Today, the average smartphone is more powerful than the average embedded infotainment systems. And a system called Terminal Mode has been gaining in popularity in the automotive and mobile industries as the way to tap the power in your pocket.
Terminal Mode is largely based on VNC, the software that enables you to remotely control computer desktops; it allows programs and interfaces to be replicated on other screens. With some tweaking on the back end, that means your in-car navigation screen could become a modified, interactive version of your personal phone, as long as the phone and the vehicle are Terminal Mode–capable. The car and tech companies imagine a synched approach, where touching your car’s built-in screen can manipulate your phone’s apps. Then, when you disconnect the phone, the car’s normal operating system would take over.
In a way it makes sense since most of us have music and such on our smartphones. This could also be a major cost savings/cutting method for car makers; Just make a dock for your smart phone rather than an overly complicated setup like we have in today’s cars. Voice command could also be included.
Since you’d still need the computing power to run VNC (which I’ve used for years by the way both at home and at work), and the display capabilities to handle displaying the phone’s screen, the in-dash computer won’t go away anytime soon. It doesn’t take much processing power these days though to play music and video, with the exception of HD video, which can be mitigated by dedicated hardware to decode it. This might have some appeal for back seat passengers–the ability to play games, surf the web, etc. on a bigger screen built into the back of the headrests, etc. Though the response time when running a terminal session would be hideous for action games.
A lot of people keep their music and media on their smart phones, myself included. But it’s already possible to access this with a USB cable or even Bluetooth, albeit more slowly in the case of the latter. It might be useful to eliminate the storage for your media that exists in some cars and just use the phone’s onboard storage, so you don’t have multiple copies that always have to remain synced.
Perhaps the ideal situation would be your in-dash computer running Android or iOS, or an app that installs on both your car and your phone allowing seamless syncing of playlists, scheduling, etc., while using the phone’s GPS and wireless ability for connecting to the outside world, and leaving the media on the phone. My Sony car stereo in my old car already handles some integration, allowing you to control the phone’s media player and services like Pandora from the controls on the radio, and using Bluetooth for the link, or just using the phone as a glorified flash drive to store music if you prefer.
The computing power in cell phones have increased drastically…My IPhone has MORE computer power then any 10yo Desktop PC…Maybe even a 5yo Desktop. And the new Iphone 5 is even MORE powerful.
Since you’d still need the computing power to run VNC (which I’ve used for years by the way both at home and at work), and the display capabilities to handle displaying the phone’s screen, the in-dash computer won’t go away anytime soon.
Some of the new Android phones are capable of sending their display output to an HDMI tv/monitor. Just tweak that tech a little bit to send it over bluetooth and all you’d need is a touch screen monitor and an amp.
“Some of the new Android phones are capable of sending their display output to an HDMI tv/monitor. Just tweak that tech a little bit to send it over bluetooth and all you’d need is a touch screen monitor and an amp.”
True, mine does that and it actually looks pretty nice on a HDTV. But Bluetooth is way too slow to support video, even just a simple touch screen with desktop–the responsiveness would be terrible.
I think a further problem is the interface: People get all worked up over texting n’ driving; I shudder to think of people using apps on a smart phone while driving. A phone touch screen interface is nice, but most folks would be better off with a simplified touch screen interface on a dedicated in-car computer, which is tweaked for ease of use and safety.
You’re right that BT is too slow for video. But I view that as a good thing when using the phone to control a car stereo. People shouldn’t be watching movies while driving anyway.
As for the interface, Android already has a different interface when the phone detects that it’s in the car dock. It lets you get to mp3s, navigation, and the phone. It wouldn’t be hard to make that interface workable for using the phone as the whole audio system.
I have loaded some video before for driving. I’ll find some music I don’t have on my Ipod, look it up on youtube on my phone(before I get into the car so it has time to load and so I’m not looking at the phone while driving), switch over to BT audio on my radio and hit play. When I get stopped, I’ll actually look at the phone and notice the audio lags behind the video but will still play all the audio over the radio.
“I have loaded some video before for driving. I’ll find some music I don’t have on my Ipod, look it up on youtube on my phone(before I get into the car so it has time to load and so I’m not looking at the phone while driving), switch over to BT audio on my radio and hit play.”
I still have visions of many, many other users that aren’t as organized as you are. They will fiddle with the phone while they are driving, just as they do now. But with the more complicated features, it will command more of their attention than it does now.