The race for in-car entertainment software among the world's three leading technology companies.

In their product descriptions, car manufacturers proudly showcase smartphone-to-car apps like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as essential features, according to an analysis by strategic consulting firm JATO Dynamics.

This is a two-way effort; car manufacturers are forced to integrate this software into the operating system of the central infotainment screen, with the aim of making it convenient for smartphone users to use in their vehicles.

Huawei's HiCar software is pre-installed on most cars from the Chinese manufacturer BYD.

On the software side, Apple and Google (the producers of iOS and Android software) also spend billions of dollars to ensure their software is compatible with hundreds of car models while simultaneously collecting driver behavior data.

Recently, China's Huawei HiCar announced its roadmap to compete with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, aiming to become a fully featured car operating system, even more feature-rich than the two American software companies.

China is currently the world's largest producer and consumer of automobiles (approximately 22 million vehicles per year), and is also the largest exporter of automobiles on a quarterly basis.

In the first quarter of this year, China surpassed Japan for the first time to become the world's largest exporter of automobiles, which is why the phone and software giant Huawei is determined to gain a commensurate position in the automotive market.

Huawei's automotive ambitions revolve around software and services available in cars, while also offering several other advanced solutions to enhance the driving experience.

HiCar's core strategy is to become an alternative app to Google's Android Auto.

The difference is that HiCar doesn't require a separate mobile device to run because it's pre-installed at the hardware level from the factory.

In other words, it's an operating system that supports the available infotainment system; the driver starts the engine and will see HiCar already running on the central screen.

Huawei's HiCar identifies a strategy to replace Google's Android Auto app.

Huawei recently updated HiCar to version 13.2.0.501, one of the highlights being the addition of cruise control functionality to the software.

More specifically, the HiCar operating system software will automatically activate the cruise control function when the vehicle reaches a speed above 30 km/h.

This means that purely entertainment and navigation applications have a very deep level of interference (connection) into the vehicle's internal ECU software system.

Currently, turning Cruise Control on or off in vehicles is still done by default using a button (on the steering wheel) or by pressing the brake pedal to deactivate the feature, which is essentially a hardware-based system.

With HiCar, users can turn Cruise Control on/off by touching the icon on the HiCar screen or by voice command.

The biggest drawback of HiCar is its limited number and scope of installations, as the software is currently only offered exclusively to Chinese automakers.