The smartphone is inescapable in the car in the U.S.

Las Vegas to Detroit, which opens tonight in Detroit for professionals, the smartphone generates as much buzz as the electric car. And for good reason: mobile applications will become essential on board, whether to enjoy the music and surf the social networks, or drive the load of electric vehicles and hybrids. The latest example, that of Toyota. At CES, the Japanese presented "Entune", a multimedia system that allows for onboard applications of its smartphone *. The advantage is that it can control everything by voice recognition and commands to the vehicle, without having to manipulate the phone. To use it, it's very simple. It must first download the application on his mobile Entune Toyota, then connecting the device via Bluetooth to the car.

Once that is done, the driver has on board the following applications:

- Bing: the search engine from Microsoft

- From web radios (iheartradio, Pandora)

- Movietickets.com (movie tickets, schedules, trailers)

- Opentable.com (restaurants)

Toyota also offers other applications that enrich the navigation (fuel prices, traffic, weather, news) and a USB connectivity and playback voice SMS.

Watch the video:

The system will be optional in the U.S. later this year.

* Entune is compatible with most smartphones

For its part, Ford developed a new application MyFord Mobile for North America, allowing the driver of future Focus Electric (finish end 2011) to remain in constant contact with his vehicle and control it remotely. MyFord Mobile works via a smartphone or a secure website and allows the owners of Focus EV monitor and control various functions of their vehicle. In addition, an intelligent charging function developed by Microsoft allows for full-peak electricity.

This new application enables remote monitoring and controlling the levels of vehicle load, plan trips with stops at single or multiple, locate charging stations, to precondition the vehicle (heating or air conditioning ') and perform other tasks specific to electric vehicles. My Ford Mobile will also help the owners of the electric Ford Focus intelligently plan their journeys with features developed by MapQuest, by having the largest database of charging stations.

And this is not an isolated example, as other competitors already have their iPhone or Android, as with the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan with the Leaf. And those who are preparing already had the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise in this area (Audi, BMW, Smart).The BMW Group, which has developed Connected Mini around the iPhone and which runs a similar application for Round 1, shows how the car of tomorrow will be "connected".