Mercedes Android

I have been criticising Mercedes for many things; branding habit, pricing, design, option list longer than a novel and etc. However, Mercedes contributes many new technologies to automotive industry and I always mention this. Even though the E Class can be one of the dull sedans on market but it offers state of the art safety technologies. Therefore, I always consider Mercedes as a good option, if you buy the technology pack!

For nearly two years, Google Android became a phenomenon. Google offered its first mobile phone in 2008 and now, they are controlling the market. Nobody was expecting to see experience this dramatic performance. Main advantage of Android system is, being open source! Anyone can change the codes and adapt the operation system to their devices. You can install Android to your washing machine, coffee maker, mobile phone and many other things.

Before Android was available, I was sure that one day Google would introduce something for automotive industry. But I couldn’t guess the software or the application. After the Android concept, it was very obvious that Android is going to be in our cars. Of course, it won’t be controlling the engine unit or transmission; actually it would be appear on the dashboard. Like mobile phone, the navigation screen will turn into a mobile phone screen and you can install application, send email, and search the internet.

Finally, this happened. Mercedes SLS AMG Roadster is offered with Android system, you can install applications, surf on the internet as you experience with your mobile phone. The only difference is, SLS AMG is slightly bigger than a mobile phone. This technology will be available in AMG models but not in cheap model :(

Mercedes offered a real innovation to industry, as usual they did not offer it to every vehicle. I think rival should offer the Android technology to their car range as soon as possible.

Published at: http://uygarr.blogspot.com http://carsandlife.net

Achtung! Google

Google’s driverless car became very popular news in everywhere but nobody mentioned the threat! I am not a computer engineer but I do know that; whatever Google works on something, it mostly ends up with success. GMail, Google Earth, GoogleDocs, Google Translate, Android operation system and many other products. And with each product Google becomes a major competitor and sometimes removes some of its competitors, like Nokia vs. iPhone. Nowadays it is Google Android vs. iPhone!

Google Driverless car might seem a testing or project from Silicon Valley guys but this is an important threat to automotive firms especially Bosch and Siemens. These two companies are the manufacturers of engine control units. What is engine control management? Basically, that is everything for your car. It controls engine and its unit also it communicates with other modules like traction control, stability control, radar guided cruise control, automatic breaking system, electric need of the other modules and components. Basically it is the core of the car! And Google’s car is planning to enter this market.

Google is very clever, every new car on earth has engine control unit and other components and market is mainly supplied by Bosch and Siemens. And very profitable! However it is extremely hard to enter this business, you cannot assign your Google Earth team to develop automotive software, because it will end up with catastrophe. In automotive dictionary, catastrophe means accidents and destroying the brand reputation. Therefore car companies may not be a very happy to work with a company which have no experience in automotive except Google Street View car!

This does not mean that Google can create its own automotive department and offer Android for your engine! For that reason, Bosch and Siemens should consider this stupid Toyota Prius driven by Google Search Engine! As I can see from the pictures, Google is recording every kind of information from the car’s sensors. Automotive guys, I know you understood what I mean!

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Bosch, Google, Toyota

Google: GDrive

Our lovely brand Google spent time and created a new project for us. As you know that, Google is offering everything free to us! I really don’t know why they have high amount of love towards. However their services are the most sophisticated ones. After one decade, our computers turned into a machine to connect Google, nothing else. Sure, Facebook too! Without Google computer will be a bit useless.

Google realized this fact and they invested on automotive business. And their CEO told something very interesting. His suggested that, if cars were invented after computers there wouldn’t be accidents. The cars would be driven by computers and computers never make mistake! Yes, computers never make mistake. They just destroy everything in couple seconds, and they are very good at this thing. Honestly, Google services working really well when you compare with Microsoft! But still when it goes off, it terribly goes off.

Based on the Google’s suggestion, computers will be better drivers than us. So, if you are very sure about this interesting statement, why the airplanes are still operated by human !?! Current commercial airplanes have the most sophisticated computers and they nearly make no mistake but there are still pilots! Based on Google’s suggestion everything should be controlled by computers and when the computer crashes everything will crash.

Unfortunately I do not agree with this. Even though Google’s driverless Toyota Prius had no incident for 140 000 miles (224 000 KM). And this is a very good result for a car which is driven by chips. However; if this car’s chip misinterpret the environment and go crazy, I cannot imagine the consequences and it would be worse than human mistakes.

My suggestion to Google; they should keep developing this technology but also they should focus on educating the drivers at the same time! Google can open GDrive service to educate drivers about dangerous driving. Instead making interesting statements, Google can both develop driverless car and train people.

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Ferrari, Google, Toyota

Google Android Car

Since 2000 Google became a part of our daily life and we cannot live without it. Google also know this very well and releases new application all the time to strength our relationship. Their last attempt Google Android is an important signal for our future.

This Linux based mobile operation system is an open source system, which means you have the codes and if you know enough programming, your washing machine can be controlled by Google Android. From this point of view, it is very clear that Google will be in everywhere in following years. And we all know that Google is becoming part of automotive life but taking steps very slowly and carefully.

Google Earth and Google Search are now available in BMW and Audi but this is just the beginning. In following years, Google or a car manufacturer will release Google Android Car! This will be running in our navigation screen and like today we will be controlling everything from there. I don’t think Google will interfere with engine management. But they will take a place in human-machine interface. As Android is free and Google has a better reputation than Microsoft, cars with Google Android is not something very utopic! In addition to this, I am pretty sure that we would be able to install application to our car’s navigation screen!

Just remember the mobile phones ten years ago ;)

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Google, BMW, Audi