Car Computers: what are they good for?

[ahhaa]

We were chortling at the new Lincoln 'Starships don't need keys' advert; no wonder American automakers are in trouble- apparently all their designers are still limo'd to work.
Here in Michigan, even in Detroit, we have winter weather which frequently coats your car (especially the glass) in an inch or so of ice and crusty snow. So unless your phaser (set on stun) melts ice, you are stuck relying on an old-fashioned scraper to clear the patch of glass where the door lock combination is located. Of course the scraper is stored... inside the car. Sound like a good Seinfeld ep?

There are things that computers in cars are good for: keeping kids quiet and adding miles-per-gallon indicators to the gas gauge are two I'd want in all cars.

There are lots of things -like parking assist and 'fogsight' -where the jury is still out.

What would you want a car computer to do?

[redwudz]

On the West coast, car computers are fairly common with the car customizers. They use them for multimedia displays on 22" and bigger TVs installed in the trunk that fold down when they are opened. This to go along with 5000W+ sound systems. As far as being useful, no idea about that.



The Mini-ITX type of single board computers are popular for car use as some can run on 12VDC and the CPU is included with the motherboard. Some examples from NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Descr...=itx&x=20&y=31

[edDV]

Homeless computing?

[ahhaa]

nifty- DIY drive-in movies!

[usually_quiet]

On the West coast, car computers are fairly common with the car customizers. They use them for multimedia displays on 22" and bigger TVs installed in the trunk that fold down when they are opened. This to go along with 5000W+ sound systems. As far as being useful, no idea about that.

I can imagine a system like the one shown might be handy for watching the game during tailgate parties hosted by fans who can't get tickets to the game and just hang out in stadium parking lots. ...Also for other outdoor parties.

[gadgetguy]

I would want it to log my miles every time I stop and turn off the engine, along with GPS coordinates and the ability for me to designate whether the miles were for business, commuting, or personal, and to set which is default if I don't explicitly designate. In addition I want it to provide the capability to create a log file that I can copy to a thumbdrive in a format that I can edit and print out at tax time, including all information about the vehicle required by the tax code. It also needs to be upgradable as the tax laws change, and have the ability to retrofit into any automobile, foreign or domestic, manufactured within the last 30 years.

That's not too much to ask, now is it?

[yoda313]

I do like that SYNCH system Microsoft and Ford put together.

Is that compatible with any mp3 player or just bluetooth enabled ones? That would be slick to hook up my zune and do voice activation with it

[sitlet]

Here in Michigan, even in Detroit, we have winter weather which frequently coats your car (especially the glass) in an inch or so of ice and crusty snow. So unless your phaser (set on stun) melts ice, you are stuck relying on an old-fashioned scraper to clear the patch of glass where the door lock combination is located. Of course the scraper is stored... inside the car.

haha i never thought about that. one thing i always wondered about, do these computers have an actual hard drive? or are they using flash based drives now? like you said, up north here it gets very cold, sometimes my car stereo wont even turn on until the heat warms it up. i cant imagine how bad that could be for a standard motorized hard drive.

[redwudz]

The Mini-ITX computers use a regular hard drive, but you could easily use a sold state memory module. The ITX MBs are also commonly used on video arcade games and for industrial control systems. The computers themselves are pretty tough and will work in a box under the dash or stuffed in a trunk. Most of the car customizers use regular hard drives, but that's in S California.

gadgetguy, if your GPS would interface with a computer and you could write a bit of code or a simple program, a small car computer could probably do all of what you want. But so could a laptop. The GPS system used on big rig trucks includes a radio link back to the home office that tracks the vehicles location and speed and the drivers performance. Some transit buses now include a similar system where the shop mechanics can monitor the engine and transmission performance and modify it remotely if they feel the driver is going too fast or abusing the drive train. Or if they just want to mess with the driver.

[gadgetguy]

That was my point. I want a car computer to do all of these things, not a string of add-on components that you have to remove from the car every time you leave it for fear of having them stolen, (especially a laptop).
BTW, I do not own a GPS and probably won't until it can actually do something that I find practical.

[ahhaa]

aahh... y'know I forgot to mention the other OMG Lincoln 'spaceship' spot...

It uses a snippit of David Bowie's 1969 classic mini-space epic Space Oddity: 'Ground Control to Major Thom', which continuing, launches into tragedy with:

And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much (she knows!)
Ground Control to Major Thom
Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Thom?
Can you hear me, Major Thom?
Can you hear me, Major Thom?
Can you hear....

You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSYbRiYwTY

One wonders just who is getting pink slips at Ford these days.

According to Wikipedia:
In September, 2008, Marshall (Cat Power Charlyn "Chan" Marshall) and members of the Dirty Delta Blues (Erik Paparazzi & Gregg Foreman) recorded their version of David Bowie's Space Oddity for a Lincoln car commercial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Marshall

[gadgetguy]

Are these the same spots that suggest a starter button is a major innovation? I saw that and thought, "next they'll be showing the latest innovation, a crank handle".

[redwudz]

I had a friend that had a old VW bug. The starter went out and he wasn't looking forward to changing it. It's usually easier to just pull the engine out than try to get to it when the motor's in place. I showed him the rope starter that those models came equipped with. You open up the hood, wrap the rope around the pulley, and with your foot against the bumper, give it a good pull. He laughed his ass off and started it that way for a month before he replaced the electric starter. It reminded me of starting a lawn mower.

Just to add, quite a few GPS units will interface with a computer. Even my old B&W screen Garmin would do that. And if you have the map software installed on your laptop, it will give you real time movements on the map. I use my new TomTom GPS quite a bit. I'm new to this area and there are a lot of freeways, so trying to read a map while driving is all but impossible. My GPS tells me when to turn and takes me right to any address I plug into it.

Most any car now has at least a couple of processors installed. The main one is the engine computer, but you may also have one for your anti-lock brakes and one in your radio. If you have a GPS or a cell phone, that's two more.