GM CEO calls on programmers to develop apps for vehicles

**Jimaz** · June-14-13, 01:28 PM

From today's Free Press: GM CEO calls on programmers to develop apps for vehicles

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson issued a personal invitation to software programmers to develop applications for GM vehicles.

The invitation, delivered Thursday in Boston, one of the nation’s entrepreneurial hot spots, comes as GM is preparing to integrate AT&T’s high-speed wireless Internet into its 2015 model-year vehicles.

The automaker announced earlier this year that it would launch an app store, much like those offered by Apple for its devices and Google for Android-powered devices, for GM vehicles....

“To really blow this out, we need to borrow from the smartphone playbook and entice thousands of ‘codaholics’ to write apps for our cars,” Akerson said at the Chief Executives’ Club of Boston, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “With an army of coders working to write 4G-optimized programming for our cars, our GM App Shop may someday be as popular as iTunes or the Android Marketplace.”...

About 2,000 developers have signed up to make apps for GM vehicles, Akerson said.

I'm surprised they didn't start something like this decades ago.

Does anyone know where to find more behind-the-scenes information? Google's finding only superficial press release information.

**ndavies** · June-14-13, 01:50 PM

It couldn't happen before now since there hasn't been a processor capable of running USER apps in a vehicle until recently. The processors in the car previously had a hard time doing their already programmed features. There was no way they could have handled the extra burden of user apps.

It wasn't until Ford added the Sync system in 2008 and now GM's android based system. Ford Had previously announced they were allowing User Apps on the MyFordTouch. The Ford system is Window embedded based. You still won't be able to program into any safety or Vehicle control systems. It will all just be end user fluff programs with the ability to read data out of the vehicle control system.

**JBMcB** · June-14-13, 02:04 PM

The OEM stuff usually lags the aftermarket equipment by about four years, mainly because of testing OEM gear requires. It could take two to three years to engineer a new radio, including environmental testing, integration testing, duty cycling, UI testing, etc...

Also, up until a couple of years ago, high powered microcontrollers were pretty expensive. The explosion of smart phones and tablets as dropped their prices very quickly.

**bibs** · June-15-13, 01:11 PM

The code, software for the non techies, that runs the engines and tells the airbags to deploy etc. has to be flawless in the vehicle environment. Most apps have bugs in them. I think the automakers were very recluctant to alllow source code into the vehicle environment until they could have a parellel but separate platform for them to play in. Think of the liability of airbags deploying accidentally because you down loaded an app with a bug in it. What about malicous code? I think the ubiquitous adoption of smart phones is forcing the automakers to create a platform in the vehicle for apps.

**jolla** · June-16-13, 01:16 PM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

Does anyone know where to find more behind-the-scenes information? Google's finding only superficial press release information.

https://developer.gm.com/

**Jimaz** · June-16-13, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by jolla

https://developer.gm.com/

Thank you, jolla.

**Richard** · June-16-13, 01:57 PM

In the not so distant future,stealing a car by hacking into its system,there is an app for that.

**JBMcB** · June-16-13, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by Richard

In the not so distant future,stealing a car by hacking into its system,there is an app for that.

It think that's already happened to Lexus, IIRC. They had an app that could unlock your car doors if you left your keys, through bluetooth. Hijacking bluetooth was/is rather trivial...