LAS VEGAS – Hyundai Motor America launched its enhanced Blue Link in-vehicle telematics platform, secured and integrated by Covisint,. The next-generation Blue Link system features a destination search powered by Google, a Genesis Intelligent Assistant app and a Google Glass app. All these enhancements launch on the new 2015 Genesis sedan, which goes on sale in the Spring. Hyundai also used the event to debut its latest infotainment system premiering in the 2015 Genesis sedan.

“Customers told us they want Blue Link to work like their smartphone and we’ve worked with Google, Covisint and Station Digital Media to deliver this level of functionality,” said Barry Ratzlaff, executive director, Customer Connect and Service Business Development, Hyundai Motor America. “Blue Link subscribers now have access to Google’s accuracy and massive database when they search for destinations. Plus our engineers have developed a variety of new features aimed at delighting our customers.”

Blue Link Enhancements

• Destination Search powered by Google – users will be able to take advantage of Google’s powerful destination search via the Blue Link button (voice recognition) and navigation display, or through myhyundai.com and the Blue Link mobile app to send a destination to their car
• Remote Start – now includes an engine timer (1-10 min.), remote stop, remote climate control and remote defroster
• Automatic Collision Notification (ACN) and SOS Emergency Assistance –includes user-selected emergency contacts notification via SMS and e-mail

GENESIS INTELLIGENT ASSISTANT APP
The Genesis Intelligent Assistant is a proactive app for automobiles intended to save the driver time and provide an even higher level of convenience. The app combines Blue Link features, data from the vehicle, the owner’s smartphone and the internet with multiple layers of intelligence. This allows the Genesis Intelligent Assistant app to send proactive notifications and recommendations to the Genesis owner in preparation for their drive.

Genesis owners will no longer need to remember to remote start their car on a hot or cold day. The Genesis Intelligent Assistant app will remind them to do it through their smartphone.

 

Genesis Intelligent Assistant Functionality:

• By providing commute information and access to their smartphone’s calendar, owners can have the app automatically estimate appropriate departure times and send reminders for any upcoming appointments that require a drive.
  • Departure reminder messages are determined by up-to-the-minute commute times from the user’s current location to the destination, accounting for traffic.
  • Temperature outside the vehicle is determined via zip code prior to the estimated departure time. If the temperature is above or below the default level, the user will receive a notification, asking if they would like to remote start their vehicle to heat it up or cool it down.
  • Recommendations for gas stations are provided, allowing the user to select a station and send the location to the vehicle’s navigation system.
• Vehicle health status will also be communicated through the user’s smartphone when an action is required. This will allow the customer to schedule car care for their Genesis directly from the app.
• Many additional Blue Link features are included within the app, making it a single, integrated solution for all driver’s vehicle needs.
• The Genesis Intelligent Assistant app is a framework for the future with additional proactive functionality becoming available over time to provide the customer with the ultimate luxuries of time and convenience.

HYUNDAI BLUE LINK GOOGLE GLASS APP

Hyundai Motor America also demonstrated a Google Glass app today as part of their exploration into how wearable technology and Blue Link fit into a customer’s lifestyle. The app currently contains the core Blue Link functions as building blocks for future activities. Partnering with Station Digital Media and Covisint, Hyundai plans to expand the app features, building on the concept of “Time as the Ultimate Luxury” and leveraging the proactive functionality of the Genesis Intelligent Assistant app. The Hyundai Blue Link Google Glass app is powered by the Covisint AppCloud^™ API framework platform.

Released in limited numbers to early customers known as “Explorers,” Google Glass is a computerized, lightweight headset that can project text and images for the wearer to see on a special optical display. Google Glass Explorers can perform functions through voice commands and swipes or taps on a thin touchpad along the side of the frame.

Through the new app, Hyundai owners will be able to use Google Glass to access Blue Link’s vehicle safety, service and infotainment features. Blue Link will be available to Google Glass Explorers through a special experience created specifically for the new wearable technology.

“Google Glass offers an innovative opportunity for Hyundai to define and extend the customer experience outside of the vehicle,” said Ratzlaff. “Blue Link, combined with Google Glass, delivers a unique experience for customers that makes popular features and functions even more convenient to access.”

The Google Glass Blue Link app includes a host of popular functions at launch, including:

• Remote vehicle start
• Remote door lock/unlock
• Remote Find My Car (search for your vehicle location to receive directions to it)
• Point of Interest search sent to the Hyundai navigation system
• Search for a gas station to send to your car
• Call roadside assistance
• Talk to a Blue Link agent
• Locate nearby dealers

Google Glass Explorers can download the new glassware for the next generation Blue Link telematics platform from their MyGlass site. An active Blue Link subscription and compatible vehicle is required to login and access the app.

