Alpine And Telenav Partnership Means Upgradable Infotainment Could Be The Next Big Thing

If you don’t like the infotainment system that your vehicle came with, your main options are to use Apple
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CarPlay or Android Auto on your smartphone, or buy a new car. But now there’s a third option—you could try plugging in a different operating system.

Alpine announced that it’s partnered with Telenav to offer the Vivid infotainment system via a USB stick that can run on some of the audio supplier’s head units.

Telenav develops navigation and connectivity solutions for many automotive brands, such as Mercedes-Benz and General Motors
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. Last year the company launched Vivid, a cloud-connected infotainment platform that supports advanced features, such as Alexa-integration, in-vehicle commerce, hybrid connected navigation, and over-the-air map updates.

Alpine supplies vehicle brands, such as Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep, with audio and infotainment devices, and also sells aftermarket head units. Its partnership with Telenav means that car owners could purchase a Vivid USB stick from Alpine and plug it into a USB port in a vehicle equipped with a compatible device, and the native hardware would use the MirrorLink protocol to run the new Vivid operating system off the stick.

Many infotainment systems already use MirrorLink to enable in-dash touch screens to display CarPlay and Android Auto rather than the native OS. But now the mirroring options aren’t limited to the two dominant smartphone players—Alpine has opened the door to new third-party options, such as Vivid, over USB.

Operating Vivid via USB provides vehicles delivers an advanced infotainment experience that includes native support of the popular streaming content services that doesn’t depend on the driver’s smartphone. It also removes the step of having to physically connect the device to the native infotainment system for an upgraded experience since Vivid remains continuously plugged in. The downside is that you use one of the USB ports that might be needed for charging.

Vivid via USB doesn’t offer the ability to control vehicle electronics, such as heated seats and HVAC functionality, although it’s possible that it could in the future, according to a spokesperson. And while the announcement was made with and sold through Alpine, the OS technically could work with any device that supports MirrorLink, optimally with screens that are six and a half or eight inches. However, Telenav hasn’t tested with other brands’ hardware.

Vivid USBs will be sold through Alpine’s channel distributors, but pricing hasn’t been announced.