THE HANSEN REPORT ON AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS. A Business and Technology Newsletter VOL. 17, NO. 7◆◆ PORTSMOUTH, NH USA SEPTEMBER 2004 BMW Sticks with iDrive; Ford Hosts Convergence 2004 Audi’s MMI a Success “Audi, Mercedes and Porsche all use a officially denouncing iDrive as a failure system similar to the BMW iDrive,” de- from both a technical and functional We recently spoke with Dr. Gerhard clared Alfred Broede, product spokesman standpoint.” Schmidt, vice president in charge of re- at BMW in Germany. “There is no other The harsh negativity about iDrive goes search and advanced engineering at Ford way to control the many systems of the well beyond the press. When I visited our and the chairman of Convergence 2004, car.” Without multifunction interface sys- local BMW dealer in Portsmouth, New about the conference and about electron- tems—consisting of multifunction Hampshire this summer, the salesman I ics at Ford. Scheduled for October 18 – 20 switches and a display or a touch screen— spoke with was quick to tell me that his at Detroit’s Cobo Hall, Convergence is fully-featured vehicles would require too customers “hate” iDrive. “It’s awful. It is the largest and most influential confer- many small buttons, knobs and labels to impossible during new car delivery to ence on automotive electronics. It is at- fit within easy reach of the driver. They teach customers in one sitting how to use tended by a large number of the industry’s would be small and difficult to see and it. If BMW made iDrive a delete option, movers and shakers from carmakers and difficult to operate safely. “It would look 99% would have it deleted,” he said. Not suppliers around the world. Eighty-five like a fighter jet,” said Mr. Broede. at all intuitive, iDrive is difficult to use papers will be presented during the Audi’s critically acclaimed multifunc- even by the computer literate. conference’s 15 technical sessions. To tion MMI (Multi Media Interface) is stan- However, BMW is not about to make register for Convergence, please visit dard on the 2004 Audi A8 L and an iDrive, which is standard on 5, 6 and 7 www.convergence2004.org. option on the new A6, which was series vehicles, a delete option on those This year Ford has chosen “Vehicle launched in the spring of 2004 in Europe models. “Once people have driven it for a Electronics to Digital Mobility: The Next and will be coming to the U.S. this fall. long time, most appreciate it. If we Generation of Convergence” as the con- Audi will probably extend the availability changed it again, we would get a lot of ference theme. Digital mobility refers to of MMI throughout the Audi line. By criticism,” said Michael Pfunder, in charge the next stage of automotive electronics, 2008 or 2009 Volkswagen will also likely of E/E interior and cockpit systems engi- where control systems and features are adopt MMI in upscale vehicles, but with a neering at BMW. “Customers would ask, connected to each other via data commu- different design look and different graph- ‘Why would you change the thing I al- nications networks, making them interde- ics to fit the VW brand. ready know?’” On the BMW 1 series in- pendent and complementary, where troduced in Europe earlier this year, software and digital data are the essential iDrive iDrive is only packaged with the naviga- ingredients. It’s hard to find an electronics feature tion system option. Given where the industry is headed, more widely criticized than iDrive, According to Mr. Pfunder, appreciation electronics architecture is particularly im- BMW’s multifunction switch-and-display for iDrive varies by country. “For example, portant, and two noteworthy sessions on user interface that gives BMW drivers ac- Japanese drivers are used to very complex systems architecture have been developed. cess to hundreds of vehicle functions, set- systems. There is no criticism whatsoever On Tuesday morning, October 19, Peter tings and adjustments. Since BMW first from Japan, or from Germany. In America Thoma, member of the management introduced iDrive in November 2001, in the response has been mixed,” he said. board of Elmos Semiconductor, chairs a the then all-new 7 series in Europe, the The iDrive human-machine-interface session on physical structures of systems U.S. press has been entirely negative. The includes steering-wheel switches, a multi- architectures. Dick Brass, vice president of Wall Street Journal recently referred to the function display, and a multifunction con- Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit, 7 series version as the “dreaded iDrive ... trol knob, which can be turned, pressed, leads a session that will focus on software, [that] drives people crazy.” The second- and in the 7 series