Making the ‘Hyper-Personalised’ In-Cabin Experience a Reality - HARMAN Automotive's Jens Beckmann

More and more vehicles are offering a 'personalised in-cabin experience' to drivers and passengers. The HARMAN Ignite Store - from HARMAN Automotive - is an in-vehicle app store solution which has been designed to help OEMs offer their customers access to a range  of digital services and content.

"Drivers want to bring their digital life – which they’ve grown accustomed to via smart phones and devices – into the cabin to create highly individualised and immersive environments that help them be more productive, relaxed or entertained, depending on their preference at the time," Jens Beckmann, Senior Director at HARMAN Automotive, tells Auto Futures.

By collaborating with partners and developers, the HARMAN Ignite Store is an expanding ecosystem offering around 120 apps at present, including Spotify and what3words. The most recent additions including Booking.com and a Microsoft Teams app.

“Consumers have grown used to the convenience of their smart devices and want the same level of user experience in their vehicles. Creating this in-house is complex for OEMs that don’t necessarily have the resources and depth of experience that major tech companies do. However, if OEMs go down the ‘Big Tech’ or projection route it becomes challenging to deliver integrated experiences across the vehicle functions and maintain the highest levels of safety, relationships with customers and potential revenue streams," he explains.

In-car store payments are powered by Samsung Checkout, a solution executes millions of transactions each day. integrated into Samsung’s TVs. It’s also compatible with any payment service provider.

Samsung is the parent company of HARMAN.

“As well as security, safety is of the utmost importance. As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based product, OEMs and third-party providers submit their apps. HARMAN initiates a comprehensive, automotive-grade, industry-standard testing and certification process that means all apps integrated into the HARMAN Ignite Store are validated to be high-quality, safe, and secure. This provides reassurance for OEMs and minimises the time and resource needed at their end to translate such apps and consumer experiences for the in-cabin environment.”

New Apps And Experiences

HARMAN Ignite Store allows OEMs to retain control of content and functionality to ensure the experience aligns with their brand.

“OEMs therefore get all the functionality but without the resourcing and financing required to do it in-house, which ultimately doesn’t offer strategic advantage nor real differentiation on the market due to the cost and complexity just to get it right, let along excel at it,“ says  Beckmann.

HARMAN has worked alongside CARIAD, Volkswagen Group’s automotive software company, to develop and implement its Group Application Store that is used across its brands.

Volkswagen maintains control of the third-party content, user experience and relationship with the end user.

“Of the VW Group brands, Audi has already implemented the store in certain models and regions. With deliveries commencing in August 2024, customers of the all-new Audi Q6 e-tron have access to this functionality. HARMAN and CARIAD are continuing to work together to bring new apps and experiences into vehicles and continuously expand the offering for its customers."

More Immersive, More Personalised 

Android App developers can benefit from the HARMAN Ignite Store. HARMAN provides the resources needed to create apps for the automotive market.

"It is fully compliant with Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS) standards and uses HARMAN’s extensive automotive expertise to ensure appropriate testing and compliance before the roll-out of apps. Ultimately it connects developers and OEMs, streamlining the review, validation and roll-out process and making it easier than ever for developers to join OEM ecosystems and accelerating app deployment,” says Beckmann.

Finally, we asked him for his thoughts on what the in-cabin experience will be like in the future.

“At HARMAN, we envisage a ‘hyper-personalised’ in-cabin experience where users can make choices about their experiential preferences at every step of the way. This has many layers and spans from adaptive audio and customised displays to having access to preferred apps for tasks such as getting directions, listening to music and weather updates."

"It even covers advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that can detect and understand when a driver is distracted or stressed and can take personalised actions to mitigate this and maintain focus on the road," he adds.

“While OEM support of projection won’t disappear in the short term, over time it’s anticipated that embedded options will provide enhanced, brand-conformant and seamless consumer experiences with less friction. It’s these more immersive, more flexible and more personalised experiences that will encourage users to adopt embedded systems over smartphone projection offerings,” concludes Beckmann.