I’m really missing the good old days where you could buy a car and the sound system remained up to date for as long as you owned it. And if you bought a used car, you could update the sound system with components. With the current technology advances, you generally buy a new car today with a sound system that could be as much as 5 years out of date, depending on when the line was last refreshed. Even worse, the sound systems are so integrated that upgrading them is near impossible. Harman’s Aha radio may be the answer we haveclie been looking for.

Cloud Automotive Sound

We talk a lot about the idea of the cloud, which is a shift of technology from devices to services that exist on the Internet. Now that cars are becoming connected either because of built-in WAN networking or Bluetooth connections in cell phones, the opportunity to at least revisit some of this flexibility may be coming back thanks to the “cloud”.

What Aha radio does is put lightweight embedded code into the “radio”. That code connects to a site that the car manufacturer specifies either directly or through a cell phone. The web site defines what services are provided and it can be updated dynamically to add more sites and resources as time moves on. User web tools could be used to customize the UI and with this system in all of your cars you could assure both a custom user interface and consistency between vendors.

In addition, you could integrate services so that news, sports, traffic updates could interrupt your music and give you wanted or critical information more timely. You could have Facebook or Twitter messages read to you in real time as well, though I’d suggest direct messages only otherwise you might get tired of this feature really fast. You could sync Kindle books with the device and have your stereo read them to you if that feature was enabled or a service that tracked where you are in a book and a real audio book sync might emerge.

You could provide real time traffic updates to the network, have a group sing along between drivers (I’m not sure this is a good idea), or create an update one too many experience like the CB radio used to have.  GPS could be cloud based and not only would the maps be more current, as in real time, they could be automatically altered for changing traffic or by suggestions from other trusted drivers.

Finally, the service could be linked to location aware social media and alert you to deals or the proximity of friends. If you were a CEO or sports celebrity, this could give you the warning you need to have your mistress duck before your wife or her private investigator pulls next to you in traffic.

Obsoleting the iPod

Much like the iPod replaced the CD and cassette players, it too will eventually become obsolete.  The sense was that smartphones would do that job but they really haven’t turned out to be great music systems. However, a technology like Aha could be embedded in a variety of music devices and make iTunes obsolete. However, the iPod touch or iPhone could be Aha clients. A common service that is hardware independent would enable other vendors to compete on a more even playing field and optimize for Aha. The result would be a new class of device that could move our media experience around with us without having to search for an iPod dock.

 

Aha could be the future we are waiting for

This idea of moving my media experience, my entire media experience, with me wherever I go is very compelling. I can think of having the TV or radio in the hotel room getting my Netflix or Slacker custom stations, or getting a rental car and being able to log in and get my own custom experience and audio automatically, even getting on a plane and have my own media to enjoy including shows or movies I’d been watching on other flight segments (I really hate it when the plane lands 10 minutes before a movie I’m watching ends). I think the Aha experience could revolutionize how we enjoy media and, if it catches on, I think it will obsolete most everything we have for media today. If you want try it, there is a free Aha radio application for the iPhone.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.