You know what? Writing this post isn’t easy. All I’ve got are words and
pictures, and neither could ever do justice to the user experience
offered by the new QNX technology concept car.
They cannot, for example, recreate the rich, luminous sound of the
car’s full-band and wide-band hands-free calls. Nor can they evoke how
the car blends speech recognition with a touch interface and physical
controls to make navigation, Internet radio, and other applications
wonderfully easy to use.
But on second thought, words and pictures aren’t that bad. Especially
when the car — and the in-dash systems that the QNX concept team created
for it — are so downright gorgeous. So what are we sitting around for?
Time for a tour!
Actually... hold that thought. I just want to mention that, if you visit our Flickr page,
you can find full-resolution versions of most of the images I've posted
here. Because why settle for low res? Okay, back to the tour.
The car
I've got two things to say here. First, the car is based on a
Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG. If you guessed the model correctly based on the
teaser images
we published on the QNX website, I bow in homage to your eagle eye.
Second, while we snapped this photo in the QNX garage, don’t think for a
minute that the garage is ever this neat and tidy. On any given day,
it’s chock full of drill presses, tool boxes, work tables, embedded
boards, and QNX engineers joyously modding the world’s coolest cars —
exactly the kind of place you expect it to be. And want it to be! But to
humor the photographer, we (temporarily) made this corner clutter-free.
We're nice that way.
The dash
Let's get behind the wheel, where you can see the car's custom-built
digital instrument cluster and infotainment system. The bold design, the
clean layout, the super-easy-to-access controls — they all add up to
systems you want to interact with. Just as important, the look-and-feel
of the instrument cluster and infotainment system are totally different
from the corresponding systems in our previous concept car — an excellent illustration of how the QNX platform can help customers create their own branded experiences.
The multi-talented cluster
Time to zoom in on the digital instrument cluster, which helps simplify
driving tasks and minimize distraction with an impressive array of
features. Turn-by-turn directions pulled from the navigation system?
Check. Video feed from front and rear-view cameras? Check. Notifications
of incoming phone calls? Check. Alerts of incoming text messages, which
you can listen to at the touch of a steering-wheel button? Check.
The Android app support
Automakers want to tap into the talents of the mobile app community, and the QNX CAR Platform for Infotainment
helps them do just that, with built-in support for Android, OpenGL ES,
and HTML5. In the concept car, for example, you'll find an Android
Jellybean version of iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s digital radio service,
running in a secure application container. The QNX CAR Platform takes
this same sandboxed approach to running HTML5 apps — perfect for
protecting both the HMI and the overall system from unpredictable web
content:
Helping you get there in more ways than one
We designed the QNX CAR Platform to give automotive developers the
greatest possible choice and flexibility. And that’s exactly what you
see when it comes to navigation. For instance, the car supports
navigation from Elektrobit:
If that’s not enough, a demo system in the QNX booth at CES also demonstrates a navigation system from Aisin AW — more on that in an upcoming post.
Pardon me while I barge in
As I alluded earlier, what you can't see in the new concept car is just
as important as what you can see. For instance, if you look at this
image, you'll see the infotainment system's media player. But what you
can't see is new acoustics technology from QNX that lets you "barge in"
and issue voice commands even when a song is playing. How cool is that?
When you find yourself in times of trouble...
... don't let it be, but rather, check and see. And to do that, you can
use the infotainment system's virtual mechanic, which keeps tabs on your
car's health, including fluid levels, brake wear, and, in this case,
low tire pressure:
The cloud connection
Hold on, what's this? It looks like a smartphone app with an interface
similar to that of the virtual mechanic, above. In fact, it's a lot more
than that, and it touches on some cool (and very new) technology that
can help cars become fully managed citizens of the cloud. More on that
in an upcoming post.
That's it for now. For more details on what QNX is showcasing this week at CES, check out the press releases posted on the QNX website.
And stay tuned to this channel for further updates from 2014 CES —
including a profile of our very new QNX technology concept car for
acoustics.
