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Hyundai announced the Blue Link smartwatch application some weeks ago, which allows customers to lock, unlock and remote start their Hyundai cars. Blue Link had been available for smartphones but has arrived for Android Wear customers via a new Blue Link companion application on the Google Play Store. Customers won’t need to fish out their smartphones in order to operate the seven functions that the Blue Link Android Wear application supports. It has Remote Engine Start, Remote Engine Stop mode (the remote engine stop is only available when the vehicle has been remote started), remote door locking and unlocking, remote flash lights and honk the horn, then there’s the Car Finder, Call Roadside and Call Blue Link commands, too.
Frank Ferrara, Executive Vice President for Customer Satisfaction, Hyundai Motor America, said this on the Blue Link Android Wear application: “Blue Link subscribers and gadget lovers will appreciate a more convenient way to interact with their Hyundai vehicles. Now you can remote start your car with your smartphone, smartwatch, laptop, desktop or tablet. It is like being James Bond 007 or Scotty in Star Trek.” The application is easy to use; customers tap icon or use voice commands to execute remote functions. Pushing the microphone icon on the watch activates the voice function, where the driver can execute commands such as “Start my car,” “Lock my car” or “Find my car.” The Blue Link smartwatch application needs to be paired to a smartphone that contains the Blue Link mobile application and remote functions may be executed almost anywhere in the United States of America providing the customer’s smartphone has Bluetooth and an Internet connection, which may be via the cellular modem or WiFi.
Blue Link works on Hyundai cars equipped with first and second generation Blue Link; the first generation Blue Link rolled out with the 2012 Sonata and was expanded across the range for much of 2013. Second, or Next Generation, Blue Link models include the 2015 Genesis, Sonata and Azera.
Hyundai have come good on their promise to roll out the Blue Link Android Wear application and it’s also good to see the business making and keeping new technology compatible with older technology. To our readers: do you have a Hyundai? Do you also have an Android Wear smartwatch? If you do, have you already downloaded Blue Link? Or are you planning to? If you don’t have an Android Wear device, would today’s application launch help persuade you into buying a smartwatch? Let us know in the comments below.