slid to eight different scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. generation iDrive released on the 2004 5 positions. Dr. Schmidt came to Ford in 2001from series was found by Consumer Reports BMW, where he was senior vice president magazine in April 2004 to be “tedious to Defending iDrive of vehicle integration. Before that, Dr. use.” On July 8, 2004, car-buying expert The newer iDrive, standard on the Schmidt spent ten years as senior vice Karl Brauer at the consumer website BMW 5 and 6 series, controls fewer func- Turn to Convergence, page 8 edmunds.com, wrote: “As it stands I am Turn to iDrive, page 8 Autobytel-Japan.com Surveys Japanese Consumers on Car Electronics Autobytel-Japan.com recently surveyed To those who own navigation systems: To those who answered yes in the above users of its website about their car elec- What kind of navigation system do you question: What kind of navigation system tronics purchases. 6,618 e-mail subscribers have? would you like to buy? responded to the survey, most of them 30- DVD 53.9% HDD 64.4% to 40-year-old businessmen, frequent users CD 29.8% DVD 31.6% of the Internet, who live in a metropoli- HDD 15.6% CD 1.9% tan area. Half the respondents had a navi- Others 0.7% Others 2.1% gation system in their car already, and of those who didn’t have navigation, 75.8% Carmaker or aftermarket navigation sys- To those who don’t own navigation sys- said they would like to purchase a system. tem? tems: Can you go to the destination with- The survey also indicated that hard disk Carmakers 41.7% out getting lost? drive navigation is making inroads in the Aftermarket 55.0% Never lost with map 57.2% market and is generating interest among Others 3.3% and road signs consumers, although DVD-based systems Sometimes lost with map 30.0% remain far more common today. Naviga- What makes you dissatisfied with the and road signs tion users cited high costs and dated infor- navigation systems? (Plural answers are Never lost with road signs 7.0% mation as reasons for dissatisfaction with accepted.) without maps their current systems. Expensive 55.2% Often lost with map and 5.0% We’ve listed the survey questions and Old map information 53.2% road signs responses provided by Autobytel-Japan, a Route guidance error 41.9% Others 0.8% joint venture of Autobytel Inc. (Irvine, Troublesome data update 38.3% California), i-cf, Itochu, Trans Cosmos Difficulty to operate 16.0% Would you detour or change the route if and GE Capital. Too many functions 7.4% you are informed of the traffic jam? Others 6.9% Yes 69.3% What do you have in your vehicle? No 4.8% (Plural answers are accepted.) Would you like to replace your current It depends 25.4% CD player 68.9% system with a new one? Navigation system 50.6% Not for a while 58.9% Autobytel launched its first research and car- Radar detector 38.5% If the price comes down 27.8% buying site in 1995. According to the company, MD player 31.2% to reasonable range it was the most visited site of its kind in 2003 TV 29.3% When the next-generation 7.8% and generates over a billion dollars a month in ETC 19.2% model is introduced vehicle sales. Theft prevention 18.3% Others 3.2% No devices 10.7% As soon as possible 2.3% THE HANSEN REPORT ON DVD player 8.1% AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS To those who don’t own navigation sys- Video deck 2.4% © 2004 Paul Hansen Associates, 150 tems: Would you like to purchase a navi- Others 1.5% Pinehurst Rd., Portsmouth, NH 03801, gation system? Vehicle-distance 0.4% USA. Telephone: 603-431-5859. Fax: 603- Yes 75.8% detect/control system 431-5791. E-mail: [email protected]. No 24.2% All rights reserved. Materials may not be reproduced in any form without written per- mission. The Hansen Report on Automotive Automotive Semiconductor Market Share by Supplier Electronics is published 10 times a year, Total Market Calendar Year 2003: $15.21 billion monthly; July/August and December/Janu- ary are combined issues. The annual sub- Freescale, 10% scription rate is $717 (North America), $747 STMicroelectronics, 8% (elsewhere). Back issues are available for Others, 38% $50 each; see our online index at www.hansenreport.com. Paul Hansen Asso- Infineon, 8% ciates is a strategy and market research Renesas, 7% firm consulting to the electronics industry. Texas Instruments, 3% Publisher/Editor Paul Hansen Fujitsu, 4% NEC, 6% Managing Editor/ Brianne Wolfe Toshiba, 5% Robert Bosch, 6% Circulation Manager Philips Semiconductors, 5% Data: Gartner Dataquest ISSN 1040-1105 Page 2, September 2004 The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics, Portsmouth, NH USA www.hansenreport.com Electronics Features in New MY 2005 Vehicles Many 2005 model year vehicles have are also widely available.