Because ICES uses continuous speech recognition, Visteon had to write all their own applications for controlling their system. You'll see very little that looks familiar when you use their radio, CD player, address book, etc. This also allowed them to employ their Man-Machine interface expertise, developed over many years at Ford with regard to autosound, navigation, and other safety systems. The experience really shows and pays off handsomely for them. If ICES had DVD playback and multiple screen support, it would be the perfect unit.

Delphi Automotive Systems' Communiport
Delphi Automotive Systems is a recent spin-off of General Motors. They supply the automotive industry with various forms of electronics for vehicles. Not to be left out of the emerging Auto PC industry, Delphi rolled out their first Auto PC product, targeted at automotive OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) rather than aftermarket, at the CES show. Their Auto PC product, called the Communiport, is a product of Delphi's 18 month old Mobile Multimedia Business Group. This company has such credibility that it was able to win more than $2.5 billion in business for their new Communiport Auto PC. That's a bunch of Auto PCs, and makes a very credible market for software developers to develop for.

Because the Communiport product is an OEM product, it's integrated much more tightly into the vehicle than the Clarion Auto PC or Visteon ICES. The demonstration units Delphi had at CES were beautifully integrated into vehicle interiors with many of the key control buttons actually mounted on the steering wheel, where they could be easily pressed with the thumb. Their Auto PC UI was well done, and I found it easier to use than either Clarion's or Visteon's user interface when using buttons alone. The Delphi unit uses the same Lernout & Hauspie speech recognition system that's a standard part of Microsoft's Windows CE for Automotive and also used by Clarion. This leaves the speech UI feeling less refined than Visteon's, but the integration of the buttons on the steering wheel and the careful use of ATM-style soft keys on the actual Auto PC unit, as shown in Figure D, make this much less of an issue. As with Visteon, Delphi's years of automotive UI experience pay off big on their unit.

FIGURE D

The integration of the buttons on the steering wheel and the careful use of ATM-style soft keys on the actual Auto PC unit make this unit easy to use. Click picture for a larger image.

The Communiport has some unique features, such as true mobile Internet browsing using Wireless Application Protocol and Bluetooth universal connectivity, allowing for hands-free operation of portable cellular phones without actually connecting the phone to their unit. The Communiport also has a built-in connection to the vehicle's diagnostic bus and integrated software for diagnosing car troubles.

What I saw was a very high-end version of GM's On-Star system based on the Communiport. A new Mobile Multimeda Link fiber optic bus that has 100 megabit throughput is used to link various Communiport components together rather than having them all in a single unit. The Communiport also has all the standard Auto PC 2.0 features, including AM/FM/CD, GPS, navigation, address book, and MP3 playback.