sprite
01-04-2009, 01:31 PM
I made a comment earlier about how mobile electronics lags several years behind other consumer electronic catagories, and two people sent me personal responses to that.
This has led me to think quite a bit about what features currently exist but haven't seen broad implementation in car stereos. I'm not saying these are features that I personally want, or even that these are features that *should* be implemented.
None of these ideas are original, all are commerically available in some form (marine, mobile phone, digicam, laptop, etc). Feel free to make additions, add comments, but please don't flame me - this is just a fun exercise in what could be available in the next few years.
Screen resolution - mobile phones & digital cameras now sport displays that have more total pixels and higher pixel density than todays in-dash 7" nav screens. Sharper screens = easier to read text, better video
color LCD screens in general - everything from cheap mobile phones to digital picture frames have color LCD screens these days, so it's pretty shocking to look at car stereos and notice that most still use backlit alphanumeric displays capable of only a line (or 3) of text.
tactile feedback - admittedly new on the scene, this would be perfect for those 7" nav-screens. Makes using a touch-screen feel more like pressing actual buttons than tapping on a cold sheet of glass.
GPS dead-reckoning. This has been present in marine plotters for years to give a position when satellite linkups fail, and car GPS units loose linkups frequently (around skyscrapers, under tree-canopies, through tunnels or during thunderstorms). Some car GPS units tap into the vehicle's speed sensor wire, but there are other methods that are easy to implement: If you get an intermittent satellite lock, software can chart where you will be on your route given your destination, your most-frequently traveled routes (tracklines) and speedlimits. WiFi spots can give your position within ~50feet while cellphone towers can give both approximate location and speed. If you live in Boston or NYC you can appreciate why this is important.
video-cams. I'm a big believer in hands-free driving and I mention this as something I'm not particularly keen on seeing, but I think it's inevitable. . Practically every cell-phone has a built-in camera, and skype, google-chat, jabber etc. all offer video-chat over VoIP (even on broadband phone) I'm afraid we're going to see video-chat available car stereos... the NHSI will insist it only work when the car is in "park" but that will be bypassed and hacked.
email - receivers with bluetooth modules can already download your address book and make calls from your phone. It's almost a no-brainer that they'll be able to sync with your blackberry or iPhone to check & send email. again, not while driving please!
Internet - you can implement this yourself now, but built-in internet browsers running on 3G mobile networks will give companies another source of revenue sharing as users will need to have a data-rate subscriptions (probably $10-15/month).
Internet radio - if you've got the internet, you can have internet radio. This could be Sirius/XM's fiercest competition. Makes paying $10/month for a data-rate plan almost sensible.
Smart Anti-theft systems. There's a number of computer programs out there that will discretely broadcast the location of your laptop or phone if it is stolen. Some will even take pictures of the thief and email it to you. Kind of like lo-jack for your car stereo.
SSD hard drives built in - Forget needing your iPod every time you go for a drive. 16GB NAND chips are the manufacturing norm, with contract prices dropping below $14/chip. It's feasible for every mid-level receiver to have internal storage, even the single DIN units that never had space for a 1.8" HDD.
that's all I have right now. What do you see being implemented in car-stereos over the next several years?
This has led me to think quite a bit about what features currently exist but haven't seen broad implementation in car stereos. I'm not saying these are features that I personally want, or even that these are features that *should* be implemented.
None of these ideas are original, all are commerically available in some form (marine, mobile phone, digicam, laptop, etc). Feel free to make additions, add comments, but please don't flame me - this is just a fun exercise in what could be available in the next few years.
Screen resolution - mobile phones & digital cameras now sport displays that have more total pixels and higher pixel density than todays in-dash 7" nav screens. Sharper screens = easier to read text, better video
color LCD screens in general - everything from cheap mobile phones to digital picture frames have color LCD screens these days, so it's pretty shocking to look at car stereos and notice that most still use backlit alphanumeric displays capable of only a line (or 3) of text.
tactile feedback - admittedly new on the scene, this would be perfect for those 7" nav-screens. Makes using a touch-screen feel more like pressing actual buttons than tapping on a cold sheet of glass.
GPS dead-reckoning. This has been present in marine plotters for years to give a position when satellite linkups fail, and car GPS units loose linkups frequently (around skyscrapers, under tree-canopies, through tunnels or during thunderstorms). Some car GPS units tap into the vehicle's speed sensor wire, but there are other methods that are easy to implement: If you get an intermittent satellite lock, software can chart where you will be on your route given your destination, your most-frequently traveled routes (tracklines) and speedlimits. WiFi spots can give your position within ~50feet while cellphone towers can give both approximate location and speed. If you live in Boston or NYC you can appreciate why this is important.
video-cams. I'm a big believer in hands-free driving and I mention this as something I'm not particularly keen on seeing, but I think it's inevitable. . Practically every cell-phone has a built-in camera, and skype, google-chat, jabber etc. all offer video-chat over VoIP (even on broadband phone) I'm afraid we're going to see video-chat available car stereos... the NHSI will insist it only work when the car is in "park" but that will be bypassed and hacked.
email - receivers with bluetooth modules can already download your address book and make calls from your phone. It's almost a no-brainer that they'll be able to sync with your blackberry or iPhone to check & send email. again, not while driving please!
Internet - you can implement this yourself now, but built-in internet browsers running on 3G mobile networks will give companies another source of revenue sharing as users will need to have a data-rate subscriptions (probably $10-15/month).
Internet radio - if you've got the internet, you can have internet radio. This could be Sirius/XM's fiercest competition. Makes paying $10/month for a data-rate plan almost sensible.
Smart Anti-theft systems. There's a number of computer programs out there that will discretely broadcast the location of your laptop or phone if it is stolen. Some will even take pictures of the thief and email it to you. Kind of like lo-jack for your car stereo.
SSD hard drives built in - Forget needing your iPod every time you go for a drive. 16GB NAND chips are the manufacturing norm, with contract prices dropping below $14/chip. It's feasible for every mid-level receiver to have internal storage, even the single DIN units that never had space for a 1.8" HDD.
that's all I have right now. What do you see being implemented in car-stereos over the next several years?