Groupe Renault and Otodo develop new solution linking cars and homes

Groupe Renault is developing a solution enabling automatic and secure interaction and communication between cars and connected objects in homes.

Otodo, a young French company pioneering smart-home connectivity, will deliver the secure link between the vehicle and user's home.

This innovative service will be available in all Renault cars that have the new Renault EASY LINK multimedia system, including the-new ZOE, Clio and Captur. The new service developed by Groupe Renault and Otodo will be available in 2020, with a preview at CES Las Vegas, on Otodo's booth.

With this new connectivity solution from Groupe Renault, users can now control their home's connected objects directly from their vehicle's dashboard, as well as send instructions from their home, using a smartphone or connected speaker, to their connected Renault vehicle to prepare or share an itinerary, for example. Drivers can simultaneously control various connected objects in their home from their car allowing them to automate several of their routine tasks.

The system is simple to set-up from the smartphone app. Users first select the connected objects they want to include in the available scenarios, and the instructions associated with each object. The Leaving Home scenario puts their home to “sleep” (switching the thermostat to energy-saving mode, closing the shutters and turning off the lights, for example) while the Arriving Home scenario wakes it up. Users then decide when they want the system to prompt them to activate the scenarios based on the distance between the vehicle and home.

This connectivity system is an all-in-one solution. Users only need to OK one prompt on their vehicle's touchscreen to activate a scenario - which sends all the relevant instructions to their home's connected objects automatically and simultaneously.

Jean-François Labal, Marketing & Partnership Head for Connected Cars & Services at Groupe Renault, said: “Cars need to blend into our digital lives. With this service, we're offering our customers a trailblazing experience and a completely secure system to connect their home's connected objects to their vehicle. The interface to set it up is very intuitive and it comes with two advantages: it's automatic so it makes life simpler and it saves energy by switching lights and heating on and off as needed.”

Groupe Renault has chosen a young company, Otodo, to build the secure, authentication-based link between the car and the connected objects at home. Otodo has been developing a technology platform that remote-controls a wide variety of home appliances and connected objects, in various countries, since 2016. With this new application, Otodo's technology will also handle instructions sent directly from a car.

Eric Denoyer, CEO at Otodo, said: “Our platform has enabled Groupe Renault to create a simple and universal link between smart cars and smart homes, that works across brands and technologies. Very soon, everyone will be able to use this platform to organise their daily life from their car.”