CES: Honda previews new infotainment system
BY JUSTIN HILLIARD | 10th Jan 2019
HONDA has taken to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to demonstrate a prototype of its forthcoming Dream Drive infotainment system, which will fully integrate mobile services into vehicles.
The Japanese brand claims Dream Drive is the automotive industry’s first system to combine driver and passenger infotainment with commerce, services and rewards within the vehicle environment.
First shown as a concept at CES 2017, Dream Drive has been upgraded with a wider range of functionality for drivers and passengers, thanks to Honda’s development collaboration with ConnectedTravel, a cloud- and location-based services application platform specialist.
Dream Drive is split into two specifically tailored streams – Driver and Passenger – to reduce driver distraction when commuting.
Driver allows drivers to complete in-vehicle payments for goods and services, order food for pickup or delivery, make restaurant reservations and share the vehicle’s location with friends and family via the central touchscreen that supports voice control.
Meanwhile, Passenger enables passengers to listen to music, watch movies, play ‘mixed-reality’ games, read comics, explore routed-based points of interest and control cabin features via the Dream Drive smartphone application installed on their personal device.
All of this additional content, which is predominately provided by third parties, can be purchased via the Dream Drive infotainment system and smartphone application.
According to Honda Innovations managing director of strategic partnerships John Moon, these third-party collaborators are keen to see how connected vehicles will improve the visibility of their businesses.
“Honda has teamed up with industry leaders who want to understand how to best provide in-vehicle services to our customers,” he said.
“These collaborations are important to test consumer desire so we can understand how to mutually serve our customers.”
Mastercard and PayPal are now support Dream Drive’s in-vehicle payments alongside Visa, while third parties already involved include toy company Lego Group, comic publisher DC Comics, local-search service Yelp and Internet radio platform iHeartRadio, among others.
