Exclusive Interview with GENIVI Alliance

Krystyna Grant: As president of the GENIVI Alliance, you are heavily involved in the development of open in-vehicle reference platforms for the telematics industry. What exactly is GENIVI trying to achieve?

Graham Smethurst: The GENIVI Alliance is focussed on taking the non-differentiating aspects of an automotive infotainment solution and standardising them for the benefit of the industry and ultimately the consumer. In doing this, automakers and Tier 1 suppliers will be able to re-focus on delivering the customer relevant, value-added elements of the solution.

Consumer demand for the latest in-vehicle infotainment is high, and as the appetite for features continues to grow, it becomes necessary to divert resources that were previously engaged in the creation and validation of the basic software infrastructure towards the generation of customer feature

GENIVI has taken a three-pronged approach to creating the platform, based on open source technology: adopt, adapt and create. We look at what can be adopted from open source, what needs to be adapted to meet automotive requirements and what needs to be created. This approach significantly reduces the scale of the challenge traditionally faced by the automotive industry.

KG: The Alliance currently consists of 21 members, what are your plans for future growth and are you trying to attract any other industry verticals?

GS: The number has now grown to 30! This rate of growth underlines the logic of what the GENIVI Alliance is trying to achieve. We will also be announcing new members at Telematics Update’s Telematics Munich 2009 Conference & Exhibition (November 10^th -11^th, Munich, Germany).

We plan to grow the number of consumer electronic (CE) companies involved in the GENVI alliance. The automotive industry has always struggled to bring the latest consumer electronic technology into the vehicle in a timely manner. The addition of CE companies to the GENIVI alliance means that the latest consumer electronics trends and functionalities can be reflected in the platform development, making them more accessible to the automaker. Equally, the Alliance can provide a route to market for the CE companies that have historically found it difficult to access the auto industry.

Essentially, the aim of GENIVI is to create a “shop window” from which the automakers can choose what they want to install in to the vehicle.

KG: After the launch of the GENIVI alliance in March, many other players in the market have launched alternatives, what do you make of these alternatives?

GS: There are a number of competing platforms in the industry. However, what differentiates GENIVI from the rest is that GENIVI sets out to avoid single-point dependencies in the productisation of the platform. No other platform offers this. The ability to develop infotainment solutions from a common platform and still being able to choose your commercialisation partners is important; this stimulates competition and drives innovation. Each participating automaker will be able to benefit from the collaboration around the GENIVI platform and still be able to offer something different to their customers.

KG:Could you give us an insight into what you will be discussing at our European flagship show Telematics Munich 2009? What cutting-edge techniques and strategies will our audience take away from your speaking engagement?

GS: I will be explaining exactly what GENIVI has achieved since its launch in March and will be able to communicate the results of various projects we have been working on. Our first annual members meeting takes place a week before Telematics Munich, so I will be able to provide the very latest on the future direction of the GENIVI Alliance.

Do you want to find out more aboutwhatGENIVI Allianceand several other leading telematics companies will be discussing at the show? Then, click here now for more details on how to attend Telematics Munich 2009 Conference & Exhibition as all your competitors, clients and partners will be there and the show is close to selling-out.