It is a moment of pride for Contus as it has successfully launched the high-end automotive mobility solution for the new 2014 Mahindra Scorpio, the major volumes puller of Mahindra. The SUV was launched recently with huge a list of improvements in various departments including mechanics, design, interiors and exteriors.
Apart from the functional enhancements, the SUV also surprises its owners with a technology that wraps up the controls of the infotainment system into a single mobile application.Contus’ success in developing such utile application is undoubtedly because of the focused hard work put in by its technical heads.
Mahindra BlueSense application has been developed on Android and Windows 8 platforms for the owners of the new Scorpio 2014 to control the car’s infotainment with their fingertip touch.
The application can be connected to the vehicle through Bluetooth. “Serial Port Profile of Classic Bluetooth which suits both data sending and receiving was chosen as the connecting technology as it ensures seamless exchange of commands between the two interconnected devices,” says Dinesh, one of the app’s developers.
The ‘Controls’ menu of the app is an entity which grants access to control the car’s audio and climate.The audio control lets users to control song playing options like FM radio, MP3, USB etc and play songs via Bluetooth.The climate control can be used for changing temperature, moderating climate, changing vent modes and adjusting fan speed.“The main goal of this app is to create a scenario where the rear and middle row passengers are no longer dependent on the passengers seated upfront, to control the car’s audio and climate,” says Ramachandran, the technical brain behind the app.Apart from the controls, the app is bolted with a variety of other options which makes it a much needed one for the car owners.The ‘Vehicle Info’ updates users about the current status of the vehicle on key areas which are to be regularly monitored like the tyre pressure, fuel amount etc.The ‘Warnings’ menu houses a predefined set of warning information like ‘Unlocked Doors’, ‘Distance to Empty’, ‘Over Speed Alert’, to name a few. Users can add personalized warnings to the app as well.
The ‘Reminders’ menu serves as a complete user customized feature which can be instructed/set to remind about service due date or any other important thing to be done. ‘Personal Info’ can be used as a diary which stores information like personal contacts, license details, vehicle’s documents etc.
Everything about Blue Sense you need to know, Find it here
Challenges:
Understanding the mechanism behind the infotainment system and binary code conversion for establishing communication across car’s electronic device and the app were the challenges which were faced at the initial stages of development.
The feature which ate up time to perfect is undoubtedly the ‘Slider’. The slider used for volume and temperature adjustments needed to be sensitive enough to perfectly induce a change according to the current value set through the slide action.
Moreover the demand to convert the units of measurement (for speed and temperature measurement) according to country-specific (UK and USA) practices was also a challenge.
“Though the app and its functionalities were created as per plans, the perfection and fine tuning process ate up the time. The last three weeks before Scorpio’s launch gave us sleepless nights (literally) and working hours progressed without breaks. We are glad that all those efforts have turned into such a fine looking app,” says Jai Kumar.
Future Prospects
Vehicle Matrix
Vehicle Matrix is the feature that will turn Blue Sense app as the ultimate technology behind the all the infotainment-system-enabled cars in Mahindra’s portfolio.
The Vehicle Matrix is nothing but the app’s ability to identify the name and model of the vehicle based on its code. Each vehicle, according to its model, will have certain infotainment features enabled or disabled. Whenever a user connects the app to a car’s system, the vehicle matrix detects the model and induces the necessary changes to the application in order to make it compatible and ready for use.
iOS
Contus is happy to announce that plans for developing the iOS version of the app is already on and so iOS device users need not worry for long.
Good article! Thanks for sharing. NewGen Scorpio is awesome!
App is not available on IOS. Pls hep
Hi Vishwanath,
Thanks for writing to us. As far as iOS is concerned, there are some technical glitches. Techies at Mahindra are working on it. Once it is done, we will get the app ready for the iOS version as well. Stay tuned.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing your feedback. We hope this app has improved your travel experience.