mmadani | 6:21 pm Feb 14, 2012

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Hands-free Social Networking While Driving

Have you ever been driving and see something on the road that you want to tweet or share with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers? Or maybe you are bored, stuck in traffic, and want to check your newsfeed. We’ve all been there and many new technologies over the past several years have made it possible for us to safely social network in our cars.

With the use of social networking on the rise, drivers put themselves at risk by checking newsfeeds or tweeting while driving.  As a result, automakers and their technology suppliers are using voice-activated solutions to improve safety.

Ford SYNC is an example of a factory-installed, integrated in-vehicle communications and entertainment system that allows users to interact with their voice not their hands.  The system consists of applications and user interfaces developed by Ford and third-party developers that run on the Microsoft Windows Embedded Automotive operating system.  OpenBeak, Pandora, and Stitcher are the among the first to use the Ford SYNC API (application programming interface) which, allows SYNC to harness the power of smartphone mobile operating systems to access and control apps in Ford vehicles.

OpenBeak (formerly TwitterBerry, the original Twitter app for BlackBerry smartphones) is a mobile client for posting updates and reading messages on Twitter. The SYNC application takes the Twitter experience to a whole new level with safety in mind; timelines and direct messages can be read out loud. While listening to a particular tweet, the display indicates the tweeter and elapsed time since the tweet was written.

Another example of an effort to keep drivers’ eyes on the road is General Motors’ OnStar.  The in-car service allows you to post audio status updates to your Facebook by dictating to OnStar as well as listen to the most recent updates from your news feed via OnStar.  OnStar services are enabled by Advanced Telematics Operating Systems (ATOMS), a powerful cloud platform and OnStar has recently announced that it will give selected developers access to their APIs to create innovative mobile applications designed to interact with its users and services.

With the evolution of mobile applications and social networking  – and their increased usage while driving, the use of a social networking gateway (SNG) to act as a social ‘hub’ for many services might be worth looking into for the Ford SYNCs and OnStars of the world.  The service would connect to the SNG directly and the SNG would handle connecting to the many social networks out there. This would make development simpler and faster, simplify operations, and optimize traffic to name a few (read more here).

NewBay enables operators and device makers to deliver a lifetime of content experiences across connected devices such as mobiles, PCs, tablets and TVs, why not automakers!