200hp/V6/G3 600MHz "iCar"

bloodline555 writes "What do you get when you cross a Saab 95 with an iBook? You get the iCar. It's my latest project in a series of ways to void your AppleCare warranty. I have totally torn apart my iBook, folded it in half and mounted it inside of my car. It makes a great mp3 jukebox and DVD player. Any comments/ suggestions would be wonderful."

Comments

is it legal?

[I_am_Rambi]

I know in most states (if not all) it is illegal to have a tv infront of the drivers seat. Would this be something similar that you could get a ticket for having too much of a distraction infront of you? I think that is more of the question that how cool it seems to be.

Re:is it legal?

[rowanxmas]

Go look at a modern police cruiser. You will see something very similar.....

Re:is it legal?

[gsdali]

In Europe any screen has to turn off automatically if the car's speed gets above 5km/h, if it's in the driver's field of vision. The sound stays but the picture goes.

Seems perfectly sensible to me.

Even if it wasn't specifically legislated for it would be covered by the 'driving without due care and attention' law which basically is a catchall that can pick up people eating a mars bar at the wheel if it causes them to drive unsafely.

Can we see where you are going?

[G4from128k]

If you add iSight, Airport and a bit of scripting to automatically connect to a dynamic URL service, you could have a mobile webcam. That way we can see where you are going.

Or you could point it backwards. Not only would it be a cool rear-vision monitor, but you could have a bumper sticker that reads "You're on the web right now."

Re:cool idea, been done, and better too.

[djwu]

Has anybody heard of the Bluetooth option for the 2004 Toyota Prius? Supposedly, it's for a bluetooth cell to work with the car's speakers so it's hands free. But I'm wondering if it's possible to use say a bluetooth Powerbook + iTunes to the car speakers? Perhaps it's even possible to control different car functions with bluetooth too (ie, starting up the a/c and rolling down the windows when I get within a certain distance?).

Re:seriously OT, but anyways ...

[PrintError]

Bah, mine's shinier, I use Zaino.

My iTruck is smaller too. I'd post pix, but I fear the health of my poor little server in the hands of the /. addicted. I hook my iPod to the Line-In on my head-unit and the sound quality is perfect. A lot of head units have RCA inputs on the backside for CD-changers. I routed the RCA cables to a small stereo plug next to my cup-holder, and I plug my iPod in that way. It sits in perfect arm's reach as well.

The sound out of the RCA-Inputs is no comparison to the tape adapters. The bass is sharper, the sound is definitely clearer, and I don't have a tape player anyways, so yeah.

And don't even get me on the topic of those FM transmitters... BARF!

There is no sig.

Yeah, but does it FLY?

[netringer]

Burt Rutan's Boomerang twin-engine airplane has always used a PowerBook for instrumentation and navigation although the Boomerang's PowerBook installation is more functional than as pretty as the one in the iCar.

Mp3 VW - A source of inspiration

[Militant Libertarian]

One of my friends put a computer in his VW Passat.. He's a big mac user, but he couldn't bring himself, or his paycheck to accept the defiling of a perfectly good mac for the task. So he used a 933mhz PC.

I think the fact that he used cheap parts allowed him much more freedom to really customize the thing, and he used no PVC!