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Ford and Toyota'due south quest to offer an culling to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto got more serious with the announcement this week at CES that a agglomeration of smaller fry climbed onto the SmartDeviceLink bandwagon — particularly Mazda and Subaru, along with brands not currently sold in the US, such equally Citroen, DS, Peugeot, and Suzuki. Several audio equipment suppliers also signed on.

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What Ford and Toyota are proposing

Most every 2017 car can play music on your phone through the car'southward head unit, using the center stack and steering bicycle controls. SmartDeviceLink is an alternative way of connecting the apps on smartphones for automakers who desire to a) give customers more than choice and b) don't want to find their infotainment worlds controlled by Apple and Alphabet / Google.

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Wednesday's announcement establishes the SmartDeviceLink Consortium, a non-profit group that volition manage the open source software in SmartDeviceLink. Ford's AppLink, a role of Ford Sync, is the underlying software in SmartDeviceLink. Ford deeded AppLink to the open source community in 2013. The idea is individual automakers can then build their own center stack display interfaces that await and experience dissimilar, while still retaining the vocalization and instrument panel controls already created by SDL. Right at present, Apple CarPlay looks near the same on a $25,000 Chevrolet Cruze (paradigm above) and a $lx,000 Audi, to the annoyance of all automakers.

There would also be more apps. (Ford AppLink has dozens.) You might even be able to get Waze as your navigation app — about fourth dimension. Currently, if you accept CarPlay, your just navigation selection is Apple Maps; similarly, if you have Android Auto, the only choice is Google Maps.

How soon? According to a release, "Toyota plans to commercialize a telematics system using SDL around 2018." The company currently uses Entune to provide several music apps (iHeart, Pandora, Slacker) and a handful of others such as fuel prices, sports scores, and weather.

SDL partners

SDL Consortium supporters (red) represented 34% of 2016's 17.five million US sales.

SDL agreement covers one-third of the US car market

Subaru and Mazda rank No. 9 and No. 17 in auto sales. Subaru is starting to add Apple CarPlay (Android Auto is coming, they say), Mazda has not, all the same — non until it aligns with the visitor's philosophy, Mazda says. Together, the two add almost a million cars (2016 sales) to the numbers supporting SDL and bring the footprint of automakers behind SDL to five.9 million sales out of 2016's 17.5 million sales, or 34% of Us sales.

Worldwide, these car companies support the SmartDeviceLink Consortium:

  • Ford and Lincoln
  • Toyota and Lexus
  • Mazda Motor Corporation
  • PSA Group comprising DS (luxury offshoot of Citroen), Citroen and Peugeot
  • Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI) meaning Subaru
  • Suzuki Motor (no longer selling in the US)

Suppliers supporting the consortium:

  • Elektrobit
  • Luxoft
  • Xevo

Harman, Panasonic, Pioneer, and QNX take signed letters of intent to join.

"Encouraging innovation is at the eye of Ford'southward decision to create SmartDeviceLink, and this consortium is a major step toward that goal," said Doug VanDagens, global manager, Ford Continued Vehicle and Services. "Consumers will win with new, innovative app experiences from increased collaboration and developer date."

"Connectivity between smartphones and the vehicle interface is one of the most important connected services," added Shigeki Tomoyama, president of Toyota'southward Connected Company. "Using SmartDeviceLink, we can provide this service to our customers in a safe and secure way. We are excited to collaborate with many auto manufacturers and suppliers who share our view."

At the same time, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto continue to gain support. BMW finally went all in on CarPlay on the majority of its 2017 model line, for case, and is calculation Android Auto support. All this ways the automakers who accept yet to integrate smartphone apps, not just music, will stand out. This the importance of moving apace on SDL for the companies like Mazda and Toyota currently riding bareback.