I am hoping there can be some even Very basic hands Free “voice activated” functionality. So that when driving I could at least press an on-screen button to activate mic to pickup some basic commands. Or toggle into a ‘driving’ mode to enable the everlistening ear.
If I couldn’t get text to speech features, such as reading an incoming text to me aloud which would be great… Then maybe our phones could at least learn some ¿custom? verbal commands to make calls… Even as simple as allowing us to say “call fave 1.” Or even better… Set a custom phrase to incite a custom command. That would be incredible.
Long post short… Some limited hands-free functionality would beat having none at all.
Sounds like you have a nicer ride than I @ruff.
And are lucky to have a in dash unit that plays nice.
Am often in a US state that has laws about ‘distracted driving’… So can’t read an incoming text when driving.
IF the Librem can’t have an assistant app, then hopefully ‘infotainment’ unit compatibility will be common… Rather than fleeting… Seems trending toward the proprietary… AKA Google or Apple compatibility has become a selling point for many car stereos.
Hopefully I am wrong, and a Librem phone’s USB & /or Bluetooth connection could work ‘universally’ with car stereos… Maybe there is a standard protocol that make that possible?
Without relying on any cooperation or accomodations from infotainment/stereo manufacturers. (For they would realistically not cooperate; just like you can’t play vorbis audio off a USB thumb drive in the car even though the .ogg codec is license free).
Fingers crossed… and I’d replace my car stereo unit to gain hands free functionality with the Librem if they interfaced well.
Can anyone knowledgeable or from the Librem team weigh in on whether the phone may be compatible with a typical automobile infotainment/stereo aftermarket unit?
Seems a great feature to aim for (Joined forum today, or I would have suggested it earlier)
The way it works (and I’m speaking about toyota touch pro - available in US) - it has it’s own communication stack. it uses bluetoth profiles to sync contacts, calls, messages, calendars but otherwise manages it on its own. including voice dial, tts/stt, notifications, submission, etc.
My car can also sync contacts with my phone (regular Android) using Bluetooth. I can also view SMS messages and e-mails (but only from the built-in Android apps).
Thanks @koenaad for those links. Looks encouraging… Didn’t realize Bluetooth had so many features integrated into it. Much appreciation for your explaining it so I could grasp it. Seems there’s no need for programmers to reinvent the wheel… That is a relief. Even without any virtual assistant on the phone, Bluetooth should be able to handle the basic tasks with a typical car-kit. Excellent.
right, in my case until i patched PBAP, MAP and CTN profiles on my jolla it was still able to work with carkit using (more generic, limited and slower) SyncML profile to exchange data and of course HFP/HSP for calls and A2DP for audio.
Today I’ve tried to pair the Librem5 with my car infotainment system, Uconnect from FCA.
The phone is recognized as headset (so you can listen to music from the car speakers) but not as phone. No way to make or answer calls using steering wheel controls, no contact synchronization. Calls started from the phone are not transmitted to the loudspeakers. In short: yes, not hands free at all for driving.
Can I expect this to be improved?
Bluetooth, whatever that precisely means, is listed in ‘Top 5 Runner-Ups’, whatever that precisely means.
For me, integration with my car would be a nice-to-have, and even then I don’t need much really, just answering calls.
Text-to-speech for incoming texts sounds like something that could be done separately from any integration with the car - although the polish of Linux text-to-speech probably isn’t top notch i.e. when done on the phone itself - OK for a text message most of the time but not something you would want to have read you War and Peace.
About Bluetooth, I would like also smart notifications to smartwatches (messages and calls), in order to be aware without taking my L5 every time I receive something.
Probably there is already some Linux compatible software for text to speech and speech recognition. I don’t know how good it is and if there are applications fitting to car driving usage.
Technically it could be possible to take some of this to adjust it to the L5 or to take the parts and create a custom application. Mozilla has a database with speech samples and maybe a pre-trained AI for local speech recognition instead of sending records of your spoken words to untrusted parties like Google.
It would be nice if that works independent from cars so we don’t rely on cars and it could be of use in other situations or for handicapped people aswell. Car integration could follow on top.
I don’t expect car integration soon. Purism has probably already plenty of tasks to be done, but I am no insider. Maybe the community will come up with something. Trying existing software on the L5 could be a first short term step.
Recently I rent a car (Peugeot Twingo). It didn’t have many buttons anymore on the console or armature board. Instead there was a touch screen. Maybe I missed some speech command feature. However it was really dangerous. I wasn’t even able to switch radio channels. It is just to risky. I have seen that in another car from another vendor, too. And I am afraid that android may be installed into many cars in the future.
When we discussed possible future Purism products I wrote: “Librem Car”. It was only half of a joke.
I know this is an old topic but I have not ran across any thing since this post so I have to ask anyway… Has anyone been able to tie the L5 to there automotive stereo to get use of phone calls while driving? I own a Toyota with the Entune entertainment system which I had planned to use Anbox to run an open source apk Entune app which I had found but Toyota decided to kill the Entune app and put out the “Toyota” app which I have not been able to find a suitable app to use. However do not have to use an app to pair with my stereo if I don’t want to but when I try to pair I have to enter the pass code I set for pairing but the phone does not ask me to enter anything and fails to pair after a couple of minutes. I really do not talk on the phone much when I drive but with my old phone I was still able to bluetooth to listen to my music library app or no app. Also I have a Bluetooth head set that works pretty well to listen to music while I am working and the phone features also work. the only issue with the head set is the signal is not very strong and the phone has to be fairly stationary or the sound cuts in and out often. Since the phone will undoubtedly be stationary in my vehicle it seems like it would be plausible to at least be able to listen to my playlists while driving. I can patch the phone in with a TRS headphone jack and get the music function that way but I am more interested in at least having some control through the stereo as I had with previous phone. If anyone has been able to pair your L5 with your car stereo and maintains some form of control, please post what you had to do to make it work. I understand no all stereos will have the same levels of function but anything is better than nothing at all.
BT/WPAN hands free call routing, it already upstream in Pulseaudio not yet shipped to Pure System.
Also the new driver for Redpine in L5 is stopped due to unclear licenses. So we need to wait till…
Sounds like good news for my Pinephone (Monian-Phosh), but not so good news for the L5 I expect to ship in the next couple of months – really, this time!
Audio switching is the big problem on my PP right now. Over a year ago, it was working fairly well… and if it did glitch, manual switching mostly worked. The last year, “progress” has been retrograde – not good for hands-free driving!
I’m really hoping that the L5 will be an improvement.
Ugh – very disappointing! HFP, whether Bluetooth or hard-patched through the 3.5mm jack, is irreplaceable. I can live without, but it’s a very unhappy life.
If you read Pali’s arguments with the PulseAudio developers, it will make you want to tear out your hair in frustration. Both sides are being stubborn, and refusing to work together, and every Bluetooth user suffers.
The most frustrating part is that Pali didn’t give a FOSS license to his prototype code, so he is the only one authorized to submit his code to PulseAudio. A third party (like Purism) can’t resubmit his patches and work with the PulseAudio devs to get them incorporated.
Somebody has to go beg Pali for permission to use and modify his code, and then work with the hard-headed PulseAudio devs to get them to accept the patches.
This is frankly why we need some paid software development in order for mobile Linux to succeed, because it is unlikely that a random volunteer will step up and do a thankless task like that.
