Video: Land Rover LRX's iPhone personalizes your car settings

At the nexus of MacWorld and the Detroit Auto Show is this, the iPhone dock for the Land Rover LRX concept car. Our brethren at Autoblog had a chance to sit down with Mr. Sandy Boyes, the LRX's interior designer, to get a better understanding of the iPhone's role in the vehicle. When docked, the iPhone would upload your music, seat settings, steering wheel settings, and all the information for the car's "transfigurable displays." Better yet, he suggests that the dock (iPhone or otherwise) could be offered as a "premium pack" in near-term cars -- there's no need to wait. Check the video after the break.

[Jimmy Jones @ Jan 16th 2008 10:32AM]

and .........???

[Kit Cowan @ Jan 16th 2008 10:37AM]

That's a really LONG iPhone...

[insertAlias @ Jan 16th 2008 11:54AM]

longphone is long?

[TomTom2007 @ Jan 16th 2008 10:52AM]

what if the car theft doesn't own an iPhone...

[jakem @ Jan 16th 2008 10:52AM]

I'm sorry but why on earth would I want to buy a car with a dock slap bang in the middle of the centre console that only works with one phone. What happens when your contract ends and you HAVE to buy the latest fashionable phone (as will inevitably happen)? Can you upgrade your car on your phone contract or are you stuck with a stupid hole in your car that doesn't do half the things you bought it for? What a silly idea.

[Gregg @ Jan 16th 2008 11:05AM]

Listen carefully to what he says at 1:01

In other news USB is a universal standard that can accept many phones.....

[matthewlikestoburn @ Jan 16th 2008 3:02PM]

This is a concept car, or in other words, car that is a pretty as the designers can make it

[Adnan Osmani @ Jan 16th 2008 10:56AM]

My dreams of fucking up cars with an iPhone have now come true :)

[Razor1973 @ Jan 16th 2008 10:58AM]

Yes, it's nice, but come on already! There is life after Apple!

[John @ Jan 16th 2008 11:08AM]

It seems pointless to me. Why not just have a touch screen computer there and have it sync up with your PDA or smartphone via bluetooth when you get in the car? Bigger more nicely shaped screen maybe?

[patsy @ Jan 16th 2008 11:26AM]

Exactly. This begs for a new BT profile for that sort of thing, instead of tying an entire (expensive) car to one particular model phone. Fair enough, it's a concept, but that's just simply the wrong direction to take it. In fact, it would seem to make even more sense to do that sort of thing with a USB flash drive instead of a phone. Cheaper, smaller, can be kept on the keyring, less compatibility hassles. This is just more designer Apple worship and not much more.

[Landon @ Jan 16th 2008 11:19AM]

you say corporate synergy i say corporate shill

[Chris @ Jan 16th 2008 11:24AM]

And when I drop my phone in the tiolet and it stop working then what? I can't start my $70000 car?

[Chris @ Jan 16th 2008 11:25AM]

Need an edit button.

[Tachikomatic @ Jan 16th 2008 11:32AM]

Or a proofread before posting button.

[wrabbit @ Jan 16th 2008 11:51AM]

What exactly is it that you do with your iphone that you might drop it in the toilet... actually on second thought don't answer that.

And to be fair you could just as easily drop your keys in the toilet.

Having said I do think it's a ridiculous idea, at the very least this should be compatible with many devices not just iphone, and like others have pointed out, a dedicated system will perform much better.

[�j-�nit� @ Jan 16th 2008 3:08PM]

What happens when you drop your car keys in the toilet?

[Cuddy @ Jan 16th 2008 6:28PM]

if you guy were listening to what the man was saying you would have heard him say that it will not just be the jesus phone that the vehicle will work with.

And I have to agree with Chris in what he is trying to say, but let me take it one step further, what would happen if you phone gets lost or even stolen? then you would be left to buy a $400 or so replacement to start your LRX hmmmm

[euclid @ Jan 16th 2008 11:26AM]

I'm fed up of iEverything.

iPhones do not deserve to dock with magnificent beasts like Land Rovers.

[shaun @ Jan 16th 2008 11:33AM]

iThink you're a dick

[jere @ Jan 20th 2008 11:19PM]

*sigh* the day when land rovers were magnificent has come and gone... they look like fords now (besides the range rover sport).

