VW, Ford, and BMW putting new technology in your dashboard

Volkswagen’s Electronic Research Laboratory has been busy developing new infotainment systems and interfaces for VW’s. The latest system is nicknamed GLORIA–Global Open Research Infotainment Architecture–which was developed in cooperation with Intel.

GLORIA comes with a touchscreen that responds to multi-touch, or gestures, similar to the iPhone’s response system. For example, Eric Jensen, Senior Engineer on the project, traced the letter “n” to get to the navigation screen, while an ‘h” took him to the home screen.

In addition to the navigation and music aspect, it is probable that VW will incorporate widgets from third party developers that users could install. Although the infotainment system isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, designers are looking ahead to voice activated interfaces. But don’t hold your breath.

Over at Ford, they are expanding the features of Sync by adding 911 Assist and Vehicle Health Report, both bundled as a software upgrade for current customers. It comes standard in the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. The nice thing about Sync is you don’t have to pay a subscription fee; it runs off your mobile phone. If your airbag deploys, or your fuel shuts off, Sync is supposed to make the 911 call for you. How your cell phone knows what your car is doing wasn’t explained.

BMW must feel they have the safety thing handled because their latest addition addresses the weather instead with an onboard weather channel of sorts. Drivers over in Europe are being treated to high-resolution precipitation graphics that show them the geographical distribution of rain, hail, or snow, relative to where they currently are in their car. BMW’s ConnectedDrive, however, is a step behind Acura’s TL and TSX models which incorporated a similar meteorological report in their US models last year.