Honda called Siri Eyes Free an “in-vehicle tool that will help meet the connectivity and convenience needs of its customers in a responsible manner” in a press release. Siri’s Eyes Free mode is available to drivers who own an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 running iOS 6. It’s meant to let drivers interact with their iPhone while keeping their focus on the road. With Eyes Free drivers can make hands-free calls, send texts, listen to messages, make and find calendar appointments and select songs to play. Honda will integrate its Bluetooth HandsFree Link in-car software with Siri.

Apple first announced its intention to move its voice assistant software to connected cars in June 2012. Other brands said to be working on in-car Siri integration include Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes and Toyota. Ford is a notable exception that will not be participating.

General Motors was the first to announce Siri-compatible cars last November: the 2013 Chevy Spark and 2013 Chevy Sonic, both of which are due to arrive this year.

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Honda is releasing the platform this fall in the 2013 Honda Accord, but it is also customizing a special version of HondaLink for its Fit EV line of electric vehicles. The EV software will include special energy saving and monitoring features, which can be accessed remotely from the smartphone. The EV app will display the Fit’s current battery power levels. If the Fit is connected to the electrical grid, the app can remotely initiate charging as well as start the AC or heater to conserve battery power while the car is plugged in. The software will come in the new Fit EV, available for lease in California and Oregon this week.

The main entertainment features of HondaLink will lean heavily on the driver’s smartphone, not just for its lifeline to the Internet, but to actually host the applications. Aha uses a hybrid platform model: Its operating system lies in part in the dash, in part in a smartphone app, and in part in the cloud.

To activate the service, drivers download HondaLink app and then register it to their specific vehicles. From there, the driver picks from a menu of “channels” on the smartphone, which map to preset “stations” on the dashboard once the phone is linked to the car. Those channels can be anything from a text-to-speech rendering of your Facebook news feed to Pandora Internet radio presets. Aha says it has 30,000 stations to chose from. Rather than access those services directly, though, all of the content is funneled through Aha’s servers through the phone and into the dash.

The approach differs from what Ford is doing with Sync, which HondaLink most closely resembles. Ford’s Microsoft-powered AppLink platform requires developers to design software for both the car and the smartphone. HondaLink, however, is a blank slate that purportedly hosts any application Aha throws at it. So if Honda or Aha offers a new app, it’s immediately available as a preset on the smartphone and can be accessed by the car without any new update to the phone or dash software.

It’s also worth noting that Honda is a charter member of the Venture Forum for Connected Cars, which Verizon Wireless founded to promote LTE connections in vehicles. The Detroit automakers all stayed out of the venture, likely because they are eschewing embedded connectivity for their connected car platforms. It’s now obvious Honda had plans to do the same when it joined the venture. Just because HondaLink now relies on a bring-your-own-device model, doesn’t mean it won’t use embedded 4G in the future, but it’s not a good sign.

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Natural gas dipped below $2 per thousand cubic feet in April, the first time in a decade, driven by the expansion in hydraulic fracking, a mild winter and the fact that the U.S. market is largely closed to outside demand because we cannot yet export natural gas at scale. So with prices so low, it’s worth taking a look at whether natural gas could be play a larger role as a transportation fuel.

At today’s natural gas prices of about $2.40, the price is equivalent to about $14 per barrel of oil, which translates to about a $1.50 less per gallon when compared to gasoline. The trade off, of course, is that natural gas vehicles are more expensive and the return on investing in a natural gas vehicle has to be paid back over time. Natural gas vehicles are more costly mostly because of the materials used in the gas tanks, which have to either hold highly pressurized compressed natural gas (CNG) or very cold liquid natural gas (LNG). And while there’s a market for new natural gas vehicles, a big part of the market is conversions of gasoline vehicles to natural gas vehicles.

The president of natural gas industry trade group NGV America, Rich Kolodziej, participated in a webinar with Pike Research last week and laid out some of the economics of natural gas vehicles. Looking at the 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas, for example, which runs on CNG and has a range of 248 miles, Kolodziej noted that it’s $6,000 more expensive than the gasoline powered Civic.

