Porsche gears up for an in-car video streaming boom with UK firm’s help | Porsche

The German car company Porsche has turned to a British firm to allow passengers to stream film and TV on built-in screens, in a sign of the increasing focus by carmakers on providing content on the move.

A new in-car video streaming function will allow Porsche owners in 56 countries to access their subscriptions with the likes of Disney+ and Amazon Prime, as well as live TV, via a platform run by ScreenHits TV.

The carmaker said its new Cayenne SUV, which launches next month, would allow drivers to watch film and TV on the central display when the vehicle is stationary, and on the passenger display – not visible to the driver – while moving.

Content can be watched on the central display when the car is stationary, and on the passenger display – not visible to the driver – while moving. Photograph: Porsche AG

Tesla cars have been able to stream video when parked via platforms including Netflix and YouTube since 2019, although other carmakers have taken longer to introduce screens large enough to make in-car viewing worthwhile. Streaming has also been held back by mobile network speeds and costs.

The car industry is gearing up for an explosion in in-car TV watching and other potentially lucrative services as more and more vehicles become able to drive themselves. In the UK, the government last year brought in changes to make it possible to watch films on the motorway, where driving is heavily regulated.

Rose Hulse, the founder and chief executive of ScreenHits TV, said: “The car will become the second biggest screen, outside the house. As more and more people are starting to charge their vehicles, they’re spending more time on the road. That’s where they want to watch their content.”

Autonomous abilities – together with the flat “skateboard” design of many battery electric vehicles – will open the way towards much more immersive entertainment options for cars.

“As those types of cars roll out, which will be in a few years, that’s when watching content in cars is going to increase. This is the future of automotive,” Hulse said. “It’s going to be a full-on home theatre style – probably in the back to start, but it will continue to grow.”

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ScreenHits TV, which is backed by investors including the hedge fund manager Crispin Odey, was founded in 2012, and in 2019 it started a service combining streaming services in a single interface. It has 50 employees and is aiming to be profitable this year, Hulse said. It has raised £6m.

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Elektrobit Launches Marketplace-To start with Automotive Ethernet Swap Firmware for Secure, Large-General performance, In-Car or truck Communications

ERLANGEN, Germany, Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Elektrobit (EB), a visionary global supplier of embedded and linked software merchandise for the automotive field, right now declared the industry’s initially Automotive Ethernet switch firmware enabling safe, higher-effectiveness communications for in-motor vehicle networks. Offered these days for switches from primary hardware vendors and currently on the road in production electrical autos (EVs), the EB zoneo SwitchCore will make it easier for car makers and their suppliers to develop the sophisticated, high-bandwidth communications devices essential by following-technology automobiles.

Each individual car maker is challenged to produce electronics networks that assistance the higher-bandwidth communications and a lot quicker info throughput expected for routing information from sensors, controls and interfaces in EVs, state-of-the-art driver-aid programs (ADAS) and self-driving autos. Automotive Ethernet switches are the spine of these new methods. Switches perform a vital and developing job in the digital control models of these networks, from present day really centralized architectures powered by a handful of higher-general performance personal computers to tomorrow’s more distributed, zonal architectures.

EB zoneo SwitchCore is a firmware that provides a layer of intelligence to Automotive Ethernet switches that permits them to manage the at any time-rising network capabilities necessary to enhance the scalability, protection and security of autos. EB zoneo SwitchCore delivers sophisticated network management and network safety capabilities these types of as routing, gateways, firewalls and network intrusion detection and prevention systems.

EB zoneo SwitchCore is available for switches from main makers which includes Marvell and other top hardware suppliers. Whilst new to the current market, the Elektrobit firmware is made use of in the architecture for a distinguished line of production motor vehicles, which was executed with Marvell switches.

“Functioning with Elektrobit to increase our switches with their intelligent firmware offers automobile makers with a total alternative that presents them a big advantage in accelerating their time to sector,” reported Will Chu, Senior Vice President and Normal Supervisor, Automotive Business enterprise Device, Marvell. “Our collaboration with Elektrobit will gain the automotive field exactly where the cloud, carrier and car networks get the job done seamlessly together to permit the proliferation of clever, program-described vehicles.”

“Our new EB zoneo product line addresses a important ache place for auto makers. Incorporating progressive software to the advanced attributes in today’s Automotive Ethernet switches offers our consumers the highest efficiency and widest range of functionality. Jointly, with our components partners, we are ushering a new period of smart switches,” reported Michael Robertson, Head of Merchandise and Approach Management, Elektrobit.

Associated with this information, Elektrobit also unveiled EB zoneo VSwitch, which permits the virtualization of swap features within of ECUs, maximizing significant-pace community communication. EB zoneo VSwitch efficiently connects multiple digital equipment/processor cores with just about every other and to a shared, solitary automotive Ethernet swap port. By lessening the in general intake of computational assets, EB zoneo VSwitch frees up processing ability for added purposes.

For far more details about EB zoneo SwitchCore and EB zoneo VSwitch, pay a visit

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