VW Passat takes the red pill, jacks into Nokia's Terminal Mode (video)
By Sean Hollister 
posted July 14th 2010 6:16AM
posted July 14th 2010 6:16AM
Until then, Nokia and partner companies have to figure out how to encourage developers while simultaneously restricting apps that might distract drivers; VW reps told us that while you'll download car-compatible apps from existing app stores rather than a separate Terminal Mode marketplace, compatible programs will be categorized and restricted from in-motion use based on a set of still-to-be-determined rules. Nerd-to-English translation: don't expect to watch Netflix for iPhone on the go. Sans a hack, of course.
Nokia needs more than this to stay in the game,
@oldpass56
lol.... Nokia is very much in the game as far as mobile phones are concerned. Its only the high end touchscreen smart phones where its losing.
@oldpass56
Looks like they have all the german car manufacturers on board already.
@oldpass56
yes, like symbian^n and meego...
@oldpass56
sudo poweron
grep location
@ssguy
Nokia is still market leader (has the biggest market share) not only in the mobile phones but in the Smartphones segment as well.
I am happy to see really reasonable innovation they are trying to integrate (not trying to invent new places to plug your antenna to). Although the technology is long time available by Linux terminal mode.
@ssguy Sounds like Apple's iPod Out that BMW is rolling out soon.
@Teslanaut
That would be awesome. Telnet into your car and tell it what to do.
@Kid Red from what i've seen so far, ipod out seems to only be that...ipod out. not iphone ui on the infotainment screen.
Nice to terminal mode in action. Looks like a great new open standard.
I wanna Ovi that VW!
"Until then, Nokia and partner companies have to figure out how to encourage developers while simultaneously restricting apps that might distract drivers; "
". Nerd-to-English translation: don't expect to watch Netflix for iPhone on the go"
How is this not distracting? You are contradicting yourself.
Leave it to Nokia to take a good idea and kill it with an unusable implementation..
Car integration = steering wheel controls, voice and touchscreen gestures; what they demo'd was just S60 shoehorned into the dashboard, with a screen-real-estate-destroying column of buttons just to guarantee it's horrible.
It also uses a wired connection; I'd expect wireless charging and IO since it's a concept anyway, but apparently wireless charging is too futuristic for our Finnish friends.
@b2046806 voice controls belong in the future where the computer actually understands the meaning of spoken word, not just compare a voice file to another. Voice control itself while driving is more distracting than operating a dozen of buttons. It depends on articulation, accent, voice tone, ambient noise etc too much. I need to close the windows and turn off the A/C fan to get my car to understand voice commands, still it sucks. It's a waste of resources, put some effort on ergonomic manual interfaces.
@b2046806
Yeah, like they did with the mobile-phone!
Leave it to fanboys to trash an idea based on a proof of concept video a couple of years before a product is released. Considering the Bluetooth and voice control capabilities already present in Symbian phones they would really have to try not to include them.
@b2046806 your comment is spot on! How is this different than a $10 phone cradle (besides some added screen real-estate)
@miikee
Based on what Engadget wrote in previous Terminal Mode articles, it includes car specific UI, safety mechanisms, use of driver friendly controls (incld. touch and steering wheel controls) etc. so I wont think its just a dumb phone in the dock concept - which are inherently unsafe.
Now connect steering wheel control interface to navigate the terminal mode touch screen and it's pretty much what it needs to be. Car manufacturers also need to link the relevant data to secondary in-cluster display, intergrate the map based speed limit notifications and such instead of futuristic road sign scanners which depend too much on the environment to work flawlessly. This is all good.
@moco
Exactly. And as we move to the post-PC era, the smartphone will become the center of our digital world. Imagine just plugging it in to your car or home and having right away all your personal settings applied (light intensity, temperature, music, etc).
This is truly amazing. Bravo Nokia!
Is that a N97 he's using? How is it working so fast? Where's all the freezing? *Unhappy N97 customer*
@Volcomwave
mini?
@mrqs
Nope, it's just a N97... The N97 mini's call and end buttons are more to the right.
@Volcomwave
Latest firmware?
@JFH
Of course! :)
Symbian is a very lightweight OS so it can be used imo to control everything ( TVs, microwaves, etc...), Nokia is still doing well in R&D
Coudn't they have called it something else?
Terminal mode sounds like it is doomed to death or something.
OK Seriously in my view
Volkswagen & Nokia combo = DEAD COMBINATION.
+ & - very much appreciated.
@shreyas
A collaboration between biggest automotive group and the biggest handset group in the world is a dead combination? Please enlighten me.
@shreyas Couldn't agree more. Sorry, but Nokia's are on their way out - as a mobile brand they are dead in the water, and they have their rubbish N Series handsets a-la N97 to blame for that.
Shame VW couldn't find a better partner.
@thewinchester
This is just step 1, wait for terminal mode with MeeGo instead of Symbian and comment on what Nokia & Intel & VW collaboration can offer then.
simplicity? why does it look like there's a slight lag when he pushes the icons? stuff like this should be instantaneous... may be i'm just the only one who values road safety.
Hasn't Ford's SYNC had this for quite awhile now? Plus you don't need a smartphone. Interesting news but the interface looks a little distracting regardless of whether or not it's on the phone or vehicle display. Voice commands are what's next.
@cwalker
I think from the video (right side where they show those logos and stuff) what they are implying is that SYNC only works in Ford whereas this will work across multiple car brands.
Its a VW CC not a Passat.
@FOOF3R Technically it's the "Passatt CC" or "Passat Comfort Coupe," although it's being marketed almost exclusively as the CC.
@Kensai you don't have to plug it in. the modern home automation systems (even the free ones) recognize your phone entering the house by BT controllers in every room and adjust the parameters you describe as you like. even when you move from one room to another. you can control lighting, climate, gates/doors/locks, multimedia, alarm, surveillance etc by your smartphone. the systems recognize an unknkown phone entering the house (your guest) and asks you which resources would you like to give the new phone owner. the list of features is miles long.
not a Passat btw. CC.
Why is there a RealVNC logo at the end?
If that's the driving tech behind this, and it certainly seems like it is given the poor responsiveness of this, color me unimpressed.
In car systems should be fast and responsive to minimize driver interaction. There's really only a few things a driver should need access to anyway, namely maps, music, and phone calls. Anything more than that that smartphones do today (video, texting, photos, internet browsing) seems to be just asking for trouble. (But I suppose that's why it has an approved list of apps.)
I'd rather just have enhanced Bluetooth support, so it can wirelessly handle calls and stream music, while using the car's navigation system (which is much more accurate than a phone anyway).
This is good. Now I can get the "Memory Full. Delete or move some data from C: Phone Memory" on the dashboard of a car!
Oh jesus, I hope there's an easy way around that restriction they're planning on it, all of that stuff is idiotic... Why shouldn't the passengers be allowed to watch a movie, for example, just because someone is driving. As if talking to a phone with hands-free wouldn't be distracting already.