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MirrorLink adds Peugeot to roster of phone-connected cars

During Mobile World Congress, the Connected Car Consortium announced that the new Peugeot 108, to be launched the following week in Geneva, will come with MirrorLink smartphone connectivity.

Wayne Cunningham Managing Editor / Roadshow
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
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Peugeot 108
The Peugeot 108, debuting in Geneva next week, will implement MirrorLink technology. Peugeot

At the 2014 Geneva auto show beginning next week, the new Peugeot 108 will debut with a standard MirrorLink connection, letting the car's LCD show a connected smartphone's screen. Peugeot joins Toyota and Volkswagen, along with aftermarket head unit makers such as Pioneer, in adopting the MirrorLink standard.

Antti Aumo, marketing director for the Connected Car Consortium, the body responsible for developing MirrorLink, told CNET that other production cars currently implementing or slated to get the technology are the Toyota iQ and Verso, and the Volkswagen Polo. Although world market cars, localization affects which cabin electronics are available in different regions.

While some aftermarket head units supporting MirrorLink can be found in the US, the number of production cars with the standard seem to be concentrated in Europe.

According to the Connected Car Consortium Web site, most Nokia and Sony phones support MirrorLink. The connectivity standard can work with any operating system, leaving handset makers using Android or Windows Phone the option of including the capability. Aumo said that Apple declined to join the Connected Car Consortium.

At the 2012 Los Angeles auto show, the Connected Car Consortium demonstrated MirrorLink 1.0. The demonstration showed how a smartphone connected to a head unit would run navigation, audio, and hands-free phone calls. A driver would control these functions using the car's touch screen or physical controls, leaving the phone untouched.

At the time, the phone needed to be cabled to the car. A Connected Car Consortium representative said future plans were for a Wi-Fi connection between phone and car.

MirrorLink faces competition from a number of quarters. Last year, Apple announced its iOS in the Car technology, although details and a working implementation have yet to be shown. At this year's CES, Google announced the Open Auto Alliance, focused on offering an Android-based app layer for cars. CloudCar is a recent startup also developing a system, using H.264 video compression, to display phone screens on a car display.