General Motors has announced plans to introduce an auxiliary input jack and an auxiliary channel on new radios coming to the Chevy HHR and GM vehicles later this year. The auto maker said that the input jack will simplify connecting Apple iPods and other music players.
The radios with auxiliary input jacks will debut in late spring, and will be standard equipment on the 2006 model year Chevy HHR — a new SUV/car hybrid design — as well as the Chevy Impala and Monte Carlo; Saturn Vue and Ion; Pontiac Solstice; Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS. GM plans to offer the radios on other new models over the next several years.
An image on the GM Web site reveals that the auxiliary jack connects to the iPod using the headphone jack — a more universal method of connecting that will support a wider array of music players with less functionality than the iPod Dock Connector found on some other auto makers’ interfaces.
Dock Connector-based auto stereo interfaces enable the vehicle’s sound system to recharge the iPod. Drivers can remotely control the iPod through steering wheel-mounted controls, and display track, artist and album information on the vehicle’s sound system display.