Photo: Kia
Our world is advanced enough to dream of an integrated control system for all the technology in our lives, from the phones we use to the homes we live in. Yet such an integration seems very difficult to achieve, and the successes so far are only marginal.
South Korean carmakers Hyundai and Kia, together with South Korean electronics giant Samsung, plan to give this effort a big push in the right direction, and announced a major development on this front in the first week of the new year.
You know how most of us have homes, and cars, and smartphones. Each is in itself smart to a certain degree, but what if it were possible to make them all talk to each other, and allow us access to the functions of one while using the other?
Samsung already has a solution in place that to a certain degree allows that. It's called SmartThings, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that allows a user to control stuff like TVs, lights, air conditioner units, cameras, and so on, directly (and remotely) from their smartphone.
I'm not entirely sure how many people use this revolutionary feature, but Samsung seems bent on making it even more popular with a partnership it struck with Hyundai and Kia. In a nutshell, this partnership will integrate SmartThings with the vehicles' connected car services and infotainment systems.
The integration will work in two ways. The Car-to-Home service will allow owners of the cars sold by the two brands to remotely control home appliances, either by using touch commands when stationary or voice inputs when driving, sent directly to the car's infotainment systems.
As an extra touch of coolness, location-based automatic operation of home appliances will allow them to work in different ways to reduce operating time. In a sense, your house will know where you are and whether you need a certain device soon or not.
The Home-to-Car service will allow people to check the vehicles' status, manage the charging of EVs, and even control some of the cars' functions. This is done with the help of AI speakers, smart TVs, or the smartphone itself.
The system is already in use in South Korea, mostly at the hands of telecom and construction companies, but this new agreement will see it expand to international markets. It will take a lot of work though, and it will need the development of "stable service-providing infotainment systems." When ready, these systems will be able to receive over-the-air (OTA) and USB-based updates, including in existing vehicles. What that means is that we don’t have a timeframe for the rollout of this idea yet.
When it gets here, the integration will allow control over the following items and functions (the list will expand continuously as more integrated devices are added):
You know how most of us have homes, and cars, and smartphones. Each is in itself smart to a certain degree, but what if it were possible to make them all talk to each other, and allow us access to the functions of one while using the other?
Samsung already has a solution in place that to a certain degree allows that. It's called SmartThings, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that allows a user to control stuff like TVs, lights, air conditioner units, cameras, and so on, directly (and remotely) from their smartphone.
I'm not entirely sure how many people use this revolutionary feature, but Samsung seems bent on making it even more popular with a partnership it struck with Hyundai and Kia. In a nutshell, this partnership will integrate SmartThings with the vehicles' connected car services and infotainment systems.
The integration will work in two ways. The Car-to-Home service will allow owners of the cars sold by the two brands to remotely control home appliances, either by using touch commands when stationary or voice inputs when driving, sent directly to the car's infotainment systems.
As an extra touch of coolness, location-based automatic operation of home appliances will allow them to work in different ways to reduce operating time. In a sense, your house will know where you are and whether you need a certain device soon or not.
The Home-to-Car service will allow people to check the vehicles' status, manage the charging of EVs, and even control some of the cars' functions. This is done with the help of AI speakers, smart TVs, or the smartphone itself.
The system is already in use in South Korea, mostly at the hands of telecom and construction companies, but this new agreement will see it expand to international markets. It will take a lot of work though, and it will need the development of "stable service-providing infotainment systems." When ready, these systems will be able to receive over-the-air (OTA) and USB-based updates, including in existing vehicles. What that means is that we don’t have a timeframe for the rollout of this idea yet.
When it gets here, the integration will allow control over the following items and functions (the list will expand continuously as more integrated devices are added):
- Car-to-Home service: lighting, plugs, gas shut-off valves, ventilation, air conditioning and boilers
- Home-to-Car service: vehicle air conditioning, remote start, charging management
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