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AT THE WHEEL
February 24, 2020
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February 24, 2020
DRIVING OR SURFING?
Dyan Seneviratne waits patiently for promised tech advancement
Comparing today’s car manufacturing industry with computers is like contrasting two different generations of technology. We’ve got super-fast smartphones and iPods streaming the coolest music in our pockets but have satellite radio and clunky GPS devices attached to our dashboards. Carmakers are aware that they’re somewhat behind the times and many are promising that by 2021, dashboard and safety systems as sophisticated as iPads will be available to drivers.
WIFI Most of the technology on this list would be fairly useless if the car wasn’t a rolling WiFi hot spot. Several carmakers are already working on developing WiFi for vehicles. In fact, a connected car is the third fastest growing technological device after smartphones and tablets.
Ford has introduced this in some models with its Sync system and Toyota is working with Intel to develop one of its own. Ideally, these systems will also have the ability to connect to your home network, enabling you to transfer information from a computer or laptop directly to your car.
VOICE Perhaps like WiFi, this is the most vital technological advancement in vehicles. If texting increases accident rates, what will happen when drivers can tweet, update their Facebook page and watch videos on YouTube?
Voice recognition is still making its way from novelty to necessity even in the smartphone world as it’s proven to be a difficult technology to master. But there’s arguably an urgent need for car manufacturers more than any other industry to succeed in this field.
At this time, Apple’s Siri is the only voice recognition system that’s come in for high praise… and even Siri is a long way from what’s really needed – i.e. safety, precision and wondrous user-friendliness.
DASHBOARD You’re on the road and it’s time to find a hotel. Today, you might fumble with your phone, use an app to search for something nearby and get direc-tions. But by next year, your dashboard will likely resemble a giant iPad.
This will hopefully mean that your vehicle’s system can be linked to whatever cloud service your smartphones and tablets use – and this will allow you to keep up to date with text messages, calls, emails, social network updates and apps from behind the wheel.
So when you’re ready to check in, you can open apps like the hotel portal HRS with a vocal command and talk your car through a map based search, browse rates and room types, view photos and videos (hopefully while you’re parked), and book a room.
Toyota calls the system it is working on in partnership with Intel and Microsoft the Human Machine Interface (HMI). These digital dashboards may turn your USB mobile broadband modem or smartphone into a wireless router like Ford’s Sync system. So making calls and finding music will be voice controlled.
HOLOGRAPHS GEElab (Games and Experimental Entertainment Laboratory) is possibly the best project title ever. It is currently working on an ‘in car’ entertain-ment system tentatively called ‘Enjoyable Interactions in the Rear Seat.’
While games are the goal, the resulting holographic technology could also be used to display dashboard and control info, as well as GPS.
