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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."
Wind Screen of Death perhaps?
From the article:
Sheeesh, I remember the good old days when the joke began with: "If Microsoft made cars..."
Do they literally mean iPod specific, or do they simply mean that factory radios with aux line-inputs will be more commonplace?
Christ I hate how people think that iPod's are the only thing someone would hook up to car's sound system via aux-in.
Living With a Nerd
More gadgets distracting people as they drive.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
How long will it take to get Linux on this thing!?
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
Christ I hate how people think that iPod's are the only thing someone would hook up to car's sound system via aux-in.
What do you mean? Apple *invented* the 3.5mm minijack.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I mean I use Windows and while I don't drive an American car I am all for getting our auto industry out of the shitter, but c'mon... Ford + Microsoft = works well? I just don't see that happening...
Matt
You have 1 Moderator Point! Use it or lose it! Is that a threat? -vapid
Though it's nice to have all these gadgets and options, I worry about upgrades. For example, I specifically didn't get a navigation system because I don't want to be locked in to something that costs more to upgrade in the future (if it's possible at all).
An audio jack though, should be available in every new car. I don't see the minijack going away anytime soon.
Best Windows Freeware
Blasted Slippage of Doom.
Boom, Suck, Open, Dump. Words often associated with the Goatse.cx guy.
"Blue Screen of Death
In a surprise announcement today, Microsoft President Steve Ballmer revealed that the Redmond-based company will allow computer resellers and end-users to customize the appearance of the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), the screen that displays when the Windows operating system crashes.
The move comes as the result of numerous focus groups and customer surveys done by Microsoft. Thousands of Microsoft customers were asked, "What do you spend the most time doing on your computer?"
A surprising number of respondents said, "Staring at a Blue Screen of Death." At 54 percent, it was the top answer, beating the second place answer "Downloading XXXScans" by an easy 12 points.
"We immediately recognized this as a great opportunity for ourselves, our channel partners, and especially our customers," explained the excited Ballmer to a room full of reporters.
Immense video displays were used to show images of the new customizable BSOD screen side-by-side with the older static version. Users can select from a collection of "BSOD Themes," allowing them to instead have a Mauve Screen of Death or even a Paisley Screen of Death. Graphics and multimedia content can now be incorporated into the screen, making the BSOD the perfect conduit for delivering product information and entertainment to Windows users.
The BSOD is by far the most recognized feature of the Windows operating system, and as a result, Microsoft has historically insisted on total control over its look and feel. This recent departure from that policy reflects Microsoft's recognition of the Windows desktop itself as the "ultimate information portal." By default, the new BSOD will be configured to show a random selection of Microsoft product information whenever the system crashes. Microsoft channel partners can negotiate with Microsoft for the right to customize the BSOD on systems they ship.
Major computer resellers such as Compaq, Gateway, and Dell are already lining up for premier placement on the new and improved BSOD. Ballmer concluded by getting a dig in against the Open Source community. "This just goes to show that Microsoft continues to innovate at a much faster pace than open source. I have yet to see any evidence that Linux even has a BSOD, let alone a customizable one.""
With all of the peripheral electronics involved I only hope that they are smart enough to separate this from the safety functions of the car. If the MS OS crashes and the airbags fail or the car becomes unresponsive this could be a real tragedy. Ford + MS is hardly the kind of combo I would be willing to trust.
You: "Allow."
Car: "The brakes are about to be applied. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Allow!"
Car: "The car is about to slow down. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Allow, dammit!"
Car: "The car is about to hit that truck. Cancel or allow?"
You: "Shit!"
Crunch
No power anything, no heated seats, no GPS, nothing. Just the frame, the tub, the engine, power trane (tranny, transfer case, axles, suspension, drive shafts...), wheels, two front seats, pedals, steering, and the instrument cluster. I even had the stereo taken out to keep honest people honest when the top is off.
And you know what? It's not only fine, but it is comfortable and it is the most fun vehicle to drive...
This is going to change car ads as we know them....
...Like, twelve... Hey, what's that backing-up-and-turning maneuver you're doing? ...Wish I could do that...
Young hipster: Hello, I'm a Scion XB.
Middle-age guy in a suit: And I'm a Ford Expedition.
YH: We both have four doors.
MAH: Four wheels.
YH: And an engine.
MAH: But that's where the similarities end. You see, I have room for seven.
YH: So? I have room for five.
MAH: And I can tow 6000 pounds.
YH: And yet, we both spend most of our time in traffic, with just one person inside. What's your MPG again?
MAH:
YH: It's called parallel parking.
MAH:
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
FairTax baby!
As for voice commanded anything, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkeC7HpsHxo . I've worked with vehicle electronics for quite a while, any wonder that I drive a 1980s car with manual everything?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
"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."
Microsoft's voice recognition did so well in a quiet room, they decided to give it a real test and see how it performs in a noisy car.
I can see it now :
driver : Check voice mail
computer : turning on radio, volume set to 10
driver : AAAAAAGH! (ears bleed, car hits telephone pole)
computer : delete select all
I can't wait for someone i know to get one so i can call him and leave a voice mail that issues commands to his car when he listens to it.
Darth --
Nil Mortifi, Sine Lucre
That's all rice boy stuff. Where are the Holleys, the Edelbrocks, the Hooker headers, the Koni shocks, the glass packs, the high compression engines??? That's what makes a tricked out car, not decals and cell phones, and home theater(in the car??? Sheez). Just give me one that will do the driving for me.
