Shuttle's CarPC -- because you can't spell car without PC

Shuttle has a new PC for the car coming dubbed the CarPC, for uh, obvious reasons. The PC measures in at 279 x 230 x 70-mm and features the ability to automatically shut itself down gracefully when you turn off your vehicle. Inside Shuttle's heat radiating "fin flake chassis" you'll find a 1.83GHz Intel T2400 Core Duo processor, unspecified memory and "hard disk" drive (although a shock resistant SSD would make more sense), along with Intel's GMA 950 graphics and 7.1 audio out. Judging by the pix, it'll also feature DVI video out, 4x USB, and a fixed Ethernet jack among other in/outs -- though how you'll access those after installation is a mystery. While we've seen previous in-vehicle prototypes from Shuttle sporting WWAN data, there's no mention of such niceties in this release.

[Runinintowalls @ Mar 19th 2007 10:17AM]

The ethernet port is so you and all your other super cool friends can have LAN parties in parking lots.

[Erwos @ Mar 19th 2007 10:20AM]

What's that connector on the top left? WiFi antenna, or TV tuner antenna?

The product seems like a good idea, especially if they ship it pre-configured for car usage.

[Marshall @ Mar 19th 2007 11:36AM]

It's the wifi antenna connector.

Seems to me like ethernet would be pretty pointless. Maybe a serial connector could replace it; some engine monitoring equipment and touchscreens still use serial.

[Alex @ Mar 19th 2007 10:40AM]

IMHO, the carputer would be a more compelling solution if there were more competitive GPS/map software solutions. I'm thinking a local copy of Google Maps or Mapquest would be pretty sweet..

[Sandra @ Mar 19th 2007 10:57AM]

There are plenty of GPS solutions for carPC's, I have a car PC and use IGuidance, superior to any normal automotive GPS's imo.

Disapointing they went with a DVI though as virtualy all monitors actualy used for capPC's have a 15 pin VGA connetor and with the tight fit usualy asosiated with capPC's the space a DVI-VGA adaptor takes up is not desirable.

[john @ Mar 19th 2007 12:48PM]

is this thing gonna be OK when its sitting in a black car during a summer in Texas with the windows closed?

[Nick Catalano @ Mar 19th 2007 11:12AM]

Sure, but will it start when it is 0F outside? Or when it is 90 outside...

[Sandra @ Mar 19th 2007 1:11PM]

If they used an automotive grade HDD yes, they are rated down to -20C to -40C depending on which one, a normal notebook HDD will work down to about 8F, that's when mine won't boot which happens very rarely, 2-3 times a year, +90F it has no problems at all.

[sandrahiltz @ Mar 19th 2007 11:21AM]

If they used an automotive grade HDD yes, they are rated down to -20C to -40C depending on which one, a normal notebook HDD will work down to about 8F, that's when mine won't boot which happens very rarely, 2-3 times a year, +90F it has no problems at all.

[Paul @ Mar 19th 2007 11:37AM]

A friend of mine just built a CarPC based around a laptop, and I know he has been talking about getting a wireless router to build into his car. That way if he is in his house and finds out he needs to transfer a file to the computer, he can turn it on remotely with a WOL signal, transfer files over to it, and then shut it back down, all without leaving his computer in his house.

As for the USB plugs, he ran extensions for those wires up to a USB hub on his dashboard. Then on the PC he has his WiFi adaptor, and Bluetooth adaptor.

[Dave @ Mar 19th 2007 1:12PM]

John, my thoughts exactly. I can't see any off-the-shelf HDD making it in a parked car during the Texas summer.

[Lee Gibson @ Mar 19th 2007 1:30PM]

Sandra, 90F is about fifty degrees too low for Texas summers inside cars.

[Derrick Williams @ Mar 19th 2007 1:39PM]

Looks like it shares a motherboard with the x100/x200 HTPC's. That would explain some of the strange features for a CarPC. Yeah, the gold connector in the upper left is for a wifi antenna, just like on their HTPC's.

[Emre Aydinceren @ Mar 19th 2007 1:57PM]

A few tunning-fan-boys may enjoy it, but it destined to fail for mass public appeal. Expectations for a car computer is already set so high, such as:
*boot up fast
*be stable
*do not cause any distraction to the driver
*be able to use with a few softkeys (no keyboard or mouse).

[jim jonze @ Mar 19th 2007 2:55PM]

It'd be a bit pricer, but one option would be to use a flash-based hard drive instead of one with magnetic platters. That way you don't have to worry about temperature or vibration as much. It'd be nice if they included a Express Card or PCMCIA slot for mobile boradband (although Sprint and Verizon have some nice USB EVDO cards). Get a touchscreen LCD, load up Vista with all of the Tablet PC features enabled, throw in Streets and Trips with a USB GPS module, and you could have a really nice automotive PC setup. The only concern I'd have is that Windows in my experience is kinda flaky with reliably going into Standby (especially compared to OS X on my Powerbook), so I'd be afraid that the CarPC would hang when sleeping or shutting down, leaving me stranded as it keeps running with an error message on the shutdown screen.

[Sandra @ Mar 19th 2007 5:03PM]

Lee, I wasn't talking in-car temps, that's outside temps, and I have a black car so much hotter inside on those +90F days, opperational temps of a standard notebook drive are 131F and non-opp of 149F, by the time the drive would be heating itself up your AC will have cooled down the car enough anyways, an automotive grade notebook drive will go up to 185F opperational temp so those would be good even without AC.

[ethana2 @ Mar 19th 2007 4:08PM]

I just want a car with two cameras in the front, engine and lights as peripherals, and my own laptop using OSS to turn the camera feeds into a 3d image, and perform lane tracking, interrupt handling, and navigation. Oh yeah. An electric car.

What's more, I want to help design it myself. When Open source hardware hits the automotive industry, we'll see some interesting things...

[Redian @ Mar 20th 2007 1:00AM]

Sandra, i have a CarPC installed in my car in a big pexiglass case i made myself.

i park my car outside, and every time i turn on my car, my carPC starts right away without needing to "warm up"


i live in the northeast, and i have a second small 4x16 lcd screen that gives me the temperature of the cpu/inside the case/cpu usage/ram usage.

when my car booted up this morning, the cpu was 6*C, inside the case was 4*C and it booted perfectly fine. the only problem is that the touchscreen can be unresponsive when it first starts in the cold, but that goes away after 30 seconds ^^


in heat, i actually routed part of my AC vents to the computer case, and can switch it on/off with will JUST INCASE. but even when my car was +100* F, the computer ran fine (albeit a little louder).

all in all, temperature really is irrelevant, its more shock proofing which needs to be improved. and like engadget said, SSD will fix that too ^^

although people have been using CF card --> IDE for awhile now, so its not that new. ^^ also, the ethernet is for a router inside the car which can connect to the internet via the verizon wireless network or sprint or whatever through PCIMA cards. yeah... i think that was on here too