Gadgetory

this is carplay we're seeing it here in a Mercedes c-class the big idea here is to simplify and surface what your phone does your iPhone any of the five class phones 5 5 s 5c will work on this through their Thunderbolt cable not through bluetooth at this point let's take a look at what it'll do first of all obviously the big one telephony and communications and because this is the Mercedes don't touch the screen Germans don't like that everything is naturally controlled through Siri voice command with whom would you like to speak call John Appleseed calling Johnny Appleseed and notice how that calling as well as messaging both SMS and iMessage are done in an eyes free mode Syrian Siri out no text composition on the screen maps and turn-by-turn navigation are via Apple maps of course and again Siri driven and now in terms of media it's not just I stuff there's also some podcasts you can bring in Spotify that's a third-party vendor there's like heart radio from Clear Channel and of course there could be others but I think the real power play here is the integration of I radio because the car is a radio environment and finally this is a bi-level set up here's car play with the Apple world go to command which is Mercedes interface and it's still there as well I should also note you've got two voice command systems here Siri which runs the Apple layer Mercedes voice command runs the Mercedes layer so you've got sort of a forked approach of technology now Volvo's also a launch partner for apple carplay doing this a little differently than Mercedes in a couple levels first of all they use touchscreens in Volvo cars so that adds a third layer of interacting with car play not just by voice or control knob secondly Volvo has more evenly integrated car play it's sort of at the same level as their built in technology where Mercedes kinds of squirrels it away into its own little happy little ghetto shall we say it's an interesting point because car maker by car makers would have to make that decision how much do you have to dig to get into car play and when you are in it does it relate to the other connected systems in the vehicle or is it more off in its own silo for its part Mercedes is like every other carmaker not at all interested in giving up their prized center screen but at least willing to sublet it we simply see people bringing their smartphone to the car they rely on their smartphone on the daily life they have anything on it in the end we will have both customers customers for the embedded world and customers for them as we call it broad in world when you bring in your device a couple of good even Ferraris in on the act of launching with car play from Apple and you may say okay well I'm not gonna buy a Ferrari but it's an important indication of how companies that really don't specialize in cabin tech can leapfrog into the realm of those who do by partnering with Apple and of course it doesn't hurt either brand to be mingled together they both love that about the deal where's Google you ask well coming but in a different form under the guise of the open automotive alliance basically Android in the car out egm Honda and Hyundai are on board along with Google and NVIDIA so far nothing tangible to show but expect a similar path as carplay but with Google having stronger services and with glass which Hyundai and Mercedes have already shown working with their cars in concept form most recently Microsoft joined this race showing a very early concept of its technology through their metro tile interface those live tiles they do on phones and tablets could either be a great single glance in car status screen or just way too much going on this is a wild card player that you haven't heard as much about its mirrorlink a former Nokia technology now more of an open standard using existing technology standards like IP Wi-Fi Bluetooth and USB to be able to bring up and translate pretty much any phone into any head units it's by no means the brand name that Android or iOS and Apple are however it's got a certain universality that might appeal to car makers mirrorlink would seem to offer the most flexibility and the least adult supervision if you will over what the phone displays on the car screen and how its currently being pursued by VW Honda and Toyota this is the first era when we've seen car makers and well branded dominant mobile platforms come together in a way where you can actually tell what Oh platform it is in the past mobile services and phones were translated into things that were kind of Frankenstein's on the dash to be honest and the timing seems right on another front the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is about to issue its first-ever rules on portable device distraction in cars giving these new integrations perhaps a whiff of government approval if they do it right