LeEco Partners with Six Auto Firms for Car Infotainment Ecosystem

LeEco, a Chinese Internet company, has recently joined hands with six local automotive companies for the development of a vehicle infotainment ecosystem. Reports say that the collaboration is part of a plan to extend the company’s influence from video streaming platform to consumer electronics and ultimately, to cars.

Chinese automakers Dongfeng, BYD and BAIC as well as local infotainment system manufacturers such as DESAY SV, HSAE, and ADAYO will employ LeEco’s technology called Ecolink, which incorporates content from car-connected smartphones into a vehicle’s head unit.

In a statement, Lee Zhao, vice president of Le Auto Telematics in charge of Ecolink, explained that since the in-vehicle infotainment does not have communication modules and data plans of its own, Ecolink would use smartphones technology as easily updatable devices.

An all-around infotainment system for vehicles is eyed as the next point of competition for automakers worldwide who wish to extend their role from producers to mobility service providers throughout a car’s life cycle. LeEco’s infotainment system boasts an array of location-based services, communication, entertainment, and safety alerts for travel.

Moreover, reports mentioned that Ford’s Applink, the existing equivalent of EcoLink, has offered the car’s dashboard for third-party developers to design car-enabled smartphone applications, from music player, navigation to social media. However, the advantage of LeEco lies in its ability to promote its very own ecosystem through its original video-streaming business with exclusive video resources in TV dramas, music and sports game.

According to an article published by techcrunch.com in January last year, the IoT has made possible for connected cars to build new ecosystems. To date, around 23 million cars across the globe are connected to the Internet, which is anticipated to increase to 152 million.