What's the news?
Hyundai claims that it's breaking new ground in the melding of electric vehicles (EVs) and mobile phones. The Korean car maker says that it has developed an industry-first innovation in 'smartphone-electric vehicle pairing based performance adjustment technology.'
What does that mean? Basically it means you'll be able to do more remote-control stuff from your phone when you're charging and using your electric car. Hyundai says that you'll be able to control seven new performance aspects of the car from your phone, including the maximum torque output of the motor, ignition, acceleration and deceleration abilities, regenerative braking capacity, maximum speed limit, responsiveness, and energy use on climate control.
While it would obviously allow a private buyer to twiddle with their in-car settings from the comfort of a couch, the tech has been designed more for car-sharing and hire operations, and is supposed to allow you to bring your own preferred settings with you from vehicle to vehicle.
Other functions include advice on which are the best settings to get you to a pre-entered destination, and even recommendations on which are the best settings if you want to enjoy a sportier, more spirited drive, or if you have to tackle a route that involves a lot of hills. Users can also share their settings or recommendations with other users (we can see a LOT of Twitter fights starting from this...).
"As Hyundai Motor Group is planning to deploy 44 eco-friendly models by year 2025, including 23 electric vehicles, we see the potential of technologies and services inherent in non-combustion vehicles," said research fellow JeongSoo Eo from Hyundai Motor Group. "By developing paradigm-shifting mobility technology like this one, we will continue to strive to improve user experience."