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 All-new ZOE, All-new Clio and All-new Captur. 
• This service developed by Groupe Renault and Otodo will be available in 2020, with a preview at CES Las Vegas, from 7 to 10 January 2020, 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.

Intuitive, automatic and secure

With this secure solution, 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 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);
• 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:

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.

An all-in-one platform to extend the service’s reach

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:

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.

This service developed by Groupe Renault and Otodo will be available in 2020, with a preview at CES Las Vegas, from 7 to 10 January 2020, on Otodo’s booth (#40245, Tech West, Sands Expo).

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About Groupe Renault

Groupe Renault, which has manufactured cars since 1898, is an international group operating in 134 countries. In 2018, it sold nearly 3.9 million vehicles. Worldwide, the group employs more than 180,000 people and has 36 manufacturing sites and 12,700 points of sale. To address the major technological challenges of the future and continue to pursue its profitable growth strategy, Groupe Renault focuses on international expansion. To do this it builds on the synergies between its five brands (Renault, Dacia, Renault Samsung Motors, Alpine and LADA), the electric vehicle, and its unique alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors. With a 100% Renault owned team committed to the Formula 1 World Championship since 2016, the brand is involved in motorsports to boost innovation and name recognition.

About Otodo

Created in May 2016 by former telecoms executives, Otodo has developed a global solution for controlling the smart home. Otodo received an innovation award at CES 2018 for its universal, connected and geolocalised remote control “Ugo.” Otodo has also consolidated a strategic partnership with Sagemcom, a European leader on the broadband box market, by welcoming it as a stockholder with a 20% stake in its business.