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VW Goes USB

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the plugged-in dept.

MadCow42 writes "According to this story on CNN, Volkswagen is going to offer in-dash USB connections on several models as of this December and others next year. This function is to let you connect your MP3 Player or USB drive to play your tunes on the car stereo! The bad news? I just got my Touran... sans USB."

12 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. How 2003 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's nothing compared to Mazda and their use of USB.

  2. Security? by Kimos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All I can think about is security. With viruses and malware being spread through other mobile devices, what's going to happen if your car gets infected?

    1. Re:Security? by }InFuZeD{ · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As far as I know, you can't hide viruses in mp3 files yet, so I don't see how putting an mp3 player in your car stereo is going to be a security risk. This is just the same as your car CD player being able to read mp3s, except on a different medium.

      You can take your tin foil hat off now.

  3. Good by Sv-Manowar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's good to see VW using the standard instead of going with the trend and putting ipod adaptors in, like BMW did.

    There are other products out there than Apple's, and although the iPod may be the best (personally, i think yes), it does not mean it should be the only one to get car adaptors.

    --
    Business Voyeur
    1. Re:Good by fliplap · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The iPod adapter was a complete after thought at BMW. BMW put in an AUX input, you can plug in anything to it if you really want.

      The only thing that is different is that there is a module you can buy that allows you control the iPod through the stock headunit and steering wheel controls.

      Really this can be done with any MP3 player that has a remote if you are willing to put in the time to figure out the signaling for your personal player. BMW's iBus (yes it's really called iBus, no it has nothing todo with Apple's iNaming scheme) is well documented and its easy to write software to read/write to it. I didn't have an MP3 player and I wanted more features than just MP3 ability, for example Wifi scanning controlled through the stock stereo buttons... so I built my own.

  4. Why USB? by Roguelazer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can anybody explain to me why they'd offer USB for this? Personally, I'd prefer it if they'd just give me a line-in jack. It'd work with everything, rather than requiring the car to have drivers for the player. The article's pretty sparse on details, too. Does this require the iPod to be formatted for Windows (in the case of the iPod)? Does it support anything that mounts as a generic USB Mass Storage Device? Is this some idiotic version of Microsoft's CarPC software, and therefore vulnerable to everything that CE is vulnerable to?

    --
    My Systems
    1. Re:Why USB? by JimmyJava · · Score: 4, Informative

      the problem with a line-in is the D/A conversion. your volume will always have some sort of hiss to it. put the mp3 player up too loud and it'll crackle. Too low, and you'll get nothing but hiss. Which is why I went with the Dension IceLink for my ipod. It stands in line with my monsoon stereo and acts like a CD changer. The signal is straight digital to the stereo. The only volume to worry about is on the stereo, and all the play controls are on the stereo as well.

    2. Re:Why USB? by devaldez · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Could it be that they want to have digital transfer until the DA converter gets it? In other words, they are providing a higher-quality passthrough than simply sticking the analog output through a bunch of routing.

      I'd definitely find digital transfer more compelling than analog...but that's just me.

      --
      "... but you can love completely without complete understanding." - Norman Maclean, "A River Runs Through It"
  5. Uh oh by SsShane · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Found new hardwa-" CRASH

  6. Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can plug in a force-feedback steering wheel!

  7. USB car stereo by amembleton · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can buy in-car stereo's that have USB connectors, then you could put them into any car. My car stereo has a line in, so I can plug any audio device into it.

    The following are examples of what you can get in the UK, (USB in-car stereo wise):
    Goodmans GCE7205USB2 CD/Radio - £89.99
    Acoustic Solution CD/MP3 with USB Tuner - £99.99

    They're both from Argos, you could probably get them cheaper from an internet only store. There were some more expensive though better brand name stereos at halfords, but I can't find any details on their website.

  8. Re:More Bad News: No Vorbis by R.D.Olivaw · · Score: 4, Insightful
    " If you're so obsessed with "freedom" to rip your music into a format which nothing supports, Volkswagen isn't really expecting to get $20,000 from you for one of its cars. Knowing you, you wouldn't buy the car unless they agreed to give you the source code for the onboard computers and the complete schematics for every part down to the bare metal."

    really? My whole music collection is in ogg and my car is a BMW. It's not an all or nothing deal. If VW or BMW want to sell me a car that would only srive on the roads of their choosing then I wouldn't buy it either. As it happens, they drive on the 'open standards' roads. he didn't ask for a player with schematics. he asked for a player that would play the music format of his choosing.