Kia will tap into Google’s APIs to bring Maps and Google Places data to its UVO eServices connected car platform, which will first be available in the 2014 Kia Sorrento and 2014 Forte. Hyundai will use a similar implementation in its Blue Link connected car system, though it didn’t reveal when or in which car models.

All three companies were short on the details of their respective partnerships — and are likely waiting for the grand stage of CES next week to reveal them — but it looks like Google is acting more as technology enabler than an app developer in both cases. Instead of allowing a version of Google Maps to be downloaded into the car, both Hyundai and Kia appear to be relying on their own navigation apps. But they’re liberally pulling Google mapping and location data from the smartphone and the cloud.

In Kia’s case it’s incorporating the mapping functions into its own UVO smartphone app, which will be available on both the iPhone and Android in the next six months. Meanwhile Kia’s Microsoft-developed in-vehicle platform will host several apps that will use Google map and point-of-interest data as well as local search technology. Google said in its enterprise blog that both Kia and Hyundai would also use its voice recognition technology to find and manage their destinations.

The vehicle navigation space is definitely getting interesting as web and mobile mapping software becomes more sophisticated and more cars get mobile internet connections — either directly from the dash or via a smartphone. Google is working with several other automakers, including Audi, Daimler and Tesla to bring its cartographic, Street View and search data to the dashboard. Chevrolet is also tapping into Google Local Search to provide business and point-of-interest info in its forthcoming BringGo navigation app.

Google isn’t the only tech company looking to break into automotive. Apple announced Eyes Free with the launch of iOS 6, which allows Siri to act as the surrogate voice assistant in the connected car. GM is supporting Eyes Free in upcoming versions of MyLink in the Chevy Sonic and Spark, and several other automakers are working with Apple as well. Eyes Free isn’t a nav platform, but it could become the interface for controlling a car’s navigation system or even a future in-vehicle version of Apple Maps once it works through the app’s laundry list of bugs.

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Aaron Dannenbring, Nokia Location & Commerce VP of product management and field opps, said that many of the latest enhancements for the Nokia Drive are designed to bridge those final disparities between a dedicated in-vehicle nav system and a smartphone app. It’s added spoken street names, the ability to tailor your route, multitasking capabilities and a lot more 3D. Here’s a video of our interview for the details:

After our talk I tested out the latest version of the Drive software — a beta for Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices called Drive+ — using the new Lumia 822 offered by Verizon Wireless for a few trail runs in the city and in a weekend trip to Wisconsin. I even pitted it against the in-dash nav system in my father-in-law’s minivan. I have to say, the experience was far better with Drive+ than with any other smartphone-based navigation system I’ve used.

First off, to fully utilize Drive+ you need to download map files from Here servers. These are no dinky files and you only select the geographies you plan to use. The map of California, for instance, is more than 200 MB, and the app requires you to make those transfers over Wi-Fi (so don’t wait until you’re in the car to set up the software). The maps are also vector-based, meaning it generates maps from data points rather than loading map images into your screen.

That not only makes the map flow on Drive practically seamless, but it also saves battery life and spares your data plan since the device isn’t constantly reaching out over its 3G or LTE radio to get the next set of map points. Most significantly, it allows Drive to function offline. If you lose your data connection, maps still works and it works well, as long as you can see GPS. I disabled the Lumia’s radios for 20 minutes and navigation continued to function without a single hitch.

I can’t emphasize how important that feature is if you truly want to use your phone as a vehicle nav system. A journey to some far-flung relative’s house in the boonies means I’m going to be driving out of 3G coverage quite regularly, which would render most phone-based nav systems useless. I was also impressed with by the Lumia’s ability to almost instantly capture and hold onto a GPS signal, though that’s more a function of hardware than the Drive software itself.

Nokia is also incorporating 3D across its mapping products, generated from laser arrays mounted on its mapping cars. I could find 3D constructs of every building in my neighborhood on Here.com though most of that information is stripped out in Nokia Drive. The nav software, however, does render a 3D image of your destination if available as well as other significant landmarks. It’s easy to see how this kind of technology could eventually be used to generate more user-friendly routes — instead of instructing a driver to turn left at 1^st Street, the app could tell him to turn left at the giant donut or the 7-Eleven.

