Connected cars with features like internet-enabled navigation and streaming media will soon be the norm, with a predicted 50 million being sold every year by 2017. So say the research wonks at ABI Research, and who are we to argue.
Vice President and practice director Dominique Bonte reckons, "Infotainment remains a strong driver for the connected car market with both connected navigation and multimedia streaming about to become standard features, especially in the US market. In Europe the TomTom-powered embedded Renault Carminat Live solution has seen stellar success."
ABI also highlights convergence with smartphones as another major trend, picking up on the recent HondaLink announcement as well as Mirrorlink, all of which you can read about here on TechRadar.
Things are going open source, too, with BMW announcing its adoption of GENIVI software in 2013 for some of its low-end models – a major departure for a company that has, to date, invested heavily in proprietary systems. Renault's Android-based R-Link is another example.
Put it all together and you have ABI's prediction that shipments of connected cars will rise from 5.7 million in 2012 to 50.9 million in 2017. It's music to our infotainment-converted ears of course, and confirms the trends we think are driving the most dramatic innovations in car tech right now. The next five years are going to be very exciting indeed. Put simply, stay tuned to TechRadar for more!
