MS Auto vs. Windows Automotive

As Microsoft has now also added Live Search for Devices (LS4D - one of the key features of Windows Embedded NavReady - which we will talk about in one of our next posts) to MS Auto and Windows Automotive I thought this would be a good opportunity to answer the question "What's the difference between MS Auto and Windows Automotive?" and to get rid of some of the confusion around these two platforms - oh yes and then there is Windows Mobile for Automotive and ...

Fortunately Microsoft offers a Platform Guidance Datasheet showing the main differences between the two platforms.


As you can see Windows Automotive 5.0 is based on Windows Embedded CE 5.0 ( same as NavReady 2009 ) and offers the same full flexibility whereas Microsoft Auto 3.0 is based on Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and provides a standard hard- and software platform enabling OEMs and Tier1s to build solutions a lot faster.

Fiat's Blue&Me, by the way, which features Elektrobit's Navigation solution is based on Windows Mobile for Automotive which is the predecessor of MS Auto.

So long and thanks for all the fish!