Case study: Sygic and Clarion Malaysia Collaboration

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), app developers, and mobile manufacturers are looking for the best solutions to connect in-vehicle infotainment systems to applications in smartphones. There are several suppliers of connectivity, and that is the reason why the race is on.

Clarion Malaysia designs, manufactures, and supplies in-vehicle infotainment systems to OEMs in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

In 2017, the company was looking for an experienced SDL developer to collaborate on new head units with embedded connected navigation. The goal was to offer navigation mobile applications supporting offline maps with live traffic information updated regularly via the smartphone connected and projected directly to the infotainment system.

Sygic GPS Navigation turned out to be the best choice.

Why Sygic GPS Navigation

Although the current trend is to use smartphone connectivity in the vehicle for online navigation, most OEMs still prefer to offer offline navigation due to poor online data services in the suburbs.
SmartDeviceLink (SDL), an open source in-vehicle connectivity offers this best of both worlds possibility by providing offline navigation from smartphones projected directly to the vehicles’ infotainment system.

Sygic GPS Navigation, which supports both iOS and Android, was the natural choice.

The first Sygic SDL integration came in 2016. At that time, the connectivity was still in development and Sygic was one of the companies which significantly contributed to its final look. "We were the first navigation integrators of SDL, and we have released the application with improved connectivity in 2017 in collaboration with Ford." said Francisc Juraş Product Manager & Head of Automotive R&D at Sygic.

There were several reasons why Clarion chooses Sygic over other vendors. The company was looking for an experienced developer capable of delivering a competitive app tailored for SDL connectivity.

With Sygic GPS Navigation, customers with the built-in infotainment system from Clarion can benefit from regularly updated offline maps without the need to visit the car service each time the content becomes outdated. All of the updates are done online on their smartphones and are immediately reflected on the connected built-in display.

Another advantage of Sygic is the option to set the route on a phone before you get in the vehicle.

Integration of Sygic to Clarion hardware

Sygic GPS Navigation is fully compatible with the SDL connectivity that is integrated into the Display Audio units made by Clarion.

The first collaboration between Sygic a.s and Clarion (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd started in 2017. The built-in unit has integrated SDL and that connects to Sygic GPS Navigation via a smartphone.

The end customer can enable the feature by way of an activation code that they obtain with the purchased vehicles.

Conclusion

The diversity of smart devices and a number of various sources of connectivity (e.g. CarPlay, MirrorLink) makes the development of user-friendly and functional connected apps challenging for developers and carmakers.

Open-source project - SmartDeviceLink represents a new generation of cross-platform connectivity compatible with Android and iOS.

This enables drivers to benefit from the best of both worlds and have the route information and the map displayed in the in-dash and, at the same time, have the confidence of regularly updated content with real-time traffic information and speed limits.

About Sygic

Founded in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2004, Sygic is a Deloitte Fast 50 Company and in 2011 was added to Deloitte's Fast 500 EMEA listing. In 2009, Sygic produced the first-ever turn-by-turn navigation app for iPhone. With 200 million worldwide users on iOS, Android, and Windows, Sygic is the most advanced GPS navigation app in the world.

About Clarion

Clarion (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (CM) was established in 1970 as the first overseas JV company for Clarion Co Ltd. It is located in the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone, in Penang, Malaysia. Today, its main activities are designing, manufacturing, and the Sales & Marketing of Clarion products and as an International Procurement Center (IPC) for the Clarion Group.