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Car Digital Assistant

Posted by michael on from the road-hazard dept.

suman28 writes "The Japanese company Clarion plans to sell a car with built-in PC that runs Windows which car browse the web, play tunes and store an address manager. The stats on the computer are nice - a 166 MHz RISC processor with 64MB RAM and 8MB video. That seems like a lot for a car."

2 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. computer can be quite distracting by Bobartig · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The lexus 430 LS (along with a bunch of other luxury cars these days) sport an in-dash lcd and GPS/travel software that's highly configurable. The thing can dload all sorts of local business and landmark addresses, provide directions to any location, and acts as a navigation/multimedia controller, for the souped up audio system and optional DVD playback (you just tap the map, and it'll tell you how to get there).

    Lexus at least seems rather aware of the fact that computing while driving might be severely distracting, and they post a warning saying that you should NOT drive and watch the screen at the same time (You have to click "OK" to get the GPS screen to come up), and they've even laid out most of the map/travel computer controls on the passenger side, so the driver isn't looking for restaurants while speeding through busy intersections.

    --
    This is where I get my recommended daily allowance of "Foot in Mouth."
  2. Re:Just great... by ebuck · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I agree.

    But you have to wonder about the people try to maket these things for cars. There's pratically little to no R&D that I've seen which accounts for a useable car interface.

    Nearly all of these use screens. You look at the screen, you're not looking a the road. All of these use button interfaces, which increases the possiblity of distraction / loss of control. To make a truly useful car computer, you need a fully audio interface.

    I know the technical difficulties are not trivial, but my idea of the perfect interface would be something like a car radio (with fewer buttons) that listens and talks.

    U:Where am I?
    C:You are near the corner of Main and Town Park.
    U:How do I get to 8577 Park Avenue?
    C:Would you like the instructions while you drive there, or all at once?
    U:While I drive there.
    C:Move over to the left lane and take a left at the next light. ...

    Now that would be a lot less distracting that trying to drive with a map in hand, constantly referring to some scrawled directions on a pad of paper.