IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - March 2018 - 117

along with its rich heritage of in-car
audio solutions, paired with Samsung's
industry-leading mobile and consumer
offerings. As we consider the autonomous future and our combined capabilities, we are poised to meet consumer
demands and own even more of the
passenger economy, the free time that
will open up as systems become more
self-controlled.

fUTURE POSSIbIlITIES
No longer will the disparate elements
of a car exist in isolation; they must be
combined seamlessly in a streamlined
interface, providing a safe, user-friendly, and cost-effective solution. A forward-looking vehicle system leverages
technologies such as AI, AR, voicebased controls, intelligent connectivity,
and cloud-based computing. HARMAN, alongside other leading tier-one
providers, is focusing on humanizing
the autonomous car through a digital

Bits Versus Electrons

cockpit and overall UX that is contextual, intuitive, and personalized.
As the shift toward the autonomous
car progresses, the automotive industry,
technology companies, and governments
will need to work in tandem in the name
of advancing technology, safety, and policy, while keeping consumer needs and
interests at the forefront. Within the car,
drivers-turned-riders will be able to do
more in the same amount of time. The
commute will be revolutionized: if you
forget to schedule a meeting, you can
request one via voice control; you could
sit back and read your favorite novel; or
you could even immerse yourself in a
virtual reality game as an after-work
stress reliever. OEMs will partner with
automotive suppliers and cloud-based
computing experts to create a vast suite
of productivity and entertainment services, seamlessly connecting the car and the
phone, the car and the home, or the car
and the office.

Collaboration is vital, and no one
company (or ecosystem) can do it all.
Even so, UX/user interface is critical for
automaker differentiation. Automakers'
brands will live and die based on the
unique, branded experiences they deliver inside the car cabin, making the battle for the passenger economy business
even more competitive. The design of
HMI systems is critical to the development of these branded experiences, with
an intuitive display and interaction with
data at the heart of the solution. This
enables more seamless, natural interaction between the driver and vehicle, and
it provides a chauffeur-like technology
that will be a vital component of the car
of the future.

abOUT THE aUTHOR
Tim VanGoethem is the vice president
of product and strategy at HARMAN.

(continued from page 107)

Today, surprisingly, JavaScript has
become a high-performance programing
environment thanks to clever ideas like
dynamic compilation. Tools like TypeScript assist programmers by allowing
them to provide hints to the integrated
development environment. In addition,
there is a whole set of tools to facilitate
the sharing of packages. An event-driven single-threading approach removes
much of the complexity of high-performance applications. With platforms
such as NodeJS, JavaScript isn't just for
the web. PWAs are just one class of
applications written using the language
and associated tools.

a PWa WORlD?
Not quite. While I am excited about
PWAs and see many venues, such as
TV v2, where they are vital, there is

There is still a need
for a variety of approaches
to programing and
software development.
still a need for a variety of approaches
to programing and software development. There will continue to be a need
to program applications ahead of what
is available to the PWA environment
and a need for developers to create their
own extensions.
Google, Microsoft, and many others
are embracing PWAs. For Microsoft,
there is recognition that they can make
money providing service using their
Azure platform, and, for Amazon, their
Amazon Web Services. For me, PWAs

are exciting because they bring back
some of the excitement of writing and
sharing applications without all of the
complexities of applications meant for
wide market sales.
Today's PWAs are built on the current web, which is optimized for content
distribution and commerce. As we explore new use cases, I expect to see much
innovation, including the development
of more peer technologies rather than a
focus on delivering services. With that
being said, the current technologies and
protocols are already a strong basis for
delivering these capabilities.
Consumer electronics devices will
increasingly use PWAs either internally
or as an interface. More than that, PWAs
empower prosumers to wield software
like they did soldering irons in the past.

march 2018

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

117

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