Imagine a future where car cd players and radios are
replaced entirely by a touch screen interface almost exactly like a modern day
cell phone. You will have wireless
and/or broadband connectivity, which will allow you to make phone calls, to stream
media (music, radio, video), or use GPS.
You will also be able to browse the internet, download mobile
applications or even video games. It
will have voice activation software like Siri that will allow you to ask for directions
or direct the computer to search and play a movie for your kids in the back
seat. Or if you arrive to a doctor’s
appointment early you can hook up your xbox 360 dongle and play a couple rounds
of Titanfall…(kickass, right!?)
Now that you know what I am getting at, take a moment to think
about the possibilities. What sort of
car apps could be created for drivers and passengers? Maybe a news application
that gives you an audio/visual dose of important news updates tailored for your
exact commute? Say you download this
free app for your car, tell it you like football and have a 30 minute
commute. Bam! Now you have 30 minutes of
Football news streamed to you in audio.
Don’t like football? Then maybe baking tips, cooking shows, animal
planet, you name it. I am going to get
more into my ideas for new applications in another post later on, so be on the
lookout.
Let’s take this a step further. Now that you have a powerful computer hooked
up to your car AND you have wireless connectivity, there are TONS of
innovations that can take place. As
someone who is forced to commute a heck of a lot (2 hours a day, ugh), I would
like to see something developed by a government agency that will “control” cars
during high traffic times. Let me
quickly tell you what I mean. First, you
tell your car where you want to go.
Second, you start driving towards that destination. Three, you hit major traffic!. Four, this program takes over to navigate you
through traffic in perfect time and unison with the other cars. The majority of the reason why traffic jams
occur is because of the human element, this would solve that problem. Granted, this is a spitball idea, actually
getting something like that to work and eliminate the major safety concerns is
an entirely different thing altogether.
Well I have burnt your eyes enough with some of my hot air
so I will leave you with a bullet point list
of abstract ideas that pertain to
this topic.
-facebook for your car, car has camera and is voice
activated so you can say “take picture and post to facebook” – bam you just
took a picture of a funny license plate or a traffic jam. (snapchat as well)
-track your commute.
Plug in locations and your car will do the rest and give you your
driving statistics such as gas used most on which days, when the worst traffic
times were, etc.
-car statistics – the modern car has a lot of sensors, put
them to use to give you statistics about how your oil is doing, how your tire
pressure is, how the motor is doing, temperatures, etc.
-friend gps – an application that tells you if one of your
friends is driving near you, link with facebook or e-mail
-voice memo – voice activated. An application that allows you to spitball
your ideas and to start recording hands free, it can also transcribe the memo
and e-mail it to you or someone else
-e-mail dictation – an app that will read you your e-mails
while in the car or an app that you can dictate and send e-mails with
-music application like RDIO, I heart radio, Spotify, etc.
-the list could go on and on but you get the idea. Think of all of the applications you have
with your phone, think of them becoming entirely hands free and how to
integrate them with a car.
I am definitely interested in hearing your ideas, so hit me
up!
-Grover
