control various functions. Displays are installed on the back of the front seat or the head rest for the back-seat passengers while some automobile manufacturers are introducing concept cars with screens on the side of the car doors like door trim, etc.
With more screens in the car and as a better communication environment is being developed, in-car entertainment service is quickly advancing. Now cars are being highlighted as the next generation media terminal following TV, PC, and smartphone. Here’s hoping for a future in-car entertainment service when cars can fully replace smartphones.
Written by Kyung-min Hyun (Connecting Lab)