It looks to me like Nokia’s ambitions for Drive go well beyond the smartphone and extend to the car dashboard. There are already automakers exploring this kind of bring-your-own-navigation business model. Chevy, for instance, plans to launch a nav app called BringGo, which lives in the smartphone but upon entering the car immediately projects itself into the on-dash monitor of its MyLink infotainment system. It wouldn’t be the a stretch for Nokia to do the same thing if it secures the right automaker partner.

Nokia already sells map data for nav systems through its Navteq division, and its key software partner Microsoft is a big player in the connected car OS space, powering Ford’s Sync system. In order for Drive to become an integrated connected car app, it would have to be platform agnostic, but Nokia is already moving in that direction. It launched its Here app for iOS last month and plans to do the same for Android in the first quarter. Here doesn’t have all of the features of Drive+, which is optimized for Nokia Lumia phones, or Drive, the version for other Windows Phone devices; but it could only be a matter of time.

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Don’t expect Chevy to open the floodgates – Google Maps Navigation and Apple Maps aren’t suddenly going to pop up on your new Spark’s in-dash monitor. The EnGIS-designed service was developed specifically for GM and it comes with a one-time fee of $50.

The app will be available for download in the iTunes and Google Play stores in the fourth quarter, and the in-dash software will come installed in all new Spark and Sonic models with Chevy’s MyLink connected car system. Customers who have already bought new 2013 Sparks and Sonics can get the in-dash app through an update via MyLink’s USB port, though Chevy hasn’t revealed yet whether you can perform the upgrade yourself or have it done by the dealer.

Global Program Manager for Infotainment Sarah LeBlanc said that Chevy realized after discussions with customers that the younger generation of car buyers wanted in-dash nav services but they didn’t want OnStar.

Chevy has been trying to revamp its image, targeting the millennial generation with affordable, trendier cars (if you don’t believe me, check out the advertising). The Spark, which Chevy was showing off to auto journalists Chicago this week, is the perfect example: the subcompact five-door ranges from $12,000 to $16,000 and comes in a color palette unknown to nature.

“The biggest percentage of people who would buy this car are young urbanites, many of whom have just graduated from college, just got their first jobs and are buying their first cars,” LeBlanc said. There’s one other thing these millennials all have in common, she said: They invariably own smartphones.

The Spark is the first car GM is selling that doesn’t have a CD player option in all but its most basic model. The expectation is that anyone who buys this car has already eschewed physical media in favor of digital. As you might expect, that same millennial set isn’t so hot on the idea of paying more than $1,000 for an embedded nav system or a $29 per month OnStar subscription fee when they’re accustomed to getting turn-by-turn directions on their smartphones for free, LeBlanc said.

It ain’t OnStar, but one day it could be

Chevy isn’t giving away BringGo for free, but it is adding value to traditional smartphone navigation with BringGo to justify its $50 expense. Unlike other mapping services, BringGo downloads full maps to the smartphone (the full version takes up 2 GB of memory), so the app isn’t constantly reaching out over the network to find out what’s around the next corner. This has the advantage of not sucking down drivers’ data plans, but it also means that maps don’t suddenly stop working if the data connection is weak.

The app connects to MyLink through Bluetooth or USB, and uses the dash’s built-in 7-inch letterbox monitor to render 3D color maps complete with traffic data. It uses the phone’s GPS and other sensors, but you can access all of BringGo’s controls through the car’s touchscreen interface. There’s even an option to use Google Local Search to find businesses, events and points of interest.

It certainly doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of OnStar. There are no voice prompts for instance, so you have to keep a close eye on screen. And if the assisted-GPS on our device loses one too many satellites, the nav system may temporarily lose your exact location. But those problems are minor compared to those of following a route on a three-inch screen lying in your lap.

But even if BringGo has limitations, they could quickly disappear. If EnGIS and Chevy decide to add more features – for instance, voice prompts and voice commands – they can do so simply through an app store update. Customer may hold onto their cars for five years, but they’ll likely own several different smartphones in the same period. As their devices and EnGIS’s software becomes more powerful, so do their cars’ nav systems.

Consumer friendly, yes, but GM friendly?

