In recent years, consumer electronics (CE) products with smart features have always become the hottest topic in everywhere. Apart from the already widely-spread CE products, the automotive field has also started being part of the“smart family”. For the automotive market, the Smart Car must be more functional and user-friendly to allow advanced technology adoption, such as In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) and satellite navigation system. As the core device for in-vehicle connectivity, Smartphone plays an important role to make car ‘smart’ in the in-car environment. Thus, two different market fields – Smartphone and In-Vehicle Infotainment, must be compatible with each other. With so many different technologies and functions are added to these two product types, it becomes challenging for them to work together effectively. With the needs of two-way connection between Smartphone and in-vehicle monitor, the latest standard MirrorLink™ introduced by Car Connectivity Consortium is therefore released.

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Testing guidelines and certification programs rarely come handed down by a single company.  Most compliance testing is the product of standards organizations that create test specifications and logo certification guidelines to ensure accuracy and fairness for all product developers.  These standards organizations are major drivers of product certification.

A standards compliance group consists of at least two individuals, companies or organizations who come together to advance a technology.  Unlike proprietary solutions where control lies in the hands of a single owner, standards groups strive for technology advancements and interoperability to benefit all participating companies and ultimately, consumers.

Competing organizations come together for a variety of reasons, from creating guidelines to developing specifications, often addressing the needs of consumers. Standards groups face challenges, and conflicting viewpoints and opinions among group members that can hinder an organization. In order for the standards group to be successful, the group’s efforts must be in the best interest of the technology ecosystem as a whole.  The benefits and challenges of standards groups are very succinctly discussed in “Standards Matter: The Battle for Interoperability Goes On,” an article published earlier this year.

Once a company within a standards group begins product development, the product is usually tested to ensure that it has implemented the features necessary to comply with the group’s specification or guidelines. Typically, upon achieving certification, the product can bear the group’s logo.

Testing against these standards are conducted in-house, at independent test labs or at testing events hosted by standards organizations (plugfests).  Most logo programs require testing be completed at a third-party test lab or at a sponsored event.  Testing with a lab ensures developers as well as consumers that privacy, accuracy and honesty were held up in the process of allowing a product bear an assurance logo.

View the standards compliance test programs Allion manages.