[Andrew Tranchina @ Jan 16th 2008 11:30AM]

A perfect example of a car company saying "Hey! Look at us. We can ride the hype wave too!" I really used to love Land Rover. I currently drive a '04 Discovery. It was the last model they made before they became a Ford company. Now it's just a bunch of wannabe SUVs that will never see off road driving except for the occasional "oops I backed over the flower garden again." They might actually get stuck even trying to do that. It's a shame every car company is going crazy with the "sport" and completely removing the "utility."

[nicholas Black @ Jan 16th 2008 4:22PM]

As an owner of a 2008 Range Rover Winchester Edition I can undoubtedly say that you have NO idea what your talking about.

[Andrew Tranchina @ Jan 16th 2008 6:48PM]

Are you really trying to make the case that your Range Rover is anywhere near as capable as the Defender or Discovery or even the Range Rover for that matter as they were in the '90s? How many times have you actually driven through the mud or over rocks with your $80k SUV? What kind of tires came on your Range Rover? Do they look at home on the rocks or on the race track? I have owned 4 Land Rovers over the past 11 years. They were great. Back to my main point, since this is a tech blog, do you really think that the iPhone would have even been in the thoughts of Land Rover designers back when they were a British company that was trying to just make the "Best 4x4xfar"?

P.S. Did you know that the new LRX is built on the Ford Focus platform and has only 13cm of ground clearance? Your right, I don't know anything.

[sesos @ Jan 16th 2008 11:35AM]

I wouldn't be able to afford an iPhone after purchasing this fancy rig...

[Robert @ Jan 16th 2008 11:44AM]

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.....You need to understand that this is a great move forward in syncing your mobile phone (iphone) to start your car, this should be the direction we want. In the future we will use our "handheld" device (iphone) to start your car, open your house door, pay for shopping etc.

[William @ Jan 16th 2008 11:55AM]

Yes, my New 50,000 Car came with a nice little fob that I don't need a key, unlocks the doors, and sets my seats depending on which fob is in my hand. And heaven forbid I drop it in the toilent, it will only cost me a couple hundred bucks to get a new one, instead of having to up another two years contract to replace my phone.

I would prefer a smartcard/fob over a device linked to a phone carrier. Because as we all know, we are going to switch the moment our contract expires

[Argot @ Jan 16th 2008 11:57AM]

And after the next iPhone update the car will be known as "Land Rover LRX Brick"

[Juice @ Jan 16th 2008 1:10PM]

Land Rover thought they were going to be perceived as "cool" or something by doing this. Also creating some "hype" and probably hoping for a lil jump in stock. They honestly have no intention whatsoever in actually bringing this to production. They know it. We know it. Everybody knows it. They just screw around with these concept cars and somebody probably though "Hey let's put an iPhone dock in here cuz iPhones are totally the bees knees".

I hope their stock drops because of an obvious attempt to Woo us...

[Juice @ Jan 16th 2008 1:12PM]

But no intention of concepting something practical and useful. They wasted research dollars and research time showing they aren't really trying.

"Land Rover, they waste yours and my time".

[KSAT @ Jan 16th 2008 1:21PM]

So, only 1 other person is going to comment on the fact that the iPhone in the picture looks about 3-4 inches longer than what it really should be?

Did Engadget or AutoBlog distort this picture on purpose?? The iPhone is 2.5" wide by 4.5" long. The photo's looks to be 2.5"W by 7-8" long. Something is seriously wrong here.

Beyond that - I would tend to agree that a car that is adapted for a single-modeled phone for personal settings seems a bit ridiculous. But, I guess if you can afford this LRX, you can afford to go buy an iPhone to dedicate to it.

[dave @ Jan 16th 2008 1:38PM]

land rover drivers have longer iphones

[rlynd3 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:37PM]

true, and in the video he avoids touching the iphone. *me thinks its a fake*.

[mlody11 @ Jan 16th 2008 2:12PM]

That car looks like the remains of the garbage left over by whirlpool... Can you have any more chrome in a car that looks like complete ass with finger prints and make sure you are completely blind when the sun comes out while driving?

Also, a novel idea of cramming everything into a tiny display so we can have more room for nothing all around it. That will make it easy to read... Is the start button the only damn thing that phone displays?

Why the hell did I read this and why the hell am I writing this, to hell with th

[madwh @ Jan 16th 2008 6:38PM]

the future iPhone http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_Air

[Greg @ Jan 16th 2008 9:57PM]

The phone is secondary to the car’s main touch screen. You would not need a phone to start or operate the car.

They are showing how personal settings like music info and seat/steering wheel settings could be sent to the main touch screen from the iphone or another type of smart phone and also start your car from your phone if you like.