I was thinking about the new technologies that you can get in smartphones nowadays and I think that it paves the way for a much more convenient and useful car headunit. A headunit which is a thin client for your phone. The technology is there for this to work now with Android 4.2, and with no cables.

Imagine a 2-Din unit with a built-in amplifier, and capacitive touchscreen. The device would connect to a phone via Miracast to mirror the display over a Wi-Fi Direct connection, and this can handle the audio as well. The touchscreen component and some hardware buttons can be connected over Bluetooth HID.

The interesting stuff happens when you also introduce a charging NFC mat into the package. It would be possible to have an app on the phone which will invoke actions when the phone is placed on the mat. Imagine getting in the car and placing your phone on the mat, it is then charging and also connecting to the headunit's Miracast and Bluetooth without any intervention.

Here is an example of a Tegra 3 Nexus 7 and Miracast: NVIDIA Tegra 3 Enhances Miracast Wireless Display, and a Nexus 4 phone with the Netgear Miracast box: Nexus 4 Miracast Demo with a Netgear PTV3000.

There is also a demo of a TV connected to a Moto Xoom Tablet which has a working touchscreen (over USB) here: PQLabs G4 47" Multi-Touch Screen supports Android and HD UI. I have just noticed though that apparently they messed about with the ROM on the tablet to include the drivers for the screen. This is a bit of a letdown if something like this can't just work out of the box, or at least with an app installed.

There is an example of the end result I am looking for, and its called the 'Mimics X2' - this is a little board which interfaces a touchscreen with MHL for video and Bluetooth for the touchscreen to create a wired Android thin client. But this is really a component device which requires a bit of hacking to get working. Not really an all-in-one device that you can just install and go, and not wireless.

Miracast, NFC and Wireless Charging are all on the Nexus 4, and there are a bunch of Sony phones with it too.

I wonder how hard it would be to get some people together and make something like this?