Honda Cars : Honda launches Honda Assistance App | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Honda has launched its new Honda Assistance App for smartphone users making it easier to contact roadside assistance. 
 
No-one likes getting stuck at the side of the road but this new Honda Assistance App should help Honda owners get assistance quicker.

Whether your car has been involved in a road traffic accident or your car has broken down this app will remove some of the stress with its ease of use. There is no need to search for the right phone number or try to pinpoint an exact location - the Honda Assistance App does all this for you.

The free App is suitable for iPhone, Blackberry and Android operating systems and is available through online app stores now.

Developed in conjunction with the AA motoring organisation, several other features have been incorporated into the App. All are designed to be of benefit to the customer and includes five higlights.

Breakdown and Accident Assistance routes the caller through to Hondacare Assistance.

Honda Happiness Insurance is where customers can request a quote for cover, or retrieve an existing one.
AA Roadwatch keeps you updated with the latest traffic updates and news of delays to their journey.

My Details: where personal information is stored, making it easy for the call handler to contact them.
My Reminders: to alert the customer when their MoT, service, insurance or extended warranty is due.

The new Honda App can be downloaded free of charge from Blackberry 'App World', Apple 'App Store' and Android 'Google Play Store'.

Source;
http://www.motortorque.com/car-news/honda-launches-honda-assistance-app-22073.aspx

Honda Cars : Honda app can sense traffic jams before they hit | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

During a test in Indonesia, the smartphone application increased average vehicle speeds and fuel economy in heavy traffic.

by Clifford Atiyeh of www.msn.com auto's section

Honda has a smartphone application it says can predict traffic congestion and help prevent drivers from causing bottlenecks.

We've all experienced bottlenecks -- so named after the curves of the glass Coke bottle -- due to rapid slowdowns in a certain spot that cause traffic to build up steadily from behind, whereas in front it's relatively free-flowing.

Honda's smartphone app monitors the patterns of a driver's acceleration and deceleration over time and then predicts if a certain pattern, such as heavy braking, is likely to cause a traffic jam. It then coaches the driver with colors, just as many Hondas do on the instrument panel for achieving the best fuel economy, with the goal of smoothing out abrupt acceleration and braking.

Often, drivers leave little space between vehicles on congested roadways, which causes spikes in speed --  a main condition for those annoying bottlenecks.

Honda tested the app in Jakarta, Indonesia, between September and February on both a single car and as a cloud-connected network of cars running the same app. With just one car running the app, traffic jams were delayed by an average of three minutes and changes in the average speed were reduced by 60 percent. More importantly, fuel economy was improved by 20 percent. When connected to the cloud, congestion was delayed by an average of four minutes, speed changes were reduced by 70 percent and fuel economy went up 22 percent.

While many cars feature live traffic alerts and can overlay navigation maps with color-coded lines that show how fast traffic is moving on a certain route, no production system exists to stop traffic before it starts. Of course, Honda's system can't eliminate traffic -- anyone who's been to Mexico City, Mumbai or any crowded city knows that's impossible -- but friendly in-car reminders could at least dull some of the pain.

The app is not yet available, but Honda said it would eventually embed the system on future models, including a special version for its motorcycles that could send vibrating alerts to the rider.

Source;
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/blogs/autosblogpost.aspx?post=2f410e99-6239-4d5f-82f7-d28ef21d4743

Honda Cars : Honda puts its head in the cloud | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

By  Mike Bantick
HondaLink joins other - mostly German – vehicle manufacturer’s attempts at bringing the online world into our cars.  Social media, cloud based services and other applications streaming directly to the infotainment system.

Beginning in the 2013 Honda Accord, HondaLink will deliver a range of infotainment features that will appeal to many of today’s smartphone wielding brigade.

Combining the app driven smartphone way of life with a modern in-car infotainment system is all part of the service.  "Honda's strategy is about leveraging the cloud to bring a wealth of new information and services to Honda owners," said Charles Koch, American Honda manager of new business development. "This is the next evolution of the connected car and the connected customer."

In the US purchases of cars with HondaLink can expect a wealth of content available when they connect their iOS or Android based device.  "HondaLink will enable customers to put away their phone and still stay connected to the people, music and media they love," said Vicki Poponi, assistant vice president of product planning for American Honda. "By creating an intuitive and customizable user interface, HondaLink allows drivers to access digital content as easily as choosing a radio station."

