For autonomous car manufacturers, automotive software is essential to ensure these vehicles operate smoothly. Over the years, car manufacturers have invested millions in the research and development of automotive software.

And when it comes to automotive software, Tesla arguably tops the list for being the most innovative in its solutions. However, recent issues such as accidents involving its self-driving vehicles have brought in some negative publicity for the carmaker.

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Despite this, Tesla is still the top producing autonomous car manufacturer in the world.

However, this is also rapidly changing as Asian carmakers are now making their presence felt in the global autonomous vehicle industry. For example, Chinese autonomous vehicles have been seeing increased demand and sales, not just in China but globally as well.

Part of the reason for this is that most of these automakers are manufacturing and designing their own automotive software.

Automotive software includes the use of AI for self-driving as well as processing data the vehicle sends and receives.

Apart from autonomous driving, automotive software is also needed for managing electric motors and batteries as well as navigation and providing entertainment.

With more automated features being developed for autonomous cars, some manufacturers are now deciding to design and build their own operating software as well.

According to a report by Nikkei, Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp is planning to launch its own operating system, which would be capable of handling advanced operations such as autonomous driving, for its vehicles by 2025.

Building a native automotive software

The automotive software platform, Arene is expected to compete with German rivals, Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG. Volkswagen is already working on its ‘VW.OS’ software, while Daimler is planning to roll out its own ‘Mercedes-Benz Operating System’ in its cars by 2024.

General Motors is also developing an operating system that can be updated instantly via the internet, pouring US$35 billion by 2025.

At the same time, tech companies have also jumped into the bandwagon and are developing their own autonomous vehicle and automotive software. For example, Apple is rumored to be working on an autonomous vehicle while Google seeks to bring the business models that succeeded in smartphones to the auto industry.

For Toyota, the Japanese carmaker also plans to make it available to affiliates such as Subaru in the future. Reports also showed that Toyota is considering a licensing model to make Arene available to other car manufacturers and companies working on electric or self-driving cars.

Nikkei reported that Arene will control basic components which include the steering wheel, brakes, and accelerator.

The automotive system will also manage the vehicle’s safety systems as well as location and traffic information. All vehicles fitted with the operating system, regardless of make or model, will have access to shared functions. Consumers can update the system online, much like smartphone software, enabling quick improvements to performance.

As competition in the autonomous vehicle industry increases, vehicle manufacturers are likely to feel pressured to continuously work on developing and improving their own automotive systems.

This is not just to stay ahead, but also sidestep supply chain complexities, especially given the global semiconductor shortage that’s expected to persist to 2023.

The post Toyota to launch automotive software platform by 2025 appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei is on its long journey to increased self-reliance, will only roll out its homegrown mobile operating system, HarmonyOS, within the Asian region – with no immediate plans for global implementation anytime soon, as the telecommunications giant fights for survival in the smartphone hardware market after US’ sanctions blocked it from using Android OS in its devices.

The ban had eviscerated the core functionality of Huawei’s once-thriving smartphone business, as well as other connected gadgets as they could no longer obtain Google’s license to run Android. The Shenzhen-based Huawei, the world’s largest telecom equipment maker and formerly China’s biggest smartphone vendor, said that it expected 300 million devices to run Harmony by year’s end – and would pile on resource investments to boost its user base to 1.2 billion by 2024. 

When a beta version was released earlier this year, only about 300,000 Huawei smartphone users signed up. By this week, the new HarmonyOS 2.0 – launched a year after the inaugural HarmonyOS debuted – passed 10 million users, as it gathers traction within China, according to a report by GSMArena. The update to HarmonyOS 2 is available for the Mate 40 series, P40 series, Mate 30 series, and MatePad Pro devices in China, while the Huawei P30 series along with Honor 30 and V30 series will get closed betas this month and public beta trials in July 2021.

HarmonyOS 2.0 is billed as the world’s first operating system dedicated to the era of the Internet of Things. Without the use of smartphone-native apps, it is claimed that the operating system is able to function across a wide array of devices and household items. HarmonyOS 2.0 is expected to run on up to 300 million devices by the end of this year, including 200 million Huawei smartphones.

At the virtual launch of HarmonyOS 2.0 recently, the company announced partnerships with several domestic and international firms to run its mobile operating system on their smart devices, including Chinese home appliances giant Midea Group, drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co, and Swiss watch producer Tissot.

HarmonyOS 2.0 differentiates itself from Android and Apple’s iOS because it was designed to work on a wide range of IoT devices as well as smartphones, according to the president of the Huawei consumer business group’s software unit Wang Chenglu. These devices include smartwatches, smart televisions, smart home appliances, and other sensor-equipped gadgets that are connected to the internet and interact with mobile applications.

