TDC: Audio routing for vehicles [LWN.net]

TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 9:05 UTC (Tue) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: TDC: Audio routing for vehicles by micka
Parent article: TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

well, wouldn't that depend on if the call is incoming or outgoing?

for an outgoing call initiated by the driver, I think it would be a great idea not to flood the entire car with the call.

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TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 9:18 UTC (Tue) by micka (subscriber, #38720) [Link] (6 responses)

Well that's true.

Not flooding the car with the call might not change anything.
I suppose that means the driver (or the person on the phone in the car) is supposed to have a headset so the other persons don't hear what is received.
But they'll have to bear at least what's told by the person in the car. So maybe half the communication can't be hidden.

And if the caller already has a headset, is all of this really useful ?

TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 10:41 UTC (Tue) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (5 responses)

Yes. For example, my car has a built-in high-powered (3W!) cell phone which can be used far outside of normal reception areas. It would be nice to make it available to passengers.

Then there are RVs and mini-vans where the passengers can realistically talk over the phone without the driver even hearing them.

TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 11:09 UTC (Tue) by hummassa (guest, #307) [Link] (1 responses)

> Yes. For example, my car has a built-in high-powered (3W!) cell phone which can be used far outside of normal reception areas. It would be nice to make it available to passengers.

Do you mind if I ask which car and/or which high-powered cell phone unit, for reference? This would be immensely useful to me, too...

TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 11:13 UTC (Tue) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

Sure, it's an OnStar phone. My vehicle is Chevy Volt, but you can install OnStar on any vehicle (they sell special kits).

TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 11:17 UTC (Tue) by micka (subscriber, #38720) [Link] (2 responses)

> my car has a built-in high-powered (3W!) cell phone which can be used far outside of normal reception areas

You know what, that made me realize something completely out of topic : I havent actually thought about reception area for a very long time and I wasn't even aware of it.

That drove me to check the GSM service in my country (France), which appeared to be between 99 % and 99,9 % (depending on provider) on 2012-01, and 3G was 93-98 (modulo roaming agreements).

Completely out of topic, but I wouldn't have even checked without this comment.

TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 14:36 UTC (Tue) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (1 responses)

The caveat here is that mobile communications providers like to measure their coverage area in »percent of population reached«. This means that even with near-100% coverage on paper, there may be huge swathes of countryside out in the boonies, where hardly anyone lives, with poor to no actual coverage. (This may not be a big issue in places like France or Germany; more so with, say, Canada or Sweden.)

TDC: Audio routing for vehicles

Posted Jun 4, 2013 14:51 UTC (Tue) by micka (subscriber, #38720) [Link]

One again, true, I only paid attention to the numeric value. those are explicitely percentage of population values.

The territory coverage is "only" 97,8 %. The difference is probably in the mountain areas.