Chevy is definitely making a bold move. Maybe those 20-somethings would never fork over the money for OnStar, but they’re not the only age group that own smartphones. When will the buyers of pricier Chevys – not to mention Buicks, GMCs and even Cadillacs – start wondering when they’ll get BringGo as well?

The more GM opens its cars up to developers, the more it risks losing control of its platforms and cannibalizing services it provides through OnStar. So far GM has been cautious. Apart from the still-unreleased BringGo, MyLink has just two apps: Pandora and Stitcher.

This is a problem GM and its competitors are going to have to wrestle with in the next few years as they delve further into their connected car strategies. It’s also a topic we’re going to explore in more detail at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in two weeks. Ford Motor Company Chief Technologist for Connected Car Solutions; John Ellis, GM of Harman’s Aha infotainment platform.  Robert Acker, and Honda(hmc) R&D Americas Connected Technology Engineer David Kirsch will all be in San Francisco Sept. 20-21 to discuss how automakers have become the latest smart device designers and how that trend will reshape their industry.

Cadillac CUE

GM is most definitely giving signals that connectivity will be key to its strategy moving forward. It now has connected infotainment systems for all of its major brands. Cadillac’s CUE targets the high end of the market with a rich interface and very powerful embedded hardware (more on CUE later this month). But GM is also showing it’s not going to cheap out when it comes to low-end models.

MyLink may not have haptic feedback, built-in Nuance voice recognition or a digital heads-up display. But its latest iteration in the Spark and Sonic – built by LG and powered by Microsoft — is certainly no lightweight, especially when you consider that many of the cars it’s going into will cost less than $15,000. It’s probably no coincidence that GM has also targeted the Spark to receive its first all-electric vehicle treatment.

GM seems to have made a key calculation: While wealthier car buyers can most afford connected car technologies, it’s the younger, more budget-minded buyers that will actually use the technology most.

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Nuance Communications wants you to have a conversation with your car via the cloud. The speech recognition company already powers many of the voice technologies embedded into today’s automobiles, but on Tuesday it unveiled Dragon Drive, which moves beyond simple voice commands into the realm of natural language understanding.

Voice command technologies like Ford’s Sync allow drivers to audibly initiate basic tasks like playing music, control the thermostat or answer an incoming call, but there are limits to what Nuance’s onboard software can do. But by tapping into a 3G or 4G connection, a driver’s command can reach out to Nuance’s cloud-based language servers, which can not only understand a far broader range of commands but interpret those commands and deliver results with much more sophistication, said Mike Thompson EVP and GM of Nuance’s mobile division.

What does that mean exactly? Well, according to Thompson, the long-term result will let drivers have a natural conversation with your car – something akin to talking with KITT, the sentient Trans Am from the 1980s TV series Knight Rider. In the near-term we’ll see many of the same capabilities found in Apple’s Siri personal assistant: an interface that is not only able to perform basic tasks and search for information, but also interpret context and intent.

“We are already making KITT in many ways,” Thompson said. “There is a Siri-like effect sweeping across all product categories. … There’s a huge demand for it in automotive.”

Nuance is starting small. The first Dragon Drive application will be an SMS service, allowing drivers to send a text message to a number or contact in their address books as well as dictate the message itself. That service will start appearing in vehicles on dealer lots this summer, Thompson said. But soon, Nuance will start layering on more functions.

Many of the features available in Nuance’s consumer services, such as Dragon Dictation and it’s voice-powered semantic search app DragonGo, will make their way into the dashboard, but Thompson said Nuance wouldn’t simply be repurposing all of its applications for the car. The focus for Dragon Drive, he said, will be services like vehicle navigation and points of interest that are much more useful to a driver, who isn’t going to be spending much time scouring Wikipedia or shopping for handbags online (hopefully).

Music is a good example of where the power of a cloud-based intelligence will come to bear. For instance, if you were to ask a Dragon Drive-equipped car to play a track not loaded into your car’s console or smartphone, the service could give you plenty of other options besides silence. It could search your cloud-based music collection for the track and stream it through your in-dash stereo. It could offer to create a Pandora station based on the particular song or artist. Or it could ask you if you would like to buy the track or album and download it over the air.

Image courtesy of Flickr user PopCultureGeek.com

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