The stakes are high for Huawei and other major technology companies in the Asia-Pacific, as regional spending on IoT is expected to reach US$288.6 billion this year, IDC claimed. It is fair to note, however, overhauling its competition would be a mammoth task for Huawei; Google has about 86% and Apple the remaining 14% of the smartphone operating system market, according to the research firm IDC. Several competitors have unsuccessfully tried to take a share, among them Microsoft and Samsung, which is the world’s smartphone leader with about 22% of sales.

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HarmonyOS users have slowly become an important community in China, as there aren’t any Google Mobile Services anyway and there is a reasonably large population. The data Huawei has already shared is impressive. HarmonyOS already has the world’s third-largest app ecosystem, the company boasted back in March. “As of today, there are more than 300 application and service providers, over 1,000 hardware manufacturers, and at least 500,000 developers in the HarmonyOS ecosystem,” said Huawei’s spokesperson. 

What may stifle adoption outside of China is that, without access to Google, YouTube, Facebook, and many other popular apps and services, the OS may have an issue taking off outside China. Many of these popular global services are already blocked in the country, though, so it could fare better there.

The post Huawei’s homegrown smartphone OS designed for the era of IoT appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

As reported by TechCrunch, Android is now being used by more Internet users compared with Windows for the first time ever. In March, Android users made up for 37.93 percent of activity pitted against Microsoft’s 37.91 percent. While it overtook Windows by just a hair, it’s certainly a “tipping point” as desktop usage continues to concede to mobile.

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Windows has been dominant in the desktop realm, but according to Gartner, worldwide PC sales declined 5.7 percent between 2015 and 2016, and has been doing so for the past five years. Meanwhile, smartphone sales have continued to grow with Android leading the pack – especially in emerging markets such as India.

Another StatCounter report, which came out last week, shows Asia’s largest markets are relying more on mobile – in countries such as India (79 percent), Indonesia (72 percent) and China (52 percent).

This is unsurprising considering most of these countries have become mobile-first – nations in earlier stages of development such as India or Indonesia may even be mobile-only.

If we zero in specifically on mobile operating systems, a battle is being waged between Android and iOS. TechCrunch notes while users in Western markets, such as in the United States, are somewhat split between the two – users in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America appear to prefer Android.

Milestone — #Android beats Windows to become World's Most Popular Operating System among Internet Users https://t.co/G4IhOnAjHQ #google pic.twitter.com/s5xsjdD8a1

— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) April 3, 2017

An App Annie report for 2016 revealed 90 billion apps were downloaded, with iOS making up for 25 billion of the total and Android taking the remainder. While the Play Store is pulling in more downloads, it’s interesting to note iOS apps are still the key breadwinner as it raked in the bulk of the US$35 billion paid out to publishers in competing app stores.

This makes sense, considering iPhones cater to a more upmarket demographic while Android users generally prefer lower cost devices.

The post Android emerges as the most-used OS, unseating Windows appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

RIM's BlackBerry Playbook 2.0 operating system will feature integrated email messaging and calendar, which were conspicuously absent from the 1.0 release (photo :Ubergizmo).

Previously, the Playbook only supported access to email, calendar, and contacts on a BlackBerry smartphone using Bluetooth via BlackBerry Bridge. Now, these core apps can be accessed directly using native clients without having to tether the tablet wirelessly with a smartphone. This is a long-requested feature from BlackBerry users, and RIM has finally incorporated it in the PlayBook.

Users can also access messages from a single and unified inbox. This includes work and personal emails, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) messages, SMS and messages from various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. All calendars and contacts from social media accounts are integrated into the built-in calendar and contact app, which is dynamically updated. These are likely in response to the criticisms of the original PlayBook OS not having native e-mail and calendar capabilities.

OS 2.0 now supports synchronization with Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo for calendar and email, as well as with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino for corporate email accounts. Contacts and calendars are automatically synced.

David J. Smith, RIM Senior Vice President for Mobile Computing says the Playbook OS is created with the user who wants high-speed browsing, multimedia consumption, as well as productivity with content and apps.

Even with standalone capabilities, the PlayBook works best with a BlackBerry smartphone. The tablet can be used in conjunction with a smartphone to view documents, web pages, emails and photos from the smartphone on the tablet via the BlackBerry Bridge app.  Likewise, the smartphone’s keyboard and optical trackpad can act as the tablet’s wireless keyboard for easier typing.

Moreover, Playbook 2.0 comes with a new feature called Print To Go, which provides the ability to “print” documents to the tablet directly and wirelessly. Anything sent through the feature can be easily viewed offline later.

RIM’s AppWorld gets a boost, with thousands of new apps and a new video store. Powered by Rovi and featuring new and old movies and TV shows for both rental and purchase, it is available for users in the U.S.

Even though RIM still has fewer apps than main rivals Android and iOS, the platform’s ability to run apps designed for Android 2.3 makes the PlayBook platform attractive to both smartphone and tablet users.

This OS will be the basis of future BlackBerry smart phone operating systems, which is BlackBerry 10 (formerly BBX). But can the Playbook 2.0 platform deliver? It seems still a bit too limited, compared with the iPad or Android tablets.

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