At an annual gasoline usage rate of 1500 gallons, the cost savings for the CNG Civic is $2250, resulting in a payback period of about 3 years to make up for the extra cost of the natural gas version. 1500 gallons a year is a lot of gas, but Kolodziej is imagining a passenger CNG vehicle as being used for commercial use and would have double or triple an individual’s use.

It’s interesting to consider the possibility of light duty natural gas vehicles, but much of the excitement about natural gas is in the medium and heavy duty market, everything from garbage trucks to delivery vans where you have one centralized location where the vehicles are parked every night and can be refueled.

In the conversion category, Kolodziej is most optimistic about converting diesel powered vehicles to dual use natural gas/diesel vehicles. Changes in EPA rules have made it more feasible to do these conversions. There are 8 million diesel vehicles on the road today, and the conversion technology works by having the engines idle on diesel but accelerate on natural gas, resulting in about 60 percent of energy use coming from natural gas.

Whichever technology comes online to facilitate the entry of natural gas as a vehicle fuel, the infrastructure situation must be addressed. There are about 150,000 gas stations in the U.S. and only about 1100 natural gas stations. About 15-20 stations are being built each month, not nearly enough growth to support vehicle expansion.

Kolodziej commented that “initially we can’t be all things to all people.” The “return to home” vehicle market where fleet vehicles are parked at the same location every night has been and will continue to be an easier market entry point. But infrastructure buildouts are beginning to focus on “spokes,” placing natural gas refueling stations at strategic points between hubs like Los Angeles and San Francisco to assist predictable and routine trucking routes. Clean Energy Fuels announced in January that it would build 150 LNG stations at truck stops and create a network where there was an average of about 250 miles between stations.

Challenges aside for the natural gas vehicle industry, the environmental benefits of natural gas have been somewhat overstated. The carbon emissions reductions are likely lower than previously thought because there’s evidence that natural gas wells leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Combusting natural gas does emit less particulate matter when compared to gasoline.

Additionally, I do not believe natural gas prices will stay where they are. Prices are low because we’re not yet exposed to global demand, but once export terminals come online natural gas extracted domestically will be sold abroad as the Energy Information Administration projects the U.S. will be a net LNG exporter by 2016.  Put another way, all the investors leading the hydraulic fracking charge aren’t doing it to sell natural gas at 2 bucks. They want a global market for natural gas.

Time will tell, but if infrastructure grows and natural gas stays reasonably priced, we’ll see more medium and heavy duty trucks running on natural gas. Throw in some cheaper gas tanks via materials innovations, and we may just have a market here.

Image courtest of Detlef Schobert, Gerry Dincher, andersbknudsen.

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Google will be adding the model to its so-called “Gfleet,” which Dave Dewitt, principal engineer for Honda R&D, described as a “car share program with 2,600 members.” Managed by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the program has made hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles available to Google employees at the company’s Mountain View, Calif. campus since 2007. In partnership with the search giant, said Dewitt, Honda will analyze large amounts of data and seek to quantify “what kind of real CO2 reductions” can be expected with an electric vehicle like the Fit.

More all-electric models may be integrated into Google’s fleet in the coming months. A spokesperson for Google told Bloomberg recently that Google plans to “transition and expand” its fleet of 30 hybrid and plug-in models next year, “with new electric vehicles that are coming into the marketplace.” Dewitt said that while the Fit EV is the first publicly announced all-electric model joining Google’s plug-in hybrid Toyota Prius and Ford Escape models, the deal is non-exclusive.

This partnership comes at a time when Google seems increasingly to be looking at vehicles as yet another electronic device for which it can build software. Back in May, General Motors announced plans to link up with Google to use Google services like voice search, maps and navigation in an app designed to link the Chevy Volt with Android-based smartphones (check out our hands-on video demo here). And last month The New York Times reported that Google has been quietly building self-driving robotic car technology, based on the work of Google engineer and Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun, who co-invented Google’s Street View mapping service.

