Microsoft has teamed up to bring what they call a “music and information system” to Hyundai and KIA cars sold in North America by 2010, now this sort of technology has been exclusive to Ford in the past with their Sync gadget, although it’s not being called Sync (it sure sounds similar).
Microsoft and Hyundai Motor Group have setup the Automotive IT Innovation Center, with Hyundai Motor Group adding $166 million and Microsoft investing $113 million to this project. Bill Gates has personally met the South Korean President to talk about the level of involvement from companies in his country. We also hear that Gates will be signing the agreement with Hyundai in Seoul. While the first product to be released in this partnership is a “voice-controlled system linking mobile devices to car stereo systems”, we also hear that in the near future, other products will be released that has multimedia and navigation features.
The first product will also feature remote firmware updates and this makes things so much easier, and less costly for manufactures. The real question here, is how comes Hyundai needs Microsoft for getting music into cars, when iPods and iPhones can be added very easily or are we missing something?
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