Torrance, CA -- Abalta Technologies, a leading developer of software solutions for the automotive industry, today announced its WEBLINK car connectivity solution is now running on the Raspberry Pi computing board. WEBLINK's ability to run on Raspberry Pi shows how car manufacturers can deliver a safe in-vehicle smartphone app experience at a significantly lower cost. WEBLINK has strong appeal for auto manufacturers of middle-tier and economy vehicles due to its hardware-agnostic features, enabling a premium in-vehicle app experience at a low cost.
WEBLINK transforms smartphones to operate as the primary in-vehicle computing device in connected cars. Car manufacturers have tried to meet consumer demands for apps in their vehicles in the past, but previous solutions have proved to be expensive to develop and maintain. The Raspberry Pi is a $25, credit-card sized computer that can be configured to run Linux and other operating systems. Leveraging the Raspberry Pi as the WEBLINK client head unit device simulates an in-vehicle experience by installing the WEBLINK application server on a smartphone and connecting to the head unit over USB or Wi-Fi.
"We are excited to show auto makers how simple it is to integrate WEBLINK into in-vehicle infotainment systems," said Pavel Stankoulov, chief software architect at Abalta Technologies. "Porting the software to the Raspberry Pi platform demonstrates the elegance of the WEBLINK approach of bringing smartphone applications to the car at a very low cost to the car makers."
WEBLINK also offers ease of integration of applications to the car ecosystem and allows HTML5 or native applications running on the smartphone to be viewed and controlled directly from the vehicle head unit display. It enables app developers to bring apps into the car in a safe way in a language they are familiar with, ultimately improving both automakers' and app developer's bottom lines.