Tesla, Ford, Amazon Hint At Cloudy Future For Cars

Nerval's Lobster writes "The automobile, once the most analog of technologies, is rapidly becoming a smartphone on wheels: Amazon announced Feb. 13 that Ford SYNC Applink-equipped vehicles will include the Amazon Cloud Player, allowing drivers to access their music libraries via voice command or dashboard controls. Ford isn't the only automotive company seeking to integrate cloud computing into the driving experience. Tesla Motors' Model S electric sedan boasts a 17-inch capacitive touch-screen in place of the usual dashboard buttons and dials. And who could forget Google's self-driving car? This isn't a future everybody wants—there are more than a few wannabe Steve McQueens who won't feel complete unless they can stomp on a pedal connected to an internal-combustion engine, flick a physical dashboard knob to the radio station of their choice, and peel out their driveway in a cloud of burning rubber. But as the latest technology migrates into automobiles, it could well be the future we're going to receive."

Comments

No one will own cars

[brillow]

What they are really afraid of is the fact that once cars become self-driving, no one will need to own one anymore.

Technology is actually upended the business model of the entire autoindustry. They might innovate themselves right out of business.

I mean seriously who cares about cloudplayer in a self-driving car? If it can drive itself I'll just leave my earbuds in.

The most common vehicle in 10 years will be the autonomous Dodge caravan, taxiing us all around. Rich people will have maybe their own auto-Bently's or something, but the rest of us will just share a car.

Re:No one will own cars

[Attila Dimedici]

The bureaucrats hope you are correct. It will be much easier to control people who do not have their own means of transportation that allows them to go where they want when they want. In the world you envision, you will only be able to go to places that the cars are programmed to go to and only when they are programmed to allow you to go there. That world would be distinctly divided into three classes: the elites, who for the most part can go where they want and get to decide where the second class are given access (these would be mostly government functionaries); the common folk, who are expected to meekly accept the limits established by the elites; and the criminal class, who hack the transportation system (or pay someone to do it for them) in order to go to places that are otherwise off limits to them.
We would get there incrementally.

Re:Cognitive science

[capaslash]

I agree. Cell phones and texting and all that jazz is making crashes more common. It's killing people, literally. It's as bad as driving drunk, some people have said. I just bought a '12 Civic Si and I plan on driving it for 10+ years, so I don't have to worry about tech ruining my ride. Stick shift n' clutch all the way, baby. Electronic doodads are just a sideshow anyways. The real advancement in automobile tech will be whatever energy source dethrones these godawful fossil fuels we use to power vehicles.