Hyundai has announced a new deal with Google that will bring further integration of Google Maps with their Blue Link telematics platform. Blue Link is an in-car application that aids with mapping and allows phones to connect to it.
The new deal will see more Google Maps APIs being used to enhance the experience in their cars sold in the United States. The new APIs that will be used are:
- Send to Car
- Point of Interest
- Local Search by Voice
Google has been aggressively improving their maps over the last year as increased competition has popped up. More integration with other platforms, such as cars, is good to see. This will (hopefully) make communication between your phone and car more seamless and provide even more data for Google to further improve the maps app.
Source: Hyundai
Reader comments
Hyundai integrating Google Maps with their Blue Link platform
Just finished up my 3 month trial of Bluelink... it's alright. I really only used it for the automatic start, but at $180 per year, they're going to have to do a whole lot more than just integrating Google Maps search for me to pay that.
About damn time a car company did this.
99% of Hyundai's blue link functionality could be done using a smartphone instead of a full dedicated infotainment/telematics system in the car.
I don't like the idea of paying $180 per year for stuff that my phone can already do with the proper combination of car hardware (example: BT OBD 2 module) and nicely designed software.
It's about time someone guts in-car telematics and fully integrates mobile devices instead.
How amazing would it be to pop your phone into a wireless charging niche in your dash and have it sync beautifully, navigation and all?
*sigh*
coming to hyundai's 2015 models, they recently announced this
While that seems nice on the surface, I can think of a number of reasons I'd rather use a built-in navigation than one from my phone. First, there are a lot of things integrated into the Hyundai navigation unit, like climate controls, radio controls, fuel economy information, etc. Plus, the built-in navigation takes input from steering and speed signals to improve the accuracy. And then there's the screen size, and the fact that you can use the touch screen with gloves on, for cold mornings.
On the flip side, I had a 2004 Toyota with built-in nav, and they wanted something like $250 a year to update the maps. So having the most up-to-date maps automatically would be a huge benefit, but not being able to access them in rural areas with poor cell reception would suck.
As for Blue Link, I too just let the Guidance package expire and maintain the Essentials package for the remote start and security features. It's up for renewal in July, when I won't be using remote start at all, so I have a feeling I'll let it expire as well. I love where Hyundai is going, but Blue Link is just a bit pricey for what you get.
Yeah... still not using the Guidance part of BlueLink. At $280/year for the package that includes navigation... no thanks. I'll just keep subscribing to the second tier package (the one with theft protection) and leave the navigation to Google Maps on my phones.