Java telematics emulator

1. A system for emulating a telematics client, comprising:

a workstation in communication with a display screen;

a software stack configured to be executed by the workstation to implement functionality for a telematics client, the software stack imitating a configuration of an in-vehicle telematics stack of a telematics control unit (TCU), the software stack further including:

a service gateway for loading an emulator;

a user interface (UD manager configured to communicate with the loaded emulator, wherein the UI manager enables a presentation of a TCU user interface without accessing the TCU.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software stack includes a user interface manager, the user interface manager including all functionality of an imitated user interface manager and additional functionality enabling a display screen associated with the imitated user interface manager to be displayed on the display screen.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a communication framework enabling communication between layers of the software stack.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein, the functionality for the telematics client is provided by client applications.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the client application is a carlet and the client application is executed on the TCU of a vehicle, the carlet configured to render control and interfacing with a component of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the emulator is provided by one of downloading from a network and retrieving from a storage medium.

7. The system of claim 1 , further including:

a Java provisioning server in communication with the telematics client.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the presentation of the TCU user interface includes a carlet browser, the carlet browser providing a list of carlets.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein control buttons are provided for navigating the carlet browser.

10. A method for emulating a telematics control unit (TCU) user interface, comprising:

obtaining an emulator of a TCU;

defining a client application configured to run on the emulator;

executing the client application on the emulator to evaluate a presentation of the client application; and

providing a workstation configured to output an emulation of a TCU user interface.

11. The method of claim 10 , further including:

deploying the client application in a TCU installed in a vehicle such that the presentation of the deployed client application is the same as the presentation on the emulator.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein a software stack of the TCU is emulated on a personal computer running a target platform and the client application is a carlet.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the target platform is one of Windows™ and Solaris™ operating systems.

14. A method for loading an emulator on a workstation configured to provide an emulation of a telematics control unit (TCU) user interface, comprising:

launching a service gateway;

specifying an archive file defining an emulator for an in-vehicle telematics system;

executing the archive file to enable a display of a TCU user interface; and

reading a vehicle description file to define features of the TCU user interface.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the vehicle description file is an extensible markup language (XML) file.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein each of the features is defined in a Java class file which is enclosed in a Java Archive file.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the archive file is a Java Archive file defining an emulator.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the method operation of executing the archive file to enable a display of a TCU user interface further includes:

enabling an emulator configured to provide a carlet browser defining a list of carlets, the carlets being Java applications having access.

19. The method of claim 18 , further including:

navigating through the list of carlets and invoking a sub-carlet.