Toyota gives Google and Apple the cold shoulder
Toyota is one of the few major car manufacturers that continues to oppose giving Google and Apple access to its vehicles' entertainment systems.
The Japanese company announced on Monday that it would rely on software from Ford instead of integrating smartphones with Google's Android Auto or Apple's CarPlay. Ford itself, on the other hand, gave up its resistance to the systems from Google and Apple a few hours earlier and announced their integration into newer vehicles at the CES electronics trade fair in Las Vegas. At the same time, its own "AppLink" system, on which Toyota's "SmartDeviceLink" is also based, will also continue to be used. There is controversy in the automotive industry as to whether manufacturers could lose out on future business with data and services as a result of a greater role for smartphone heavyweights in cars. Toyota has so far referred to unspecified security concerns about the use of software from Apple and Google. The Japanese car giant wants to connect its vehicles with each other so that they can warn each other of accidents, for example, via cloud servers. Toyota wants to install a standardized communication module in its vehicles worldwide by 2019. Initially, there will be different technologies in individual regions. (SDA)
