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

Re:Microsoft BSOD Jokes Welcome...woops!

[NealokNYU]

I was reading the preview through the RSS feed on my Google homepage, and when I found out the OS was from MS, I IMMEDIATELY clicked the link, anticipating a smörgåsbord of snarky comments directed toward Microsoft. And as usual, Slashdot did not disappoint.

/. "Predictable entertainment for anyone who dislikes Microsoft."