Denny Hamlin To Get Nascar Bristol Trophy
Choose Denny’s Ride: For the seventh-consecutive season, FedEx will
raise awareness for the March of Dimes with a special #11 FedEx
Office/March of Dimes paint scheme at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
This year, race fans will decide what Denny Hamlin’s car will look like
in that race by voting for their favorite scheme at
http://bit.ly/1ndBuJW. Voting ends Friday, March 14.
Las Vegas Recap: Denny Hamlin finished 12th in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, fighting an ill-handling #11 FedEx Ground Toyota throughout the 267-lap event won by Brad Keselowski on the bumpy 1.5-mile oval. Hamlin lined up third for the final restart on Lap 226, but was put three wide in the middle into Turn 1, losing a handful of spots. The #11 machine was too loose on corner entry during the final run, and Hamlin did all he could to hold off a host of other drivers down the stretch. Hamlin started 27th and quickly worked his way through the field from the drop of the green flag. Varying strategies on pit road moved Hamlin into the top-15 nearing Lap 100, where he remained as the laps clicked. On the edge of the team’s fuel window to make the checkered flag on just one more stop, crew chief Darian Grubb elected to keep Hamlin on the track until his final pit stop on Lap 213 — and leading one lap — hoping for the race to stay green for the remaining laps. Unfortunately, the final caution flew for debris less than 10 laps later, and Hamlin was forced to stay out for the valuable track position.
Bristol Preview: The Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday’s 500-lap race on the high-banked, half-mile bullring. Hamlin has one victory (August 2012) and seven top-10 finishes in 16 career Bristol starts, and is eight laps shy of 500 career laps led at the track. One year ago, Hamlin started third and led 117 laps, but contact prior to the final restart eventually caused a flat right-front tire, forcing Hamlin to limp to the checkered flag in 23rd, two laps down. In August, Hamlin qualified on the pole and led the first 23 laps. A late-race multi-car incident relegated the FedEx team to a 28th-place finish.
What are your thoughts on racing at Bristol?
“Bristol has been a pretty good track for our FedEx team over the years. We don’t have all the good finishes that I think we deserved, but we have run up front, led a bunch of laps and got a win there. It’s a tough place to pass and you have to deal with a lot of traffic, but it’s a fun track for the drivers and a great place to watch the race as a fan. Hopefully we can get another Bristol trophy on Sunday.”
Las Vegas Recap: Denny Hamlin finished 12th in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, fighting an ill-handling #11 FedEx Ground Toyota throughout the 267-lap event won by Brad Keselowski on the bumpy 1.5-mile oval. Hamlin lined up third for the final restart on Lap 226, but was put three wide in the middle into Turn 1, losing a handful of spots. The #11 machine was too loose on corner entry during the final run, and Hamlin did all he could to hold off a host of other drivers down the stretch. Hamlin started 27th and quickly worked his way through the field from the drop of the green flag. Varying strategies on pit road moved Hamlin into the top-15 nearing Lap 100, where he remained as the laps clicked. On the edge of the team’s fuel window to make the checkered flag on just one more stop, crew chief Darian Grubb elected to keep Hamlin on the track until his final pit stop on Lap 213 — and leading one lap — hoping for the race to stay green for the remaining laps. Unfortunately, the final caution flew for debris less than 10 laps later, and Hamlin was forced to stay out for the valuable track position.
Bristol Preview: The Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday’s 500-lap race on the high-banked, half-mile bullring. Hamlin has one victory (August 2012) and seven top-10 finishes in 16 career Bristol starts, and is eight laps shy of 500 career laps led at the track. One year ago, Hamlin started third and led 117 laps, but contact prior to the final restart eventually caused a flat right-front tire, forcing Hamlin to limp to the checkered flag in 23rd, two laps down. In August, Hamlin qualified on the pole and led the first 23 laps. A late-race multi-car incident relegated the FedEx team to a 28th-place finish.
What are your thoughts on racing at Bristol?
“Bristol has been a pretty good track for our FedEx team over the years. We don’t have all the good finishes that I think we deserved, but we have run up front, led a bunch of laps and got a win there. It’s a tough place to pass and you have to deal with a lot of traffic, but it’s a fun track for the drivers and a great place to watch the race as a fan. Hopefully we can get another Bristol trophy on Sunday.”
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