UK: update – how many of you have Bluetooth-integrated in to your cars?
By Ben Robinson on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 4:54 AM PST In Accessories, Bluetooth
The Parrot CK3200 - a great bit of kit
As many of you will know (including those that live in the UK, and don’t), we now have some pretty strict laws in place regarding the usage of Mobiles in cars – that is, basically that you aren’t allowed to use the phone clamped to your ear – holding it, or cradling between your shoulder and head. The penalties for this are becoming quite serious, and a few high-profile cases, where people have been both speaking or TEXTING (!) on their phones, have provided a few people that have been hit with serious fines/jail terms.
In advance of the law changes a while back, I had a Parrot car kit retro-fitted to my car – simply for the purpose of being able to answer calls. For £100, it was purchased and fitted, and it worked out very well – because it was connected via the AUX of the car stereo, it meant that call quality was good and sound was handled through the speakers in the car.
Since then, I changed my car to another which was ready for Bluetooth install, but didn’t have the necessary component. This time (unfortunately) the retro-fit was £600 (!), but on the plus side, the kit integrates seamlessly with the components in the car, so I essentially have a system that works like one that would have been installed in the factory. Again, I solely use it for taking calls, not making them – and it works very well indeed.
So here’s the thing – how many of you have gone out there and got a “retro-fit kit’? Did you fit it yourself if so, or get it professionally-installed? Was it expensive?
I’m really keen to hear if you have delved in to the world of Mobile Integration for your car – it could be of course that you use wired headset for your device, or maybe a Bluetooth headset – or maybe even one of those visor / cigarette lighter speaker systems….. at any rate, let us know what you are using, and whether you rate the kit. It would be good to know our readers think works, and what doesn’t! If we get enough responses, this is definitely a thread we’ll follow up – both from a tech, and safety, perspective.
I bought a new car last winter. One of my requirements was bluetooth built-in. For that package, I also got voice command, 6″ touchscreen radio, and a 20gig hard drive built in. It rocks! Voice command works perfect even with people with funny names. The radio can pair up to 10 phones with each phone having it’s own priority (so if you have two paired phones it your car, it will use the phone with the higher priority to make calls and you can receive calls on either over the system). The radio reads the phone’s address book so all you have to do is say “Call ” and it will phone the person if they exist in your address book. If there are multiple numbers listed (ie. mobile, home, work), it will ask you “Would you like to call at mobile, home, or work?” Then you say Work, and voila! You could also say “Call ” it will just dial it. The great thing is that if you are listening to the radio, it will mute it and bring the call in. When the call is done, it will unmute the radio automatically. Excellent integration.
If you are looking to purchase a car, get one with bluetooth and voice command built-in. It’s definitely worth it.
I put a retro-fit system into my car about 18 months ago. I got a Motorola T605. It cost less than $200 and my friend installed it for free. My phone has A2DP so I can play music or listen to audio books over my car stereo from my phone as well as take/receive calls. It works very well.
Mark