As the largest supplier of Telematics and Connectivity products in the world, Continental has world leading Telematics technologies. Through years’ cultivation and preparation, 2009 will be the first year of China’s Embedded Telematics. How will Continental think of the Chinese Telematics market and make active involvement will be a key issue influencing the development of the Chinese Telematics industry.

Telematics@China has interviewed Mr. Ming Jing, Director Asia Pacific, Telematics Business Unit of Continental Automotive Systems on the hot topics, such as advantages of Continental’s technology and Continental’s response to the China market. The interview will be issued on Newsletter in two parts. Here is the first part.

 

Ming Jing

Ming Jing currently holds the position of Managing Director of Connectivity Business Unit at Continental Asia Headquarters, since the global acquisition of Motorola’s worldwide automotive business in 2006.

Mr. Jing graduated with honors in Electrical Engineering at Yale University in 1992, followed by a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University.  In 2001 he also graduated from Rutgers University’s EMBA program.

Continental is the world wide leader in embedded Telematics and device connectivity, could you briefly introduce to us Conti Telematics’s history?

Ming Jing：Continental Telematics comes from formerly Motorola Automotive. Continental is the world’s largest supplier of Telematics and Connectivity products with market share of 70%.  Customers include GM, BMW, M-B, Ford, PSA, VW etc.

Continental has a dedicated business unit that focuses on Telematics and Connectivity solutions and has an extensive Telematics R&D site in China.

In 2008, how does Continental perform in Telelmatics global market? And what is your strategy for China market?

Ming Jing：Continental is positioned very well and has expanded our footprint worldwide to respond to global market demand on Telematics. As an example we have recently won several major OEM awards in the Brazilian market for stolen vehicle tracking.

For China, Continental has established a dedicated team and product portfolio to serve the growing needs of the market. The suite of products and features are specifically designed for the Chinese market by our global and local R&D teams collaboratively. For example, many of our products come with Mandarin speech recognition capability. We also understand that Telematics is not just a product and we help build the Telematics eco-partners so as to offer our OEM customers a service solution.  As telematics is a service industry that rapidly evolves, we aim to grow with our customers as long term technology partners.

The flagship product line from Conti for China market is WMG, is it the same as traditional BT box? What kind of car is a natural fit for WMG?

Ming Jing： It’s not simply Bluetooth product. WMG (Wireless Media Gateway) is Conti’s response to China particular market demand for seamless in-vehicle connectivity. Coupled with innovative applications suitable for Chinese people, such as Mandarin voice recognition, text-to-speech, privacy mode protection, portable music connectivity (USB/Bluetooth), location based services, WMG is the premium in-vehicle connectivity solution in China providing seamless user experience between the driver, his vehicle and his mobile devices.

Even with WMG strong set of features, it is designed not just for luxury car owners, but really for the youthful generation of users who wish to stay connected wherever they are.

With so many applications on WMG, does it mean it is more complex and more engineering effort regarding for OEM implementation? What’s the engineering and performance benefit for OEM to adopt WMG technology?

Ming Jing： Not at all. There are two approaches when considering adding the connectivity to a car: add a separate connectivity box or integrated into a radio. WMG takes a separate box approach.

Benefit of a separate WMG box:

One single wireless platform with menurized feature list that works with multiple carlines and radios.

Dedicated Interoperability test team to reach top 90% of Bluetooth devices in the market ensuring significantly reduced Interoperability issues As we all know when wireless works it is great, but when you have an issue, it can be very frustrating. Even though Bluetooth is a standard set of protocol, each device manufactures implements it a little differently and therefore create many interoperability issues. By having a fully validated WMG platform, OEM can enjoy the benefit of more compatibility and less customer complaints.

Dedicated SW DSP for higher audio quality – Continental has a handsfree and speech team that is dedicated in optimizing in-vehicle handsfree acoustic noise reduction and echo cancellation. The professionally developed SW based DSP is now in its 5th generation and has been deployed in hundreds of vehicle carlines. By using WMG, OEM is guaranteed to have consistent, best-in-class audio quality across vehicle platforms.

After many years of baking market, it is expected that 2009 would become the 1st year for China embedded Telematics. What role would Continental play in this game, what are the technical advantages of Conti Telematics, how does Conti meet China’s demand?

Ming Jing： Continental is playing a pivotal role in this market. We are heavily involved with OEM for 2009 product launch.

Globally we have teams dedicated to wireless designs for CDMA/GSM/HSDPA modules to ensure quality. We also have dedicated speech and Interoperability team. These are all key elements that make up an uncompromising Telematics system.

Locally we have a R&D team that is capable of developing unique features for the local market.

Regarding industry’s next generation OTA hot topic – NGTP, what is Continental’s position?

Ming Jing： Continental wants to support it as long as there’s OEM demand. We have track record on supporting open protocols. For example, Continental Connectivity (formerly Motorola Automotive) was the main author of ACP and GTP protocols. 

The benefit for a flexible OTA architecture is its open structure allows for quick adaptation for new system and applications, the downside is more overhead and eventually inevitable variance. As an example, while ACP protocol is a fully open protocol to start with, BMW and Daimler have each evolved into its own versions over the years.