- Car Stereo Message Forums
 - - Head Units
 - - - Does anyone make a HU that will dock my cell phone?

So now that I have an Android cell phone that I love (Sprint EVO), I want it to work well with my car. A few years ago, I put an after-market HU in my car with lots of bells and whistles, but none of it seems to work as well as it should. Before I upgrade again, it occurs to me that I have all of the features and power that I want/need in a stereo in my phone. So my questions is... does anyone make a HU that allows me to snap my phone into it like a detachable face? The phone already has my music, GPS, phone, an FM tuner... it can even stream music seamlessly over the net while I drive down the street (I do this now via Bluetooth). Ideally, the HU would basically be an amplifier with a volume control that simultaneously charges the phone - all of the important functionality would be in the phone. Since the phone is touch-screen, all controls can be done via software on the phone's screen. It seems this would solve a lot of problems - no phonebook sync needed, no need to worry about theft of the HU, my battery would stay well charged, and it should be fairly low cost to manufacture. Plus, since Android is an open platform, the user community could develop custom applications for just the right UX. For bonus points, there would be a way to hook up an external USB webcam for a backup camera. I am assuming there would have to be a separate face-plate adapter for each phone model - but that would be doable. So... does it exist? If not, why not? I would buy one in a nano-second. I probably won't upgrade again until I can do something like that. Any news would be awesome.

quote:

---

Originally posted on 08-29-2010 by herbdierks
So now that I have an Android cell phone that I love (Sprint EVO), I want it to work well with my car. A few years ago, I put an after-market HU in my car with lots of bells and whistles, but none of it seems to work as well as it should. Before I upgrade again, it occurs to me that I have all of the features and power that I want/need in a stereo in my phone. So my questions is... does anyone make a HU that allows me to snap my phone into it like a detachable face? The phone already has my music, GPS, phone, an FM tuner... it can even stream music seamlessly over the net while I drive down the street (I do this now via Bluetooth). Ideally, the HU would basically be an amplifier with a volume control that simultaneously charges the phone - all of the important functionality would be in the phone. Since the phone is touch-screen, all controls can be done via software on the phone's screen. It seems this would solve a lot of problems - no phonebook sync needed, no need to worry about theft of the HU, my battery would stay well charged, and it should be fairly low cost to manufacture. Plus, since Android is an open platform, the user community could develop custom applications for just the right UX. For bonus points, there would be a way to hook up an external USB webcam for a backup camera. I am assuming there would have to be a separate face-plate adapter for each phone model - but that would be doable. So... does it exist? If not, why not? I would buy one in a nano-second. I probably won't upgrade again until I can do something like that. Any news would be awesome.

---