One particularly interesting talk out of Build showcased Microsoft’s plan to bring Windows Phone into the car with a new embedded software concept. The idea here will be to project the data from the phone onto the dash display in a usable, safe format, but as you can see, a lot of the Windows visual style is retained. This is great, considering most embedded car system interfaces (Microsoft’s included) are pretty ugly.
In the fully working demo, viewable below and starting at the 25-minute mark, Steve Teixeiria from Microsoft’s Internet of Things group runs through all of the major content categories: music, GPS directions, calls, messaging, apps, and more. Right now, the mobile device is connecting to the car through MirrorLink, and isn’t necessarily reliant on connecting to Windows as an embedded system.
Though this is still very much in the concept phase, it’s easy to see that Microsoft is taking this pretty seriously as they’re already well-established in the space. How many of you guys would base your car purchase on mobile connectivity? Are you digging the concept Microsoft is showing off here, or is there anything you would change or add?