What?
Crap, now my electronics addiction is going to force me to buy a new car every year. I'm going to be so broke.
I'm still trying to wash off what was trickled down in the eighties.
What?
LAST time we had a 'revolution' in personal music electronics, ie CD players, car radios started having aux inputs commonly available so you didn't have to buy a CD player radio. Then when everyone finally had CD players, they stopped providing aux inputs.
THE TIME BEFORE THAT when we had a 'revolution' in personal music electronics, ie portable cassette players, car radios started having aux inputs commonly available so you didn't have to buy a cassette player radio. Then when everyone finally had cassette players, they stopped providing aux inputs.
I don't know if anyone ever had portable 8-track players commonly available enough to make an aux input useful. I *do* know that Motorola was started as a company making record players for cars, hence the name: Motor Victrola. I don't think those record players were particularly portable, however.
The point being, aux inputs come into vogue every time the price differential between portable electronics and car stereos exhibiting the same functionality rise above the price that it takes to reengineer them to put an input jack in the case somewhere.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
I don't want to be charged extra to be able to plug in an iPod I don't have.
It wouldn't be so bad if it really was just a standard aux socket, but some car manufacturers are actually providing ipod-specific docking sockets which are useless if you happen to have any other player.
Gadgets and other gimmicks are fine, but how about something real, like what Renault did a while back... have four little wheels which when the car was stopped could move the car sideways. This beats the computer based parallel parking hands down. All you did was just stop, park, flip a switch to have the small wheels take the vehicle's weight and move it left or right and slide in the parking place.
Or, how about money on R&D so hybrid technology isn't just in small, sluggish vehicles which become mobile tombs if a standard size SUV hits them?
Or, perhaps substantial research on engine design. Ceramic engines which can run at hotter temperatures for better efficiency?
There is a lot more that can be done with cars than just adding a little bit of slant to the headlights, add 5-10 horsepower to the engine rating.
People always want easier cars; cars that drive for them. How about we tell people that you can't have a smart car until your a smart person? Sounds like a plan to me.... driving not a right, it's a privilege and a lot of people do not deserve it. The more the car does, the less the person pays attention.
I want auto manufactures to include a device to actually read the information stored in the Engine Management computer and allow you to download it an analyze it on your home computer. I mean it really sucks that all cars contain an OBD-II connector but don't come with a way to use it. Why should I have to spend almost $200 for a device like this when it could just be included with the car and almost no cost to the manufacturer?
Cars already have too many electronic systems that fail easily, now they want to pile in more shit?
No thanks.
What car makers are making things sane? I.E. DIN car stereo mounts instead of this integrated crap that GM, Ford, and Toyota are pulling?
I have a Pontiac car right now that if you press the power window up on the drivers side and the passenger side at the same time it resets the WHOLE car's computer system except for the engine management. Headlights go off, dashboard resets, etc... that is incredibly silly that the power windows are in any way attached to the system that turns the headlights on.
No thanks, I want a car that has electronics with either complete seperation or 5 nines of reliability. WE know that the car makers cant make reliability, so hopefully someone wil continue to make cars without all the crap.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
While looking for a car for my parents recently, we wanted the Bluetooth.
"Fully loaded" Nissan Versa was a very strong contender — it can memorize four different cellphones, announce calls coming on any of them, and wire the call through the car's audio — at the touch of a button on the steering wheel. We ended up with Honda Fit, because it was a whole foot shorter (parking space is very limited), but it was a hard choice, because Honda still does not offer the Bluetooth integration.
We are looking for an after-market solution now, but those are not as nice as the factory/dealer-installed one would've been.
(Versa also comes with CVT, so Honda would've lost for sure, if it weren't for their length.)
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I worry about upgrades.
Upgrades are just one practical and obvious problem with non free software in cars. Your worries are justified in an industry that practically invented "planned obsolescence" and still practices every form imaginable. Just look at the myriad of mechanical and electrical fasteners that already exist in automobiles when standardization would be cheaper. Of course they chose M$, when they could have better control and lower costs of their own gnu/linux based systems.
There are more sinister problems with the lack of control non free software enforces. Some that spring to mind are
Other people can think of more sinister things, because I'm basically honest and don't think like the above.
The civil liberty implications are the most disturbing, even though they directly effect a small minority of activists who may be harassed and silenced. The indirect effect of a corporate/government police surveillance state apply to all and are much greater than the sum of their parts and is miserable for everyone. The only thing more expensive than liberty is slavery.
I'm going to avoid the whole mess, if I can. I have devices that work and don't need built in toys.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
At first I thought this story was about "tricked" out "ricer" cars finally becoming less of a fad, and I got excited. Too bad, I should read more carefully from now on!
Starmen.net
How about a large explosive charge for small cars? That way, if the car is impacted with enough force to kill the occupants, it detonates, killing the people in the SUV that hit them. Think MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) for vehicles.
I'd be more interested to find out when teledildonics is available for my car. You'd better keep a wet rag handy when that technology trickles down...
but the thing is, that's not very impressive. I get, almost without fail, 54mpg+ with my 2002 2 litre diesel bmw. that's got 150bhp, loads of torque and drives well.
I like the idea of hybrids, no doubt, but claiming that 51mpg is really good is laughable. they need to start returning 99mpg+ on average before anyone is really going to take them seriously I think.
dave