Honda announced on Wednesday that it would join, however belatedly, the connected car race, pledging a new HondaLink telematics system for the Honda Accord. The upgraded system will be offered in the sedan this fall.  Like systems offered by nearly every major automaker, the more robust HondaLink relies on owners’ Android and iPhone handsets to feed information from the Web to an in-dash display. Honda said drivers would be able to stream Internet radio stations, download audiobooks, view aggregated ratings for nearby restaurants and have Facebook feeds read aloud.  To manage and update these different sources, HondaLink will rely on Aha’s software and services. Honda consequently does not have to aggregate and monitor various sources or continually update software in the dashboard. Instead, Aha, a content packager for mobile platforms, manages this burden on the smartphone side using its own servers. The Web-enabled features offered by HondaLink will reside on the same touch-screen interface as radio and navigation features.  Honda’s announcement was not unexpected. Acura, the company’s luxury brand, pledged at the New York auto show in April to equip its 2013 RLX with software from Aha. That the volume-oriented Accord will offer similar features is another sign that connected services are becoming mainstream expectations among consumers.  Though issues of driver distraction are invariably raised, designers of these systems argue that integrated services like HondaLink exist to prevent drivers from picking up their smartphones behind the wheel. With HondaLink, for example, drivers download the free iPhone or Android app to their phones and select favorite stations on the phone — ideally before driving. When the phone is connected to HondaLink in the car, those presets automatically appear onscreen without the user having to fumble with the handset.  Bundling and serving Web-enabled features has earned Aha other customers, including Subaru and Pioneer. Given the technology is enabled by a smartphone, the features are rendered portable, meaning that at some point, a driver may be able to transfer in-dash settings and preferences from one vehicle to another. That scenario, however, assumes that the car’s built-in systems are compatible with Aha software.  Aha is owned by Harman International Industries, which makes telematics hardware for the car industry. But there’s plenty of competition from other automakers and telematics companies. Verizon Communications recently jumped into the connected car business with its purchase of Hughes Telematics, a manufacturer of telematics boxes. This jockeying at the system level, however, does not serve drivers, as it indicates incompatibility should reign on the dashboard for some time to come.
The automaker, which has lagged behind other automakers in developing a strategy for in-car infotainment, said the deficiency would be rectified with help from Aha.