Modern cars come with a host of connected services, including functions accessible remotely from a companion application. Certain electric models allow you to manage their charge from a smartphone, or even to start heating the cabin remotely, sometimes even with scenarios to find your car charged and heated every morning, for example.
But one of the main constraints of home automation, which also concerns automobiles, is interoperability between different connected objects. It is in this context that Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) have partnered to integrate Hyundai and Kia cars into Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem.
“Home-to-Car” and “Car-to-Home” functions
The functions that the two partners wish to develop are two-way. It will thus be possible to start your car, manage the air conditioning, open and close the windows or even monitor the state of charge from SmartThings (Home-to-Car). “And from cars it will also be possible to control home devices such as televisions, air conditioners and electric vehicle chargers”explains Samsung (Car-to-Home).
But the possibilities don’t stop there. The SmartThings home energy management service can thus be used as a smart charging solution, or smart charging. Charging will then be carried out at strategic times, depending on the pricing and carbon footprint of energy during the day, or the energy production of any photovoltaic panels and its storage in a domestic battery. Some of these functions already exist at Tesla, with whom Samsung has just announced a collaboration aimed at integrating the manufacturer’s energy management products into its SmartThings Energy ecosystem.
Finally, it will be possible thanks to this integration to create routines. “For example, when a Galaxy smartphone’s alarm goes off, the curtains will automatically open and the lights and TV will turn on. When the user is ready to go to work, their car will be set to the ideal temperature. In addition, the smartphone and TV screens will display electric vehicle information such as remaining battery and range.”explains Samsung.
Hyundai specifies that this integration will not only concern the group’s next cars. Some existing vehicles will be able to benefit from these functions via remote update (OTA) or via USB.