Windows Mobile for Automotive

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I am interested in developing applications to run on in-car systems. I am
having trouble locating resources on this topic. I am downloading the
Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK, however I am unsure if this is the correct
package. I don't see any resources in the Windows Mobile area of MSDN
directly related to WMfA. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
 
The Windows Mobile for Automotive SDKs are only available to partners which
essentially means you need to be a vehicle manufacturer or working very
close to one and building a solution which will sell in very high volumes.
Although it shares the name Windows Mobile it is a rather different system
although it is based on Windows CE.

Peter
 
That's really unfortunate that the little guys are being excluded. I would
certainly think there is room for everyone to work together.

I am specifically interested in what capability/capacity WMfA has for adding
3rd party applications if any. Are all capabilities of the system tied to
explicitly defined buttons on the console, or is there any notion of a
generic interface ala the Smartphone (WM Standard?), where there has to be
two standard buttons for which an application can define behavior?

Is there any reference material available on how WMfA integrates with
Windows Mobile devices over Bluetooth? If I can't develop applications right
now to run directly in the car, I would certainly like to learn more about
how to get applications running on a phone or PDA to interface with the car.
 
WMfA devices are closed systems. You can't write apps for them or interface
with them unless you are the OEM or unless the OEM provides some form of
interface, which is highly unlikely as they have no desire to deal with
support for something like that.


--

Chris Tacke, Embedded MVP
OpenNETCF Consulting
Managed Code in an Embedded World
www.OpenNETCF.com
 
Seriously weak!

The speech capabilites provided by WMfA is the missing link to enabling
mobile applications that are actually *useful to people on the go.

I don't see anything directly related to text to speech or voice recognition
in Windows Mobile 6 or the .NET CF. I'm aware of Voice Command, but last I
heard it too was a closed system. Are there any available options at this
time, or on the horizon?
 
You're thinking of the car stereo in WMfA as something similar to a Pocket
PC and, whether that's possible or not theoretically, that's *not* what
Microsoft and the car stereo vendors are thinking. They don't want to
provide computer support to their customers. Right now, if a customer can't
figure out how to make his car stereo work, it's usually something like he
can't get the clock set right and he needs the manual. If you let people,
just the average joe who owns a car, run random software on it, all of a
sudden, you, Clarion, have to be able to help the guy uninstall programs
that do bad things on startup, whether because their poorly designed or
intentionally damaging. The number of people to whom that capability is
actually useful to the point where they'd want to pay for it is a
vanishingly tiny fraction of the total automotive public -- I mean *really*
tiny.

What Microsoft is thinking is providing the car stereo guys the native
abilities to do fancy stuff that they have to either buy separately and
integrate into their software now (voice recognition, telephony, location
services), and allow them to buy the pieces for a nearly full-function
system from one vendor, not surprisingly Microsoft. The reasons for using
WMfA for a stereo vendor/car manufacturer are the number of features that
they can add with something like ease, and how they can draft off of the
latest technologies more easily than they can with firmware-programmed
stereo units now. You want to allow music to be purchased via the phone in
the car from Chrysler.com? You can do that by adding a voice command or two
to control it, and a program to interpret them to the stereo and you've got
a rolling jukebox. However, there's no win for the stereo gear vendor in
saying, hey, this stereo is programmable! Then people start wondering, is
that Windows, like on my PC at home which got a virus while I was on the Web
the other day and destroyed all of my son's baby pictures? Do I want that
running my car?

If you want something that is programmable and has those capabilities, buy
an UMPC or something similar, wire up a display screen with touch, write a
couple of Windows XP or Windows CE programs, and install it in your car.
I've heard of a number of people doing this or something similar Linux-based
to build a custom stereo system.

Paul T.
 
I think that is really short sighted. Today there is not much demand for
custom applications in cars as there are no services to interact with. As a
standardized platform such as WMfA permiates the auto industry, it will
become feasible to deploy services such as the proverbial toll booth example,
or paying for your gas without swiping your credit card.

