Oct 1,
2014
By JC Torres
NVIDIA's plans to get its Tegra chips inside cars have just born its first
fruit. Honda has announced its new infotainment system called Honda Connect, making
it the 19th car maker to incorporate an NVIDIA processor inside but also the
first to add Android into the mix. Curiously, this isn't part of Google's Android Auto thrust.
NVIDIA has made it known way back at I/O 2014 in June that it wants in on the automotive
experience, especially with its latest Tegra line of mobile chips. It is
advertising its expertise in image processing, graphics output, and mobile chip
manufacturing to deliver a high-performance and visually pleasing experience
for automotive infotainment systems of the near future. Although there have
already been some who have signed up for that, Honda Connect is one of, if not
the, first to put that to the real test of an actual retail product.
Honda
Connect's user interface will be displayed on a 7-inch capacitive screen
embedded into the car's dashboard, to be utilized for your usual mix of
features such as satellite navigation, AM/FM/DAB playback, rearview camera
display, and car status. In addition, Honda will have its own Honda App Center
for downloading additional apps for use, such as the Aha Radio app.
This infotainment system, however, is not Android
Auto. In fact, it uses an almost ancient Android 4.0.4 version, known in common
parlance as Ice Cream Sandwich. In a sense, it isn't surprising considering
that Android Auto is still in its infancy, having just been announced in June,
and its timetable may not fit Honda's schedule. Still, it is quite
disappointing to see an older version of Android being used and one can only
hope that the system can be upgraded to something more recent later on.
Honda Connect is will be present in the 2015 Honda
Civic, Civic Tourer and CR-V slated to become available in European markets
early next year. However, it will make its first public debut at the 2014 Paris Auto Show this week.
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