With an ever increasing number of wireless-enabled devices, consumers are expecting connectivity convenience in all aspects of life, whether at home, in the office, or in their car. This is being driven by the recent proliferation of Bluetooth Low Energy (BTle)-enabled consumer electronics devices, such as smartphones, which are coming to market with the technology as standard. This trend points towards the technology and its applications playing an ever greater role in our lives. We believe that connectivity in the car, in particular, will see huge steps forward in the next few years.
Already commercialised, the BTle specification was introduced in June 2010 as the key feature of the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. BTle is an incremental design improvement to classic Bluetooth which makes the hardware cost difference very small. For this reason, adoption by the electronics industry has been extremely quick. Cost aside, BTle is a particularly strong technology standard due to the combination of its range, latency, throughput, and most importantly, incredibly low power consumption (less than an average TV remote control).
Already commercialised, the BTle specification was introduced in June 2010 as the key feature of the Bluetooth 4.0 standard.
One of the most obvious implementations of BTle is in key fobs, because of its ability to avoid interference by operating across a number of channels. The current RF radio band in which key fobs operate is crowded and prone to interference, with high profile examples reported in a number of UK towns and cities including Southampton and Windermere. This problem has been recognised by UK communications regulator, OFCOM, which has recommended that a specific frequency be allocated to radio keys, but this is not expected to be implemented for some years.
By installing BTle into key fobs, it’s possible to set up a communications bridge between a mobile device and the car. Consumers can take advantage of improved functionality, such as being able to activate the vehicle’s air conditioning in the comfort of their home without the use of a cellular network. ‘Key bridge’ applications will also have a big part to play as car-sharing continues to build in popularity. Personalised car settings for everything from the seat position to the angle of wing mirrors and even traction control can be stored on a user’s phone as a profile which can then be carried from car to car and transmitted via a BTle bridge.
With an increasing number of electric vehicles coming to the market, ‘key bridge’ applications will be well suited to providing information on the car’s battery status to the consumer’s handset. Phone applications will be able to combine data from the user’s calendar about upcoming appointments with battery status to suggest when the next charging session should occur, particularly important while charging stations remain rare.
The application of BTle in the automobile will not only significantly improve the end-user experience, but also reduce the complexity of production and after-care for the manufacturer.
BTle is equally applicable to hardware such as keyboards, media centre and game controllers connecting to rear-seat entertainment systems. Currently there are various proprietary control systems available which are not interoperable with each other. This adds cost and complexity to the manufacturer and end-user. BTle can easily be implemented into game controllers for example, enabling full remote control of any compatible infotainment system.
The application of BTle in the automobile will not only significantly improve the end-user experience, but also reduce the complexity of production and after-care for the manufacturer. In a world where wireless connectivity is increasingly seen as the norm, it’s only natural that consumers will expect the same in the vehicle. Now is the time for automobile manufacturers to be looking at how their future designs can incorporate BTle technologies and deliver on consumer expectations.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Automotive World Ltd.
Jimmy Pai is Technical Marketing Manager at CSR. For more information about CSR, visit www.csr.com
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