The Carputer

A few short years ago, the idea of a computer in the car was the next great frontier for Microsoft to conquer. After all, they already owned your computer on your desk at work and home, had taken over your living room (well…they’re still working on that one…), and were wondering where to go next. The carputer never quite materialized the way they thought it would, but the concept is far from dead.

In fact all late model cars have silicon chips in them already. There are electronics that control the air fuel mixture and modulate the antilock brakes, among a host of other tasks. However, the idea for a carputer is usually more than those mundane tasks that go on "behind the scenes," or should I say "under the hood?"

Perhaps today’s GPS units will become the carputer. With integrated touch LCD screens, they’re off to a strong start. Now that the GPS units have navigation down, the trend is to add in other features. We already have units that can play MP3’s, download subscription based traffic data, and interface with a Bluetooth cell phone to act as an external mic and speaker. As these feature sets standardize, this is probably all the abilities that a carputer should be doing anyway. While the current crop of navigation units has trouble playing music as it navigates, I’m sure the newer gear will multitask better.

I believe that music files will drive the segment. I’d like to see a GPS that can play MP3’s off of a removable card, or even a thumb drive, or small external hard drive. Another option is to have it wirelessly download new tracks every month, kind of an automatic Napster To Go type of subscription. An internal drive that operated along the lines of an Apple Shuffle when connected to the desktop would be another way to keep the tracks fresh.

I'm also thinking that the future may not belong to GPS. While only a minority of us have GPS in our cars, we all carry cell phones. Perhaps the future belongs to smart phones. They can already play music, and are working on fuller featured video offerings. GPS can be added via a dedicated and integrated chip, a separate wirelessly connected module, or via the terrestrial cell towers (although if you're really in the middle of nowhere then it won't work as a phone or navigator!). It may be easier for consumers to upgrade along this path, then to buy a separate product. With the perks offered for upgrading your phone and resigning a contract, and manufacturers running out of features to add, smartphone GPS may be fertile soil for feature additions.

I’ll be watching CES, and beyond, very carefully to see what product(s) come close to fulfilling this carputer ideal. while I'm not sure exactly which product will become the ultimate carputer, it's clear that we'll all be getting more silicon next to the driver's seat for over the next few years.

--Jonas

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