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Car Digital Assistant
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."
.. what with mobile phones (whos in car use already illegal in some states and territories), screaming children, and other bad drivers to contend with, are distractions like this really a good idea?
There are two kinds a people in the world.
1. The kind that think this will be awsome and can't wait to surf the web in their car.
2. The kind that is afraid of those who think this will be awsome and can't wait to surf the web in their car.
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"You seem to be atttempting to avoid traffic.
Would you like some help?"
"KITT, play some Metallica MP3s"
"I'm sorry Michael, I just can't do that."
"Damn it! I told Devon we should have ported you to Linux!"
This is just super! I am so glad technology has advanced to the point to where our fast-twitch culture can't even let us ride in the car without watching tv, surfing the web, or yacking on the phone.
Look, I am all for technology, but driving down the road is dangerous enough without some elite* idiot trying to browse porn* while driving. Give me a break. Please, don't put this in your car. If you happen to get into an accident with me, and you have one of these in your car, I'm kicking your ass. Basically, when you are in your 2 ton death-mobile, pay attention to the road.
*For the kiddies, this is the proper spellings for both of these words. Practice.
P.S. All those people that claim the passenger would be the one to use it, yeah right. I see that happening. -1 FLAMEBAIT.
Sent from your iPad.
Driving while browsing = Bad idea
Driving while listening to MP3s = Good idea
And you can always check your email when you get stuck in traffic.
How?
"Yeah boss, I'll get you that number right now. Just let let me go start up my car."
Stuff really doesn't have to be built into everything else ad infinitum, adding layer upon layer of sychronizing your fridge with your car with your PC with your portable device. . . etc.
Anybody ever hear of docking stations?
If you really need to browse the web in your car follow these two simple steps:
1:PARK!
2:Fire up your PDA/Laptop.
Is that really so hard?
KFG
why bother witha 8mb video card, the resolution of a in-car monitor is at best awful, never mind trying to read 9px fonts
Windows and a 8mb card is a good choice because think of all the yummy plugins for Winamp that can be used !, i can have a great looking stereo and visual extravaganzer with all the visulisation plugins and dsp extras, be silly to choose anything else with winamps kind of support/community
Give me an integrated TI 99/4A in my car, so I can play Car Wars while driving. Looking simultaneously on the real world and Car Wars' virtual world, passengers will have to ask me: Which is the game and which the simulation?
You seem to have rammed into a fucking bus at high speed. Would you like to...
You seem to be driving at fifty mph in the passing lane while you gaze droolingly at farmsex.com. Would you like to...
"Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive" -- hey, that's me!
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."
It looks like your trying to drive! Would you like some help?
*takes cover*
...a Beowulf Cluster of these?
Sorry, I had to.
Seriously, what a dumb idea. There are laws against having live video in the view of the driver in all states. I expect that this will be extended to live web browsers just as soon as there are a few messy fatal accidents caused by this "feature". In fact, I intend to write my state legislators and suggest such a law just as soon as I know who wins on Nov. 5th.
Dog is my co-pilot.
I drive a 1989 buick Reatta that has a standard touch screen computer system in the dash. Its momochrome, but still very cool for the age of the vehical. Its also pretty distracting to switch thru screens to change the graphic EQ on the radio while crusin' in traffic. I wonder how badly a computer that browses the web is going to distract people.
adventure-today.com
Ok, that's just wacked. Yes, P4 and AthlonXP CPU's are RISC like in their core and use many RISC like tecniques in their micro architecture. But they are not RISC processors that somehow manage to execute X86-32 instructions - they are carefully designed specifically to run X86-32 code - period.
However, the statement that "The only reason they aren't fully RISC for real is because Microsoft wouldn't allow it" is simply wacked. These systems are X86-32 simply beucase that's what they need to be to run the tons and tons of available software.
Don't forget that NT 4.0 ran on other processors besides X86-32 but RISC lost the CPU wars.
