Connected vehicles are a growing force in the automotive market, but the cars often rely on being paired a compatible smartphone to be able to communicate. In order to address these limitations on a car’s access to data, Toyota has made the bold move of embedding a flat-panel satellite antenna into one of their Mirai hydrogen-powered cars on display at the North American International Auto Show.
This vehicle is part of a joint venture between Toyota and communications tech firm Kymeta, which Toyota claim to be “world’s leader in flat-panel antenna technology.” The two companies have been in cooperation since 2013, with Toyota having exclusive rights to the use of the technology for development and testing, and lending Kymeta a number of research vehicles to this end.
Toyota believes that integrating satellite communications into vehicles will provide benefits that will meet a number of key automotive needs, including the ability to communicate larger amounts of detail to vehicles as well as allow them to offer stable and secure communications “particularly in emergencies such as natural disasters.” The end goal of this effort is to make connected vehicles more able to communicate and due to the nature of satellites, be able to provide a standardized access to data worldwide.
Toyota has always shown themselves as a company with a vested interest in the development of technologies for bettering a number of fields not just limited to the automotive industry. They hope that with long-term investment in Kymeta and other companies involved in the Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership they will be able to accelerate development and be able to offer a continually improving experience to car owners.