NEXT GENERATION INFOTAINMENT SYSTEM
The all-new 2015 Hyundai Genesis will launch in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and will go on sale in the spring of 2014. Before the official reveal, Hyundai is showcasing at Pepcom its next generation infotainment system that will be available on the all-new Genesis. The new infotainment system represents Hyundai’s latest and most innovative approach to in-vehicle technology.

This next-generation infotainment system features:

• Integration with Apple’s Siri-powered “Eyes Free” mode
  • Functionality allows owners of compatible vehicles to perform a variety of in-car tasks without taking their eyes off the road
• SD Navigation
• Pandora integration with smartphone
• SoundHound integration with smartphone
• SiriusXM Audio – 6 preset (record, play, pause, back)
• SiriusXM Travel Link and Traffic
  • Sports scores and schedules
  • Stock ticker
  • Movie times (new feature)
  • Fuel prices (new feature)
  • Weather/alerts
• Advanced voice recognition
• Swipe technology
• Music, video and picture storage
• Customizable home screen (my menu)

The three $1 million winners of the first Verizon Powerful Answers Award were revealed today by Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The prize amounts for the other 12 winners, who each took home between $850,000 and $285,000, were also announced.

TinyTap, based in Israel and the top prize winner in the education category, is simplifying app development and creating the world’s first user-generated content (UGC) educational app store. Smart Vision Labs, of Newport, R.I., the top prize winner in the healthcare category, is creating a portable vision examination device that, with a single snapshot, measures refractive errors of the eye and generates prescriptions, all without patient interaction. Mosaic of Oakland, Calif., the top prize winner in the sustainability category, is creating an online platform for individuals to invest in clean energy projects.

"The winners of the Powerful Answers Award show what happens when the passion of technology entrepreneurs meets the power of our mobile and broadband networks," said McAdam. "We are so inspired by these visionary people and their life-changing innovations. We can't wait to see what they do next."

McAdam also announced that the company will continue the Powerful Answers Award program in 2014.

The winners are:

Education Winners

TinyTap - $1 million – a growing social platform where children, parents, schools and special needs teachers can easily create and share educational games that can be tailored to suit a child’s unique learning needs.

Zapatalism/LavaMind - $850,000 – a financial literacy app from LavaMind that specializes in creating business simulation games.

BridgingApps/Easter Seals Greater Houston - $700,000 – an initiative that provides access to the mobile technology and applications needed to enable children with special needs to communicate for the first time, participate in the classroom and exceed educational goals.

WebTeam Corporation - $500,000 – a solution that uses mobile and touch-screen computing to create new products and autism intervention services for the education and healthcare industries.

WomenLEAD, Inc. - $285,000 – an online educational platform designed to accelerate women’s advancement as leaders using social networking, online training and mentorships through an online "Personal Advisory Board" platform.

Healthcare Winners

Smart Vision Labs - $1 million – a portable vision examination device that, with a single snapshot, measures refractive errors of the eye and generates prescriptions – all without patient interaction. The pocket-sized and low cost Smart Aberrometer uses a smartphone’s flashlight and camera, combined with an add-on microlens array, to improve the way people get their vision evaluated.

Seratis - $850,000 – a patient-centric mobile platform that allows doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers to communicate more easily and request and share patient-specific care data.

Freenome - $700,000 – an innovative and cost-effective solution for monitoring patients and populations over time to better detect disease.

Solar Ear - $500,000 – a hearing screening program for those in developing countries where there is limited access to hearing testing, hearing aids and hearing-care facilities.

Factor 14 - $285,000 – a fully integrated warfarin management solution that gives patients and healthcare providers the ability to efficiently and accurately make warfarin dosage adjustments, helping to produce improved patient outcomes and substantial savings to insurers.

Sustainability Winners

Mosaic - $1 million – an online platform for individuals to invest in clean energy projects.

Good360 - $850,000 – an e-commerce and crowd-funding technology that assists nonprofits working in disaster areas with submitting product needs and enables donors to fulfill these critical needs.

Bandwagon - $700,000 – a real-time taxi-sharing software and mobile app.

Smartster/BigBelly Solar – $500,000 – a sensor technology for monitoring waste management that uses wireless connectivity to remotely monitor dumpster fullness and collection activity.

Semios - $285,000 – an automated pest management system that integrates pheromone dispensers with camera-enabled pest traps, all connected wirelessly across fields and centrally managed from any online device.

When Verizon announced its Powerful Answers Award contest nearly a year ago, the company challenged innovators, developers and entrepreneurs to create ideas that would leverage Verizon’s cloud, broadband and wireless networks to deliver great solutions and social good. In addition to the cash, the winners are connected to a wide variety of network, business development and marketing experts across Verizon to explore ongoing collaborations.