http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/09/01/8384349/index.htm?postversion=2006102617The article itself is a couple of months old, but I only just discovered it and its still a neat article so I thought I'd post it up.
The most interesting idea there to me is the first one - the ultimate iDrive. iDrive is a reference to BMW's infamous car console computer, which was difficult to use (improved now I've heard), crashed/froze (poor programming probably - Windows CE is actually quite good), and in one case,
locked a Thai minister in the car (although BMW denies it has to do with the iDrive system).
There's so much potential in the idea, and there's no doubt that cars in the near future will have more and more powerful ones. In fact, its already filtering down to cars like the new
Toyota Aurion (its all in the definition, but I think an integrated GPS/sound system, along with the dashboard trip computer can be considered as one). The fact that most new cars now don't feature the double-din space anymore is another indicator.
As like most new car features, the nice, expensive cars get the perks first, before it filters down to the cheaper ones. Cockpit-style projected displays are already being used in many new luxury models, including
BMW, for safety features. And we're just touching the surface - soon enough we'll be able to pick songs, set GPS directions, book events in advance, read SMSes etc. Of course, they'd all be smart enough to only function when the car is stationary, as is already the case with most in-built GPS systems nowadays.
The enthusiast community over at
mp3car have developed a lot of the software that makes this possible already, and there are a heap of awesome installations, though not projected displays yet.
It's good that VCs want to invest in developing new battery technology too, although its not something I'm particularly interested in. Battery technology is currently one of the biggest things holding back further technological advances - devices are getting smaller, performing more and more functions, yet batteries are not keeping up. My mate working at 3 tells me people complain about the crappy battery life on their phones all the time. With people changing from their old mobile that only sends and receives calls and messages, to their new fancy 3G service with movie and music players and on-demand content, their battery life drops from upwards of 4-5 days to a max of 2 days, if that (my O2 Xda Atom lasts no more than 1.5 days, struggles with a single day if I use WiFi at all - and its 2G!).
The one around transforming how users interact with web content is also an awesome idea. Mobile phone UIs haven't changed much at all since Nokia released the 2110E (remember that brick?). They're still mainly menu & button based, with nice icons. And with more and more features being added, the UI is becoming more and more bloated. Maybe when Apple finally releases the much-rumoured iPhone, we'll finally see a revolution.