I am looking at enabling services for the future. With more and more cars
coming equipped with bluetooth, there will be increasing demand for access to
information available over Personal Area Networks, as well as over the
internet via your cell phone. And with such a large screens found in cars
with navigation systems today, who would want to look at their tiny cell
phone screen, much less fish it out of their pocket or purse? This is all
going to happen in the future, and I am interested in making it happen.
Clearly I need to escalate my involvement above a development forum, however
I am unsure as to where I need to go and who I need to be talking to.
 
The ability to "subscribe" to data transmitted from teh device via bluetoot
is far different than allowing users to install software. The support
nightmare for allowing anyone to install software would be crushing to most
any company and I can't imagine they'll do it any time soon. If I was the
OEM I wouldn't allow it and I'm a developer.

Now as for being able to get data from the device like maintenance info or
whatever, yes, that makes sense. Even the ability to "sync" audio from a
portable player to the device makes sense, but again, those would be purely
closed systems with a very limited and scripted set of things you could do.

If you want to run some sort of software on one of those devices, really the
best mechanism would be to get "in" with an OEM and the device designers and
partner with them to provide a compelling product. They'd be far more
likely to consider that. Opening up the platform inherently leads to
instability and vulnerability. The OEM doesn't want the user to *ever* have
to reset the device and rightly so.


--

Chris Tacke, Embedded MVP
OpenNETCF Consulting
Managed Code in an Embedded World
www.OpenNETCF.com
 
I think that is really short sighted. Today there is not much demand for
custom applications in cars as there are no services to interact with. As
a
standardized platform such as WMfA permiates the auto industry, it will
become feasible to deploy services such as the proverbial toll booth
example,
or paying for your gas without swiping your credit card.
Click to expand...


Maybe, but I don't think so. Perhaps you would characterize your idea as
far-sighted. It seems to me that the liklihood that people will *want*
programmable cars in the next five years is vanishingly small. Although
they might want the ability to pay from the driver's seat, that doesn't
imply the necessity of opening the WMfA platform to third-party apps. If
enough people want that, there's nothing today, right this minute, to
prevent the Audiovox's of the world from implementing something. Maybe you
should start an organization centered around one of the hot applications
that you see coming, start developing standards, working on hardware to
implement them, etc. When the time comes and the market is ready, they'd be
tempted to come to you, I'd think.
I am looking at enabling services for the future. With more and more cars
coming equipped with bluetooth, there will be increasing demand for access
to
information available over Personal Area Networks, as well as over the
internet via your cell phone. And with such a large screens found in cars
with navigation systems today, who would want to look at their tiny cell
phone screen, much less fish it out of their pocket or purse? This is all
going to happen in the future, and I am interested in making it happen.
Clearly I need to escalate my involvement above a development forum,
however
I am unsure as to where I need to go and who I need to be talking to.
Click to expand...


Yes, all of those things would be possible, but that doesn't require
third-party access to the internals. The vendors of cars and the full-boat
audio/video systems that we're talking about don't have to go to the general
development community to get them. From Microsoft, they'd be getting the
tools and the tools allow everything that you're talking about, and they
allow the device OEM to lock it down so that unknown third-party code can't
be executed on it. If there's really demand for programmable AV systems,
some one will release one, but since AutoPC has been around for what, ten
years, and there are still only a handful of systems, even closed ones, out
there, I don't see a big surge on the horizon.

Right now, it's difficult to get involved in WMfA unless you're a stereo
OEM. Those who are in the program are probably restricted in what they can
say. You could try contacting an appropriate executive at MS. I can tell
you from my own past experience that hard market data is going to be
required to make Microsoft champion trying to explain how to program the car
to the average soccer parent. You could also try contacting the various
AutoPC system manufacturers. Here are a few links that are at least
slightly on-topic:

http://www.windowsfordevices.com/
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/

Paul T.
 
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