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In one of the very first press conferences of 2012 International CES OnStar and Cadillac announced a continuation of their efforts toward the connected car, by opening up the OnStar API for developers.
Television tech expert Katie Linendoll introduced it as the first press conference on 2012 CES. Video screens around the stage showed images of home energy data from an electric car charging station, another was an iPhone with OnStar and Cadillac CUE apps, and on the other side of the stage a demo Cadillac front end with cameras trained on the CUE system dashboard.
Jim Vurpillat, the global marketing director for Cadillac said the company takes credit for making the connected vehicle a reality when it first introduced OnStar in vehicles. Cadillac now launched CUE at CTIA to bring the connected experience to the car with an intuitive touch-sensitive vehicle interface. Currently CuE is available in the Cadillac XTS and the brand new Cadillac ATS, unveiled just two hours before the press conference.
Cadillac sent engineers out with real people, going about their day-to-day lives to gather ideas about how to build the most user-friendly experience. They found that people are looking to bring cloud information into the car. They want navigation, diagnostics, safety, are concerned about being green, and want the ability to remotely start or lock the car from a cell phone, said OnStar VP Planning and business development Nick Pudar.
OnStar's Steve Schwinke then called in via a Skype hookup from the back seat of a Chevy Volt. With rear seat entertainment systems, the back seat passengers can get Skype, gaming apps, streaming video and more. And while these are concept cars now, OnStar assures us they are coming sooner than we think.
Pudar's big announcement was that OnStar would be opening it's API to developers, and providing vehicle information, so that a plethora of third party-created apps could be just around the corner.
One of the first apps to be built with the open API access is RelayRides. CCO Shelby Clark explained that the neighborhood car sharing app uses OnStar to track vehicle locations, and also allowed users to lock or remotely start a car with a smartphone or just a text message.
With the API open to developers OnStar is hoping for new apps, turning the car into a tablet or smartphone on wheels.
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