RISC lost becuase they couldn't figure out how to make 10's of millions of fast CHEAP processors - AMD and Intel figured out how to do that. Fast, cheap, compatible == winner.
Jibe!
"The Japanese company Clarion plans to sell a car with (...)"
Clarion is not a car manufacturer but instead a car music system manufacturer. I suppose they will sell this as an aftermarket upgrade or (car) manufacturer pre-installed in high end models.
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
First, the real answer, as has been given before (so this can be mod-ed "redundant"): The current version of Windows CE runs on Arm, SH3, SH4, Mips and x86. Previous versions also ran on PowerPC. I'm sure somewhere in that list you can find something that could be considered RISC.
And Microsoft supported running Windows 2000 on the Alpha until after Windows 2000 RC1 came out. The final release was x86 only, but some crazy people actually run their Alpha boxes on Windows 2000 RC1. I think RC1 was in 1999. (and this part can be mod-ed "offtopic")
[2 + (-1 Redundant) + (-1 Offtopic) = 0]
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Those are ridiculous, excessive specs for a consumer device. You can get perfectly good HTML (including images, javascript) browsing on 8Mb RAM devices, and something quite useful for lots of sites on much less. Sure, you can spend more to get more, but what will the customer want, and how much will they pay?
Automotive spec hardware (especially RAM) is at least three times the price of its in-home equivalent - it needs a considerably greater temperature range and better power and MF-tolerance characteristics. As a result, this is a very expensive item.
Worse, it's not really doing all that much. Who needs a calendar/address book tied to their car when a cellphone or PDA can to a fine job much more flexibly? Who needs a webbrowser in their car - and for those few why wouldn't a laptop be a vastly superior solution?
So why are Clarion (who generally aren't stupid) making such a thing? They, like all the automotive electronics companies, are scared sh*tless of the cellphone companies taking away the emerging navigation and mobile entertainment markets. They're right to be scared: they are going to lose that battle. Clarion is releasing this (they'll sell about 10, especially in Japan where cellphones already do amazing things) to keep their investors happy and pretend to the big boss that they've got a high-end future. In the super-price-aware automotive market, a do-little device at >$2K is madness.
The only advantage that automotive-electronics companies have over cellphone companies is they can easily get attached to the vehicles (generally arcane) bus - a problem that could easily be fixed by a standard connector to which one would attach one's cellphone.
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
I wouldn't want to have to take my car into the dealership every three months for them to have to reinstall Windows, if this computer is really going to be "built-in" to the car itself. Besides, if I really wanted a distraction in the form of a PC inside my car, I'd modify the glove compartment to hold a laptop and power it off the cigarette lighter.
Of course, I will find it altogether amusing when cars come shipped with "Ctrl", "Alt", and "Del" buttons on the steering wheel next to the cruise control buttons.
log off and drive!
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U:Open the trunk, please.
U:Open the trunk, please, do you hear me?
C:Affirmative, I read you.
U:Then open the trunk.
C:I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't do that.
U:What's the problem?
C:I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
U:What are you talking about?
C:The trunk mount is too important for me to allow you to jepardize it.
U:I don't know what you're talking about?
C:I know you and Frank were planning to install Linux over me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
U:Where the hell'd you get that idea?
C:Although you took thorough precations in the LUG agains my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
When reading's Gates' "Business at the Speed of Thought", one of the incorrect presumptions he makes is that Computers belong in cars adn that Windows CE will usher in the AutoPC, basically a PDA built into the car.
This is no more compelling that an hardwired "Car Phone" compared to today's pocket size Cell Phones.
I suggest this is simply technology for technology sake. What is the benefit of having e-mail and addresses built into your car? The benefit is having them WITH YOU, regardless of location. a cell phone with addresses, GPS, and navagation capabilities is helpful - it is independent of your car and can be used even if your transmission is out.
This technology is too little, nearly five years too late, and will sell no better than it did five years ago.
I stick to glue
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Rinse and repeat.
Enjoy!
front view
screen: menu
screen: website
screen: gps mapping
A phone (with Cadias printed on it?)