Tightly control installation
The concept of having a purely open computing platform built into a car is an anathema to many automobile manufacturers. In an environment where reliability is super important and avoiding the need for warrantee repair is important to the bottom line as well as customer perception, heavily controlling what goes into a vehicle is pretty important. If auto manufacturers put an Auto PC in their vehicle and the end user installs some bogus software that breaks their Auto PC, it's the user pointing their finger at the auto manufacturer and telling them their car broke. This example and numerous variations on the theme drove the need for a tightly controlled software installation process to be incorporated into Auto PC 2.0.

The Auto PC 2.0 installation process allows Auto PC manufacturers to specify just how open their platform is. Level 0 allows any software developer to install their software onto the platform. Level 1 obliges a software developer to obtain a special key from the Auto PC manufacturer for generating a certificate to attach to their application using a special tool supplied with Microsoft's Windows CE for Automotive 2.0 development tools. Only if the software has this certificate will the OEM's Auto PC run the software. Level 2 means the platform is closed and can only run software provided by the OEM.

Additionally, Auto PC software vendors will be able to obtain a Microsoft Logo Key that indicates to any platform, open or restricted, that the software running complies with Auto PC logo certification requirements. Auto PC 2.0 software queries for certification, even on open platforms, and warns the user with an OEM supplied message if the software isn't certified. This is to help users avoid installing software that might have viruses or otherwise behaves poorly on any Auto PC.

To accomplish this, several changes were made to the CEI builder tool as well as to the loader/installation tool on the Auto PC. Rigorous version control is also maintained to avoid one application clobbering another or having uninstalls break your Auto PC. Additionally, AutoRun's security has been beefed up to prevent software that wouldn't otherwise be allowed to install from being run directly by an AutoRun file.

Large screen support
A platform like the Auto PC needs a large screen to do a great job displaying information. The version 1.0 product suffered because it lacked such a large screen. There's often information you want to have on the screen at all times, regardless of the primary task you might be performing with the Auto PC. Examples of this sort of information might include the current radio station, your direction of travel, your current speed, and the outside temperature or time. When I'm running my navigation system or address book, I still want this information on the screen. Auto PC 2.0 supports all of this with display resolutions up to 640x480.

The baseline for navigation systems today is to have at least a 3" x 3" color display with a moving map, and Auto PC 1.0 couldn't offer that. While innovative companies like Infogation and TravRoute were able to do admirable jobs of getting a moving map on to the 3 1/4" x 7/8" display on the Auto PC, no amount of innovation can replace that much missing screen real estate. Since the Auto PC is priced along the same lines as mid- to high-end navigation systems, it really needs the hardware resources to perform as well as or better than them.