ACCESS Europe releases upgraded browser for cars

Thursday, December 17th, 2020
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ACCESS NetFront™ Browser BE for Car v3.0 enables Google services and helps car OEMs move to a services-based future

  • NetFront™ Browser BE for Car v3.0 enables in-vehicle connected services, provides latest updates and supports the latest HTML5 standards, including EME and MSE for streaming services

OBERHAUSEN — ACCESS Europe GmbH announces the launch of NetFront™ Browser BE for Car v3.0 that supports the company’s goal of providing the automotive, entertainment, and media markets with the most secure and advanced commercially supported embedded browser. This new upgrade, based on an up-to-date Chromium Core (86), brings the latest standards support, security updates and media playback support to cars, including support for the new Google services login requirements that will be in place in January 2021, via the ACCESS Twine™ for Car (Twine4Car) in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system.

“Software is now a central component in cars and it is critical that OEMs and their Tier 1s keep up with the latest updates of Internet standards if they are to succeed in the new era of connected Software-Over-The-Air enabled vehicles,” says Dr. Neale Foster, CEO at ACCESS Europe. “Through NetFront™ Browser BE for Car v3.0, we are helping OEMs support the latest industry developments, such as Google’s new mandatory Single Sign-On (SSO), which would otherwise prevent access to Gmail, Calendar and YouTube in the car.”

Foster continues: “YouTube has over 2 billion monthly logged-in users and a wealth of snackable, premium content that makes it a perfect destination for in-car viewing right now. There is a huge opportunity for automotive OEMs to build new data-based relationships with customers and long-term services-based revenues, but they must own the user experience to do it. This makes supporting streaming services in OEM-branded IVI systems critical, which we will continue to enable.”

By providing an automotive solution based on the Chromium 86 core, ACCESS also ensures its customers benefit from the latest browser security updates and other functionality that is critical to supporting in-car entertainment, such as Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) and Media Source Extensions (MSE), media pipelining and flexible media player support, including Digital Rights Management (DRM). It reduces maintenance costs and time-to-market for OEMs and regular updates will enable them to use Software Over-The-Air (SOTA) updates to ensure their vehicles are secure and up-to-date.

NetFront™ Browser BE for Car v3.0 is built on ACCESS’ long-standing experience with software deployments and worldwide standards. The company’s browser software has been included in over 1.5 billion connected devices around the globe.

Key NetFront™ Browser BE for Car v3.0 features, include:

  • Google Single Sign-On support enabling access to Gmail, Calender, YouTube and other Google powered services in the car
  • Support for the latest security patches and content compatibility, offering up-to-date support for HTML5, CSS, JavaScript
  • Secure, multi-process architecture enabling sandboxing and OS level protection to provide maximum defence against malicious or poorly written applications
  • Proven DRM integration, supporting Widevine and PlayReady, including TEE
  • Support for Android, Linux and embedded automotive OS, such as QNX
  • Open media player APIs enabling integration with advanced media players from SoC vendors, industry-standard players or open projects such as GStreamer, FFMPEG and Exoplayer

NetFront™ Browser BE for Car v3.0 is available for testing now, and will be generally available in Q1 2021.