The New York Times > Technology > Technology Special > Your Phone Is Calling Your Car

cool, my car already has the Onstar service integrated with the dashboard display, but it could be better, and to be able to plug in 3rd party devices is icing.

Link: The New York Times > Technology > Technology Special > Your Phone Is Calling Your Car.

HOP in your car, turn the key and your phone book stares up at you from the liquid crystal display screen in your dashboard. Scroll through a list of missed calls or recently dialed numbers. Find the name you're looking for, press a button and the call rings through the car's sound system, all while your phone remains untouched in your jacket pocket.

Comments

[Rolf]

The article is incorrect in that this is something new. BMW for instance has had bluetooth connectivity, incl downloading your phone book to the car, availble for the last couple of years on most if not all of its models. Its as cool as it is practical. Now plugins, that would be cool, but car companies haven't embraced openess yet..

[jeff]

yeah Rolf, this isn't "new new" but the concept of integrating 3rd party devices into the factory a/v bus in modern vehicles is an emerging trend. For example, I used one of these to install a backup video camera in my wife's Denali, the backup image displays through the LCD that the navigation system uses. I can also power a DVD player with it.
http://www.logjamelectronics.com/pacvcigm1.html

It was really cool to be able to tap into the computer that runs all of the audio and video in the vehicle for something other than vehicle functions. The same company has an ipod harness that taps into the steering wheel controls for the sound system to drive the ipod.

Car companies will always lag behind the aftermarket product marketplace, especially as the increasing technology that car companies are deploying in vehicles is the off-the-shelf kind.

[VK]

"Phone book in the car"? Next up, your office files.

The car and the restroom have long lost their statuses as places we could escape to, even if briefly, to get away from it all. (Yes we've all smiled at the guy standing next to us in the restroom who got a phone call from his boss on his mobile after he unzipped..)

"But what if I miss something important?". Yes, that's why we keep feeding the growing business of Storage Rentals ..cause the garage is already full.

Sure you can get the phone-book in your car and then look up the number of your doctor who told you your BP problem is probably because of stress.

[jeff]

"Sure you can get the phone-book in your car and then look up the number of your doctor who told you your BP problem is probably because of stress."

that's good.

with people spending an increasing amount of time in their cars I would imagine that they have lost that escapist quality. I will be distressed when the can ceases to be escapist in nature.