Telecom Lead America: Verizon announced the formation of
the 4G Venture Forum for Connected Cars. BMW, Honda, Hyundai Motor Company, Kia
Motors and Toyota Motor Sales are part of the forum.
The new form involving a group of automotive companies
will accelerate the pace of innovation across the automotive and telematics 4G
LTE ecosystem.
Sanjay Sarma of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
joins the Forum.
The group will explore ways to deliver connectivity to
vehicles of all types, by leveraging open standards and discussing ways to
accelerate development of the 4G LTE ecosystem across automotive OEMs,
suppliers, device manufacturers, application developers and content publishers.
“There are many challenges to designing next
generation telematics and infotainment solutions, including supporting safe and
responsible driving, advancing vehicle-to-vehicle solutions and improving
sustainability, among others,”said Tami Erwin, chief marketing officer
for Verizon Wireless.
The 4G Venture Forum for Connected Cars will help
discover ways to increase the value of services, ranging from embedded
cloud-connected solutions to mobile applications; help define features and
explore safety systems; and encourage third-party developers in this
space.
The 4G Venture Forum for Connected Cars complements and
extends the approach of the 4G Venture Forum, focusing exclusively on the
automotive space to address the specific needs of this growing
market.
Verizon Wireless has the largest 4G LTE network, now
available in 258 markets and covering more than two-thirds of the U.S. population. The
Forum may support and fund advancements regardless of underlying network
technology; companies will not be obligated to work with Verizon and are not
precluded from working with other service providers.
