Using Dedicated App Stores to Foster In-Vehicle Video and Gaming Streaming

ACCESS Europe GmbH and NetRange, both consolidated subsidiaries of ACCESS, have worked together to launch an app store for the automotive industry that is now part of the ACCESS Twine™ for Car (Twine4Car) In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) system. ACCESS leveraged the content expertise and relationships from NetRange, a global provider of white-labeled turnkey Smart TV and Over-the-Top (OTT) app stores in over 100 countries, to develop an app store approach to the automotive industry. The app store provides Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) with a single source of video and audio streaming content with car-centric mobility services. With that, ACCESS aims to transform ACCESS Twine4Car into a complete in-car entertainment solution for next-generation vehicles. The App Store applications include live TV, video and audio streaming services, and in-car gaming. Twine4Car also supports Digital Rights Management (DRM) within the vehicle’s built-in devices and brought-in devices for secure playback. The app store is already commercially available and currently in trials with vehicle OEMs and Tier 1s.

With more customers making new car purchase decisions based on in-vehicle functionalities, future cars tend to be more navigation-centric. Among IVI features, in-car video streaming and gaming are functionalities that will gain momentum with worldwide 5G network deployments, as low latency rendering is a prerequisite for immersive gaming user experience. Currently only offered by Tesla, these functionalities will become increasingly popular among autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, in the rear seat or for drivers and occupants as long there is a driver monitoring system in place, and among Electric Vehicles (EVs) as an entertainment option during charging. According to ABI Research’s New Automotive Infotainment Architectures (AN-5329) Application Analysis Report, in 2030 20% of vehicles with head-unit displays sold in Europe and 17% of those sold in the United States will feature Video-on-Demand (VoD) capabilities. Content providers are already looking at the untapped opportunity in the automotive industry. For instance, at CES 2020 Amazon announced a new Fire TV edition for in-car entertainment that will be available on BMW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA) future vehicles. The touchscreens will be able to stream video via the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) connection onboard or Wi-Fi, and will also offer an offline playback option. Nevertheless, the company has not specified a release date.

Establishing direct relationships with each content provider might become a struggle for automotive OEMs due to lack of scale and expertise in service providing. Therefore, solutions that make the bridge between content owners and vehicle OEMs, minimizing integration efforts for both parts, may find traction among car manufactures. Moreover, OEMs are likely to face struggles similar to those TV manufacturers experienced in forming partnerships when launching Smart TVs, which was attenuated by the use of dedicated app stores. App stores could also help OEMs retain control of the in-vehicle experience by eliminating their dependence on Google and Apple’s app stores to provide access to popular applications such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Additionally, OEMs can assure the same level of experience in different territories where vehicles are sold via local apps.

Enhanced connectivity and the cloud enable new features that require more performance in the vehicle. For instance, while streaming a game is demanding in terms of connectivity, the game interaction requires a fast response time that can be better achieved locally. As a consequence, some applications may run both in the cloud and at the edge, based on powerful computing with robust 3D graphics. It is worth noting that most of the new hardware generations are capable of video streaming or gaming for at least one screen. Therefore, despite safety concerns and content protection issues, these functionalities should become standard within a few years. The first OEM deployment of video streaming, apart from Tesla, which already offers the functionality, should be available in the market in 2021. Major deployments should reach the market between 2022 and 2023.