Tricked-Out Cars Trickling Down

Good sends us to an IBTimes article on the expanding trend for more options for electronic gadgetry — telematics — in cars. Manufacturers are including more high-tech options in more models, including low-end models, as component prices drop and as the car makers attempt to sell to a demographic that has grown up surrounded by personal electronics. According to a telematics analyst, Bluetooth hands-free modules for cell phones will be available on more than a third of car models sold in the US in 2007, and auxiliary jacks for iPods in nearly half. From the article: "One of the industry's more advanced systems will be Ford's Sync, which connects digital music players to the car's voice-control communications system and reads aloud cell-phone text messages and has 20 preset text-message responses... The flash memory-based system, controlled through voice commands and buttons on the steering wheel, is based on a Microsoft Corp. operating system for cars."

Comments

If Microsoft made cars

[Reason58]

The flash memory-based system, controlled through voice commands and buttons on the steering wheel, is based on a Microsoft Corp. operating system for cars.

This old email joke doesn't seem quite as funny now.

If Microsoft made cars
1. A particular model year of car wouldn't be available until AFTER that year, instead of before.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would just die for no reason, you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you would just accept this.
4. You could only have one person at a time in your car, unless you bought a car '95 or a car NT, but then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. You would be constantly pressured to upgrade your car. Wait a sec, it's that way NOW!
6. Sun Motorsystems would make a car that was solar powered, twice as reliable, 5 times as fast, but only ran on 5% of the roads.
7. The oil, alternator, gas, engine warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other brands for years.
9. We would still be waiting on the "6000 sux 58'" model to come out.
10. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft Gas (tm).
11. Lee Iacocca would be hired-on as Bill G.'s chauffeur.
12. The US government would be GETTING subsidies from an automaker, instead of giving them.
13. New seats will force everyone to have the same size ass.
14. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler would all be complaining because Microsoft was putting a radio in all its models.

Re:stupid

[mrchaotica]

For those of us who do have actual iPods, having a dock connector is better than a minijack because it can be used to transmit control signals in addition to the audio.

Re:stupid

[Buran]

"Do they literally mean iPod specific, or do they simply mean that factory radios with aux line-inputs will be more commonplace?"

In my case I'm ordering a car (by midweek, actually) with a Dock Connector, but the same vehicle can also be had with line-in. Your choice. I'd like to see the ID3 tags on the screen and have good integration with the iPod, but some people do want more flexibility.

The car will also have built-in navigation, dual-zone climate control (no arguing over temp), tire pressure monitoring (required starting in late summer '07 thanks to Firestone/Ford), traction control (I think to be required starting in '08 - can someone substantiate that?) and the car is now controlled by changing coding in the central computer using special software for things that were once controlled/changed by wiring work. For instance, instead of taping over a contact on the headlight switch to disable DRLs, you now change a code in the car's computer. (I'm not sure yet whether I will do that; DRLs do enhance safety, and will it really make that much difference in the lifetime of a D2S HID bulb? If one fails it is not really that hard to replace it and ideally the bulbs will outlast the car.)

Re:The electronics I really want

[Anonymous Coward]

Part of Federal OBD standards is a software requirement to take a "snapshot" of data whenever you have a check engine light (or emissions-related diagnostic code) set. You can also observe engine parameters through the ALDL port (OBD-II port usually located near the pedals) real-time using a portable computer system (most dealers use this, and it costs a couple thousand, not hundred dollars). The important data you want is the DTC code number. That will tell you what is wrong. Knowing the system status is not particularly relevant unless you are calibrating the system. In that case, you will have what you need anyway. Most new vehicles come with enough driver information in the dash display that the customer needs - engine oil state, tire pressures, and some trucks even include transmission temperature (important in a tow/haul situation). Most auto parts stores loan or rent code readers and they should have the ability to clear the codes as well. Having looked at a fair amount diagnostics-related data, there is not much to be gained from snapshot data. If you really want to see how things are going, you need time-based data acquisition. I doubt most customers would care about such a feature.