As the information center of the vehicle, In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) integrates more and more abundant functions like music playing, Bluetooth, navigation, vehicle information, driving record and smart back-up etc. This text will analyze the functional structure and market development potential of In-Vehicle Infotainment.
IVI enhances the intelligence level of the vehicle
Adopting vehicle-mounted exclusive CPU, IVI is a vehicle-mounted comprehensive information management system based on car bus system and internet services. IVI can achieve a series of applications including three-dimensional navigation, real-time traffic status, IPTV (internet protocol television), assistant driving, fault detection, vehicle information, car body control, mobile working, wireless communication, online entertainment functions and TSP (Telematics Service Provider) service etc., which greatly enhances the electronization, networking and intelligence level of the vehicle.
According to the research of Grand View Research Company, the global market of IVI is expected to reach 37.62 billion dollars in 2025. The increasing attention paid on driver comfort and convenience leads to the development of various kinds of IVI systems. These systems provide creative functions like voice control, Bluetooth connection, real-time traffic update and navigation information etc., which brings the rapid development of IVI market.
IVI systems in the preliminary stage only have CD player and radio functions. Soon afterwards, it is able to use the USB port to plug a flash disk or a mobile phone to play music and use Bluetooth to answer calls. Then some Apps in the mobile phone can be used directly in the vehicle through the function of phone mirroring. The latest development is that the vehicle begins to connect with the internet through independent 4G/5G network or the mobile phone’s WiFi, which can conduct vehicle data monitoring, real-time navigation, web browsing and direct use of in-vehicle App or conduct long-distance monitoring and operation via mobile App.
The framework or stack for an IVI platform consists of software and hardware components with well defined interfaces between them to boot an operating system (OS) supporting the key application function of an automotive head-unit, including Hardware Layer, OS Layer, Middleware Layer, Application Layer and HMI Layer. The core part of the Hardware Layer is comprised of the processor and all the necessary hardware and firmware to boot OS. The OS Layer includes embedded real-time OS (RTOS) and a commercial off-the-shelf operating system running on a standard PC platform. The Middleware Layer includes a rich set of components and interfaces to realize all functional areas of the Application Layer, such as various profiles supporting Bluetooth and CAN/MOST protocol stacks. The Application Layer includes the applications designed into many Mobile Internet Devices (MID) or handheld devices. As the central interface for the user of the IVI system, the HMI Layer can control the display of the HMI head-unit and has the responsibility to process and react to all user input entering into the system, such as speech recognition and touch screen input.
IVI adopts operating systems including WinCE, QNX, Linux and Android etc. With the smart interconnection trend becoming more and more popular, the imperfection of WinCE is increasingly enlarged. Due to the reason that WinCE is not an open source system and cannot conduct new function development, the imperfections have made its market share to keep shrinking in recent years.
QNX has high security from Blackberry Company and more excellent adaptation for vehicle rating standards comparing to Android. However, expensive software authorization charge enables QNX to only have market in high-end vehicles. Meanwhile, high development cost is also a shortcoming of QNX.
Belonging to open source system, the Linux system is easy for car factories to modify according to their own demands and to connect with various kinds of software, which makes it become the operating system that car factories are scrambling to use. Along with the increasing development of in-vehicle system and automatic driving, it is not difficult to expect that Linux will be more common in future automobile markets.
With the optimization and development support for vehicle rating system from Google authority, it is expected that an Android in-vehicle system will soon occupy the market shares of WinCE and then begin to strike high-end QNX. Of course, Android also has obvious shortcomings such as it needs a series of vehicle rating security standards for system stability and must conduct deep transformation for Android’s basement structure.
Taking TIOT P9 platform as an example, it adopts Linux operating system and enjoys Android on-line resources (on-line music, radio, navigation, friend circle talk-back and app store etc.) with STA1295 (Accordo™ family from STMicroelectronics), built-in dual-core A7 SOC, MCU-M3 and 3 DSP, which has the advantages like high integration, high performance, great reduction of cost, simple system, good stability, low system complexity, relatively short development period and low software cost. P9 has the zero-delay using experiences like 0.5-second rapid back-up, 0.5-second rapid meeting voice and own back-up track etc. It adopts pure digital voice frequency management with built-in sound effect algorithm in order to achieve theater-level sound experience, which can also save the cost for DSP hardware and sound effect algorithm software, conduct automatic Bluetooth connection, synchronize with terminal resources and has low-cost on-line resource experience.
The P9 system can operate in the temperature of -40℃~+85℃ with the standby power consumption within 0.5mA, which supports B+ abnormal high-low pressure detection, 10-second complete status memory function and mobile charging via USB interface. It can display back-up camera, track and output meeting voice within 0.5 second after cold boot. With built-in Bluetooth V4.0, it supports the functions like voice transmission and command control etc. with all-digital voice management. It also supports 6 CH voice output with the maximum display resolution of 1080p, 3D/2D rendering, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 3 SD/MMC slots as well as 2 CH CAN and 1 CH Ethernet.
Along with the rapid development of 4G/5G network, IVI will pull the Internet of Vehicle application progress to a new stage. Relevant enormous market opportunities deserve your attention and participation.