Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) launching a new global architecture for its connected vehicle services is partnering with Samsung and Alphabet’s Google, a move to offer a new connected vehicle system for drivers worldwide with enhanced self-driving capabilities and future of car-sharing.
FCA despite using a mixture of different software for different regions, will use Google’s Android operating system in its vehicles globally, a spokesman said on Tuesday, adding that company has picked Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s Harman Ignite cloud-based digital platform.
Ford Motor Co and General Motor Co have been spending millions of dollars developing self-driving technology, but FCA came on making nearly no investments on that, which though saved the company a lot of money but make the company completely reliant on outside parties for technology and systems.
FCA is intending launching new capabilities in the second half of 2019 which are likely to be completed by 2022 with all new FCA vehicles worldwide connected through global connected vehicle “ecosystem”, according to the news release. The new system will help the vehicle owners by performing many tasks like prediction of maintenance requirement, finding charging and fuel stations, traffic prompts, restaurant offers and live customer-care assistance and all that just at the push of the button, it added.
Currently, about 40 percent of FCA’s fleet in the United States and Canada comprise of connected vehicles and with new capabilities by 2022, FCA will be expanding its connected vehicle services with new on- and off-board services to drivers in more than 150 countries.
Vehicle owners will be provided with 4G network connectivity through the global ecosystem platform, which will also support the technology’s shift to 5G networks with any service provider worldwide, FCA said, adding that the cloud-based connectivity platform will also be beneficial to dealers, service providers and fleet operators.
The financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed by the automaker.
