Espoo, Finland – Eleven companies in
the consumer electronics and automotive industries have banded together to form
a consortium to develop smartphone-to-vehicle connectivity standards, including
a standard enabling control of smartphone functions from a vehicle’s controls.
The Car Connectivity Consortium includes
vehicle
manufacturers Daimler, General Motors, Honda,
Hyundai Motor Company, Toyota and Volkswagen;
automotive-system
suppliers Alpine and Panasonic; and consumer electronics
suppliers
LG Electronics, Nokia and Samsung.
The group’s first priority is to
further develop the Terminal Mode standard unveiled by Nokia early last year to
let drivers access mobile phone applications via a vehicle’s in-dash controls,
touchscreens, and steering-wheel-mounted
controls while viewing the apps on the vehicle’s LCD screen. Terminal
Mode is
built
on such existing
standards as I
P, USB
and
Bluetooth
, and it would enable
plug-and-play
device connectivity across various brands
of devices in multiple
vehicle brands.
Besides developing Terminal Mode,
the group will consider Terminal Mode
certification
standards
and
consider potential standards for
in-car
NFC
(near-field communications)
and wireless charging.
The
c
onsortium will release its first specification version within
the next few months. Several consortium members are expected to present their
first commercial products supporting the new standard later this year
,
the consortium said
.
“
The Car
Connectivity Consortium now has the power to turn Terminal Mode into the global
standard for the integration of smartphones into vehicles,
” said
Floris van de Klashorst,
d
irector
of Nokia Automotive
.
“The industry support
we received through the members has been excellent and makes Terminal Mode a
truly global effort.”
For
more
details,
visit
http://www.terminalmode.org/en/agenda/consortium
.