In addition to Google, Honda will also be working with Stanford University and the City of Torrance in Southern California for its planned Fit EV demo program. Stanford will focus on driver behavior and “usability,” while investigating ways to integrate electric vehicles into larger transportation systems, according to Dewitt. The goal of the Torrance program, Dewitt said, is to develop community programs and figure out what local governments can do to promote adoption of electric vehicles.

Honda’s representatives declined to comment on several points, including the scale of the demonstration program, production volumes targeted for 2012, and the anticipated timeline for delivering road-ready vehicles to the three demo partners. Although Honda President and CEO Takanobu Ito said that the demo program will begin this year, Dewitt said partners will not necessarily have vehicles in hand within that time frame.

Honda was more forthcoming with its intentions for some aspects of the five-seat Fit EV design. Martin said that the chassis will be “pretty much the same” and while the “seats may not fold as flat,” it’s important to Honda to preserve the cargo room built into the conventional gas-fueled Fit. That may not be an easy feat. General Motors, for example, has sacrificed a seat in its plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt by running a T-shaped battery pack down the center tunnel of the vehicle (it seats four).

Honda plans to equip the Fit EV with three driving modes, including Econ, Normal and Sport. In Normal mode, the car will get an estimated 100 miles of electric range in the EPA’s LA4 city test cycle (meant to reflect stop-and-go urban driving patterns). If the EPA makes an expected adjustment to its testing scheme, however, that rating could come down to 70 miles per charge. Regardless, said Martin, the Econ mode will afford an estimated 17 percent more range compared to Normal mode.

And of course, in keeping with an increasingly common practice among plug-in car makers, Honda also revealed plans this week to link the Fit EV with smart phones, enabling users to check the battery state of charge, for example, or control air conditioning remotely through their mobile device.

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President and CEO of Honda Motors, Takanobu Ito, introduced the 100-mile range, Fit EV, which will use a lithium ion battery when it is introduced in 2012, said Ito. Ito said that with “increasing government support, and greater concern for the environment, society may [now] be ready,” for electric vehicles.

Honda’s Fit EV will utilize some of the technology from Honda’s FCX Clarity car, and will have 3 driving modes (see photo).  Honda plans to introduce the cars to partners like at Google and Stanford University who will help test and collect data about how the car performs in the real world.

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Toyota’s Electric RAV-4: Japanese giant Toyota plans to unveil its electric RAV-4 SUV, which will use Tesla’s powertrain technology, on Wednesday afternoon. Toyota has agreed to pay Tesla $60 million for the development effort and the plan is to get the car to the U.S. market by 2012. Tesla has been building up a powertrain OEM business, beyond its own production of electric vehicles, and the RAV-4 deal is some of the first much-needed revenue from third party automakers. Last week Tesla report earnings and continues to lose money on the road to launching its more affordable Model S electric sedan.

Honda EV Concept: Honda plans to unveil an electric concept car on Wednesday afternoon. Honda plans to live stream the unveiling (nice!), so if you want to see it for yourself, tune in here at 1:20 on Wednesday. I don’t know much else about what the concept will look like, but we’ll bring it to you from the front lines.

Volvo c30 Electric: While Volvo’s C30 electric won’t be making its debut at the LA Auto Show (its been shown in the prototype stage for awhile), Volvo’s first EV will be available to drive this week at the event. We’ll be taking it for a spin and will let you know how it feels — it’s got a 90 mile range, and charges in 8 hours. Volvo has been working with energy company Göteborg Energi on the deployment of charging infrastructure.

Nissan Ellure Plug-In: Nissan’s already got the first mainstream all-electric car on the market, the LEAF, but according to Autoblog Green, Nissan plans to debut a new plug-in at the LA show, and it will likely be the Ellure concept car. Nissan’s event takes place on Wednesday afternoon.

Wheego: The Wheego all-electric LiFe will make its official debut at the LA Auto Show, where the company is offering test drives. The LiFe is a tiny little 2-seater, that has a range of 100 miles (same as the LEAF) and will set you back $34,000 before tax credits.

