Whether you want it or ultimately use it, smartphone connectivity is coming to a car near you, and soon. Various manufacturers have tried in-car connectivity with differing levels of success but most have not moved beyond the simple make/answer calls function that works perfectly on an old Nokia 9210, but fails to take advantage of your all-singing-all-dancing Apple Galaxy One Z or whatever. Safety campaigners may say we do not need much more functionality than is currently offered, but for a generation that has grown up with a smartphone glued to their right hand that is not enough. What they want is away for the functionality of their smartphone to be built into their car, allowing them to browse the web or check into Facebook without falling foul of Johnny Law.
Which explains why the major players in the smartphone market, Apple and Google (makers of Android), are launching their own mirroring software that will, in simple terms, take the output of your phone and display it on the in-car screen of your car. Battle lines have been drawn and some manufacturers are firmly encamped on one side or the other while the majority straddle the fence waiting to see which system prevails. And the issue is one of compatibility - Apple's CarPlay will undoubtedly be set up to play nice with various generations of iPhone, while Google's Android Auto has just been announced to be an extension of the latest operating system (dubbed Android L 5.0) so will likely not interface with iPhones, the Windows phone, Blackberrys or indeed older Android phones that do not support the new system. It is therefore not beyond the realms of imagination that your choice of phone could affect your car options - or vice versa.
What we really need is an independent group, not tied to any particular operating system, to work things out. Such a group should be comprised of car manufacturers, phone makers and those who build both aftermarket and original equipment infotainment systems. A group such as the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) for example.
CCC began life as an after-hours Nokia project that would allow engineers of early Lumia phones share their latest advances with colleagues by 'mirroring' the phone's display on a projector or television and has now moved on to the point where its membership reads like a who's who of some of the biggest companies in the world. On the car side there are the likes of General Motors, Toyota, Hyundai/Kia, Volkswagen and PSA (and they are just Charter members - there are a lot more in the Core and Adopter members' lists). Phone manufacturers are represented by Samsung, Nokia, HTC, LG and Sony, while the infotainment industry is headed by the likes of Alpine, Clarion, Kenwood and Pioneer. There are also companies in there who make all the components for infotainment systems like Qualcomm, QNX and Huml - a powerful group that should have Apple and Google on the back foot.
While you may not have heard of the CCC until now you will likely be hearing of its main product, MirrorLink, in the near future. The system connects via USB to whatever smartphone you have - iPhone, Android, Windows or Blackberry, it doesn't seem to be picky - and 'mirrors' the phone's screen onto the car's in-built touchscreen, sort of.
As not all aspects of your smartphone are designed to be used while behind the wheel of the car what MirrorLink does is offer up a restricted list that has been optimised for your dashboard. For the moment that list is restricted to basic functions such as navigation, music and telephony functions, but CCC offers a certification process whereby app and software developers (i.e. the CCC members) can submit their designs that will be independently gauged on their suitability and ease of use to users while driving. What this means is that, while the system is limited at the moment, more functionality will come as developers (who are already part of the consortium) begin to bring out more apps. Feasibly you could have access to the likes of Spotify, Facebook and Gmail soon without even getting into car manufacturer specific apps like the ViaMichelin suite of apps developed especially for Peugeot.
The technology is still in its infancy; CCC only came into existence in 2011 and MirrorLink is its first product, but as more and more car manufacturers try to entice customers by offering smartphone functionality in their car isn't the option of an OS-friendly system better than the alternative?