OVERVIEW: The needs of automobile drivers are moving in the direction of information in addition to safety and advanced control. With the shift toward information functionality, content services such as searching for information on the Internet, music and picture broadcasting, settlement of charges, traffic information, and emergency call service can be enjoyed while driving an automobile. This is all accomplished with cell phones, wireless LANs (local area networks), road to vehicle communication and other such equipment serving as the infrastructure. Toward that end, vehicles must be equipped with information processing devices that have mobile multimedia functions and communication terminals, so there is a strong need for an automotive information system that can serve as a platform for this by integrating these functions (see Fig. 1). Hitachi is introducing this kind of automotive information platform. We are also developing a variety of interface and middleware products for various kinds of communication and multimedia processing. Isamu Hayashi Yasuhiro Nakatsuka Tadashi Kamiwaki Nobuo Hataoka, Dr. Eng. Toshiro Aizawa Masayoshi Kaneyasu, Dr. Eng.