Connecting the smartphone app to HondaLink enables content to be streamed, through the infotainment system of the vehicle.  You can enjoy digital content seamlessly from the device as well as streamed via the cloud, picking up from where you left off before the drive started, and book-marking the content when getting out of the car. 

The Aha Radio service, which is part of the HondaLink package, is somewhat of a misnomer, providing more than radio as we commonly know it today.  The service includes access to favourite podcasts, internet radio, on-demand music, personalized traffic reports, restaurant recommendations, and audio updates from Facebook and Twitter.

But what of Australian consumers, diddled as we are by expensive data download plans (compared to most other similarly set up countries) as well as coverage issues inherent with a geography versus population mismatch as big as our horizon, how will HondaLink work locally?

Well don’t you worry about that, at this point in time Honda has no plans for HondaLink to be installed in cars shipped to and sold in Australia.  "HondaLink is a system set up by American Honda for customers in the United States,” company spokesperson Lindsay Smalley said “It is another great example of how Honda is taking a lead in investing in new technology. If there was such a system designed for Australia, we would definitely consider it."

Source;
http://www.itwire.com/science-news/automotive/56054-honda-puts-its-head-in-the-cloud

Honda Cars : Honda Introduces HondaLink™ | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

New Cloud-Based HondaLink™ Connected Car System Helps Drivers Put Away Their Phones While Maintaining Intuitive Access to Their Favorite Media

HondaLink™ provides first-ever OEM application of Aha™, delivering robust digital content via preset smartphone app

July 18, 2012

TORRANCE

Honda today unveiled HondaLink™, a new in-vehicle connectivity system that will debut this fall on the all-new, ninth-generation 2013 Honda Accord. Featuring the first automotive OEM application of Aha™ by Harman, HondaLink will provide a personalized experience connecting drivers to thousands of cloud-based news, information and entertainment feeds from around the world, using an intuitive, audio-system based interface.

"HondaLink will enable customers to put away their phone and still stay connected to the people, music and media they love," said Vicki Poponi, assistant vice president of product planning for American Honda. "By creating an intuitive and customizable user interface, HondaLink allows drivers to access digital content as easily as choosing a radio station."

Honda's intuitive new HondaLink smartphone application allows owners to preset content on their phone. Once in the car, consumers can enjoy personalized content accessible via voice recognition, steering-wheel mounted controls and in-dash audio system controls. With a tethered smartphone serving as a conduit to a wealth of cloud-based media, HondaLink creates a unique, connected driving experience.

"Honda's strategy is about leveraging the cloud to bring a wealth of new information and services to Honda owners," said Charles Koch, American Honda manager of new business development. "This is the next evolution of the connected car and the connected customer."

Through the Aha service, for example, HondaLink users can listen to Facebook and Twitter audio newsfeeds, podcasts from NPR, location-based personalized restaurant listings from Yelp!, and access internet music services such as Slacker. The service is free and instantly accessible from the cloud.

Aha delivers a user-friendly experience requiring infrequent smartphone software updates, with in-vehicle content and channel access updating simply and automatically throughout the vehicle life. And content available from HondaLink will grow as the system continues to expand its services for Honda owners. HondaLink will also incorporate Pandora internet radio and voice-to-text SMS text services with pre-programmed responses, which Honda introduced on the 2012 CR-V.

HondaLink EV

The HondaLink family also includes HondaLink EV, specifically designed for the all-new Fit EV all-electric vehicle and the upcoming Accord Plug-In Hybrid. Owners of these electric vehicles will have access to unique applications designed specifically to maintain connectivity to their vehicle. The HondaLink EV application will allow the user to remotely view the state of charge, initiate charging, and activate the air conditioning and heater to pre-condition the vehicle while connected to the grid to maximize battery range on start-up. HondaLink EV will launch with the Fit EV, which will be available for lease in California and Oregon beginning on July 20, 2012

Source;
http://www.hondanews.com/channels/corporate-headlines/releases/new-cloud-based-hondalink-connected-car-system-helps-drivers-put-away-their-phones-while-maintaining-intuitive-access-to-their-favorite-media