Mitsubishi iMiEV U.S. Production Version: We’ve already test driven Mitsubishi’s little bean of a car, the electric iMiEV, the Japanese company is debuting its North American production version of the car at the LA Auto Show. The North American version will be longer and wider (we’re pretty big) than the Japanese and European versions and will also have different bumpers.

Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid: Porsche will have its hybrid sports car, the Cayenne S, at the LA Auto Show and will be giving test drives to journalists. The car, which costs $67,700, drives on electric below speeds of 37 mph, and the engine kicks in when the car tops that speed. It’s not the greenest thing out there, and Porsche doesn’t even give an estimate of its mpg on its website.

Mercedes B-Class F CELL: While all the big auto makers seem to be placing their bets on electric cars, Mercedes is the rare one that will be showing off a fuel cell car at the LA Auto Show. Mercedes is offering up its B-Class F CELL fuel cell car for test drives, and we’ll be sure to check it out. The car will be available to be leased to Californians in LA and San Francisco, reportedly for between $600 to $800 per month.

Audi’s Q5 Hybrid Quattro SUV: Audi last week released details of its first production hybrid car, the Q5 Hybrid Quattro SUV. According to CNET, the car promises the power of a V6 and the fuel consumption of a four-cylinder, delivering 33.6 mpg. Not great, but not so bad.

MINI E: BMW will be offering its MINI E for test drives at the show, and also will be sharing results of the trials it’s done with the MINI E. BMW is taking a similar strategy to many other car companies, by basically deploying the car in a very limited, experimental fashion, and then collecting data on the pilots before deciding on whether or not it will launch the car on a wider scale.

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Images courtesy of n.vasse,

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Some Honda Civic hybrid owners have recently learned first hand about the process for updating vehicle software. Honda sent letters to 100,000 Civic hybrid owners from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 model years earlier this month, notifying them to bring their cars in to have the battery management system updated to the version used in Honda’s 2009-2010 Civic hybrid models. The letter also warned that the batteries “may deteriorate and eventually fail” earlier than anticipated if they don’t get the software patch.

As HybridCars has pointed out, “reports of battery failure have been extremely rare” in the decade since hybrids were introduced in the U.S. But the recent problem with Civic hybrid batteries, and the still-unfolding responses from Honda, its customers and emissison regulators offer a glimpse into the thicket of regulatory, environmental, consumer education and public image challenges that may lie ahead for automakers as they race to launch a new generation of greener cars with advanced technologies.

Public Image

In online discussion forums a number of users have been complaining that Honda’s “fix” has taken a hefty bite out of their fuel economy — as much as 10 MPG in some cases. Some drivers have expressed fears to the Los Angeles Times that “Honda has decided to sacrifice their vehicles’ performance in order to avoid the huge cost of replacing thousands of faulty batteries.”

Other Civic hybrid owners, meanwhile, report improved mileage with the new software. “To some drivers, it may feel like they’ve gotten a new car,” said Honda spokesperson Chris Martin. It all depends on a host of variables including driving style, terrain, the car’s age and the battery condition, he said.

All of this comes amid a larger wave of anxiety over computer- and software-dependent cars — especially as electric cars roll out in the next few years with even more reliance on software, computing and communication networks to manage a host of services and battery charging.

What’s Involved

The update from Honda is meant to distribute the stress of charging and discharging more evenly throughout the battery’s cells and thereby preventing the battery from degrading prematurely and preserving power for critical events when acceleration is necessary, said Martin. To get the update owners need to bring their car to a dealer, and there, a technician will access what’s called the “data link connector,” a port that’s tucked under the dash near the driver’s seat.

According to Martin, the update will take no more than 30 minutes to complete, although customers may end up having to leave their car at the dealer for a day depending on scheduling.

More New Tech, More Problems?

