Car and home linking service in development

Groupe Renault and Otodo are working on a new service which will allow users to control various objects in their home directly from their vehicle’s dashboard, as well as send instructions from their home to their car.

With this secure service, drivers can simultaneously control objects in their home from their car, allowing them to automate several of their routine tasks.

From a smartphone app, users select the objects they want to include in the available scenarios, and the instructions associated with each object.

        
The Leaving Home scenario puts their home to “sleep” (switching the thermostat to energy-saving mode, closing the shutters and turning off the lights, for example).

The Arriving Home scenario wakes it up. Users then decide when they want the system to prompt them to activate the scenarios based on the distance between the vehicle and home.

This connectivity system is all-in-one. Users only need to OK one prompt on their vehicle’s touchscreen to activate a scenario – which sends all the relevant instructions to their home’s objects automatically and simultaneously.

Jean-François Labal, Marketing & Partnership Head for Connected Cars & Services at Groupe Renault: “Cars need to blend into our digital lives. With this service, we’re offering our customers a trailblazing experience and a completely secure system to connect their home’s connected objects to their vehicle. The interface to set it up is very intuitive and it comes with two advantages: it’s automatic so it makes life simpler and it saves energy by switching lights and heating on and off as needed.”

Otodo has been developing a technology platform that is able to remotely control a wide variety of home appliances in various countries since 2016. With this new application, Otodo’s technology will also handle instructions sent directly from a car.

Eric Denoyer, CEO at Otodo: “Our platform has enabled Groupe Renault to create a simple and universal link between smart cars and smart homes, that works across brands and technologies. Very soon, everyone will be able to use this platform to organise their daily life from their car.”

This service developed by Groupe Renault and Otodo will be available in 2020.

Watch the video here