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Automotive giant Ford has worked with Nuance Communications to enable its SYNC in-car software to understand a multitude of accents in a variety of languages.

The launch, timed with the European Day of Languages, allows drivers to make calls, play music, and set navigation in their local accent, increasing convenience and recognising diversity.

Ford of Europe Electronic and Electrical Systems Engineering global chief engineer, Christof Kellerwessel, said, “People rightly...

Picture credit: Ansible Motion

Driver in the Loop (DIL) simulation has long been considered a powerful tool for both vehicle and component development. For traditional vehicle development work – such as ride and handling, steering, and powertrain – driver feedback is essential, offering subjective information that no data logger can deliver.  

Simulators place real people into direct contact with experimental systems, and this is arguably the main reason why so many car makers have invested...

Electronics company Sony has its eyes on the connected car industry after investing in ZMP, a Japanese startup that manufactures robot cars.

Purchasing a 2% stake for 100 million yen ($842,000), Sony is said to be interested in offering its expertise in image sensors to further ZMP’s development of driverless cars.

Sony’s diversification comes at a time when the firm expected to report its financials in early February, but was instead forced to delay the announcement by a month because of the...

According to a recent research conducted by HARMAN, road noise is the top noise distraction for drivers. An astonishing 55% of respondents in the survey cited this ‘droning’ sound, caused by road noise transmitted through the vehicle structure, as the number one complaint in an environment where they want to enjoy their music.

HARMAN’s survey, conducted in late 2014, also confirmed that car remains the most popular place to listen to music. Of particular interest is the rise among younger...

Palo Alto’s Silicon Valley will be the location of a new Ford research centre, which the company hopes will drive innovation, connectivity, mobility and autonomous vehicles.

By the end of the year, Ford wants its new project to be one of the largest automotive manufacturer research centres in Silicon Valley with 125 researchers, engineers and scientists.

Ex-Apple man Dragos Maciuca, who has a background in consumer electronics, semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace and automotive, will take up the...

Software management firm Red Bend Software has been acquired by audio and visual infotainment group Harman International for a fee of $170 million.

The deal seems like a good fit for Harman, which was perhaps missing a connectivity string to its bow and Dinesh C. Paliwal, chairman, president, and CEO of Harman confirmed it was a strategic purchase.

“This acquisition of Red Bend, a true pioneer in OTA and virtualisation technologies for cyber security, adds a critical component to our automotive systems...

Picture credit: Jaguar Land Rover

Augmented reality has been seen in cars for the first time as part of Jaguar Land Rover’s new 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen research.

The car manufacturer has developed a new concept that completely reinvents traditional GPS navigation by projecting a ghost car in front of the driver to follow. The idea is to keep a driver’s eyes on the road and avoid the distractions that come with dash-mounted hardware.

Jaguar Land Rover has made the whole solution even more...

Picture credit: RealVNC

Infotainment communications system MirrorLink has announced the successful integration of its technology with the Intel-based Tizen in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) reference platform.

Remote access technology provider RealVNC was behind the port of its VNC Automotive SDK to Tizen IVI, the automotive profile of the Tizen open source platform, which means Intel’s Tizen OS will now be able to communicate with Mirrorlink-enabled devices including Samsung, Nokia and HTC.

VNC...

Picture credit: Google

Prospective car app developers can now get their hands on the first two Android Auto APIs after Google announced their availability.

Android’s car-focused sibling lets drivers extend smartphone apps onto their car dashboard in a way that is optimised for the driving experience, with support for head-unit display, steering wheel buttons and more.

The APIs support Android 5 or higher in a bid to reach across manufacturers, models, and regions, meaning developers only need to tailor...

Picture credit: iStockphoto

Global automotive supplier Visteon has lifted the lid on its own interpretation of where the connected car industry is headed over the next few years.

With eyes as far ahead as 2018, Visteon has announced details of its Fusion connected platform that it says will launch in four years time. The infotainment platform bundles together driver information, infotainment and Cloud connectivity into a human machine interaction (HMI) experience.

Visteon’s Tim Yerdon, global leader,...