As CARB air pollution specialist John Swanton explained, component and system failure is nothing new. “We have componentry that fails on vehicles quite a bit,” he said. “A lot of very boring stuff happens, we catch it, it gets repaired.” But “especially with new technologies,” some problems just don’t present themselves in testing, he said. “You find out in the field.”

By some accounts, “high-end cars now have more software than jets,” the Society of Automotive Engineers’ Caroline Michaels, a standards engineer, told us earlier this year. And over time, the introduction of greener vehicles — hybrids, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles — will add to the trend of vehicles relying more and more on embedded software.

Growing reliance on software in greener cars does not mean, however, that we’ll have to update next-gen vehicles as frequently as we do browsers today, Martin said. “It’s a fairly complicated endeavor to do one of these updates on a car,” he said, and automakers want to minimize the number of times an owner has to come into a dealer for updates.

That said, tweaking vehicle software has gotten easier in some ways. In the 1990s, Martin said automakers would more commonly have replaced the entire computer in a vehicle. Now, he said, it’s often a simpler “reflash of memory.”

Regulators Come Into Play

When a software update can dramatically change the way a vehicle operates for years to come, the consequences can extend much further than in the world of the web and personal computers, where the latest version or patch may let your browser run faster or crash less frequently.

As Swanton put it, “A clean car can be made into a dirty car,” and software has the power to do just that. As a result, regulators that we ordinarily expect to keep tabs on the brawn of emissions control (problems with catalytic converters, for example) also have to monitor the brains in order to get an accurate picture of fuel economy and emissions performance.

In the case of Honda’s 2006-2008 Civic hybrids, Swanton explained, the cars are certified as partial zero emission vehicles, or PZEVs, for California and the 13 other states that have adopted its vehicle emission and efficiency standards.

The status carries some perks (financial incentives, carpool lane access, etc.), as well as responsibilities. CARB has set a 10-year or 150,000-mile warranty standard for batteries in vehicles designated as PZEVs (a standard that General Motors’ extended-range electric Chevy Volt won’t won’t meet when it launches later this year with an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty).

Swanton emphasized that “10 years for battery life is no slouch.” Tthe national standard for batteries and other emission-related components is eight years or 80,000 miles. But here we are just a few years into that period, and Honda has already crossed the 4-percent threshold for failure. Once 4 percent of vehicles have exhibited a problem, said Swanton, the manufacturer is legally required to notify CARB, and tell the agency how it plans to address the issue.

As Swanton explained to us in an interview back in July, “the point is to warranty expensive parts that are likely to cause emissions problems if they fail, but may not incapacitate the vehicle.” In other words, if the battery in a hybrid or plug-in hybrid fails, the car could conceivably stay on the road, belching out smog-forming emissions comparable to “a pretty poorly running gasoline vehicle,” he said.

Finding a Fix

The time frame for an automaker to come up with a repair or interim solution is negotiable, Swanton told us this week, but there’s a serious incentive to figure out a fix ASAP. The longer it takes, the more vehicles out on the road may exhibit the problem. “Every delay is in some cases hundreds if not thousands of parts failing,” said Swanton, and the automaker is “on the hook to repair all those parts.”

With the Civic hybrids, “just replacing the battery isn’t going to do it,” he said. Three or four years down the road, we’d likely see the same problem, because a new battery wouldn’t address the core issue of managing which cells and modules in the battery pack get charged when, and preventing premature degradation.

Swanton explained that what CARB has questioned is Honda’s claim that the software changes will have no effect on the vehicles’ emission performance. “The software can change,” he said, but it “cannot in any case increase the emissions of the vehicle.”

The agency has requested more information from Honda, and has had engineers meeting with the automaker this week, to determine whether or not the software update will affect the car’s emissions performance — under all the standards and lab-controlled testing that the hybrid went through when it first got certified.

At this point, Swanton tells us CARB will have no additional information on Honda’s proposed solutions and the agency’s evaluations until early October. In the meantime, Honda has 100,000 hybrid drivers it has to work to keep happy, and many more prospective hybrid buyers to worry about winning over as new competition rushes onto the green car market.

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