Electric Bill's Van-Puter does his Dodge Caravan proud
By Paul Miller 
posted Feb 14th 2008 11:46AM
posted Feb 14th 2008 11:46AM
posted Feb 14th 2008 11:46AM
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Yay! I've always wanted to get into a car accident.
Thankfully, when cars are able to drive themselves, we won't have to worry about paying complete and total attention to the road. Here's hoping...
Ok, is it just me, or is anyone else wondering what the @#$& he needs to print going 85 on the highway?!?
Does he need to give the cop who pulled him over a receipt for the $500 dollar ticket he's going to get for surfing while driving?
I'm sorry Dave, I can't drive you there.
I really want to know what is so important that you have to look at a friggin computer screen while driving. At my job, I have to stare at a monitor for 9 hours daily. Driving a car is beauty rest for my eyes.
Someone's spending a little too much time in their car ;)
@John: You have to get that last minute bid in! You can't let someone steal that "must have" item out from under your nose at the last minute!
Carputers are supposed to be used for GPS, Bluetooth, Media centers, Backup cameras, car monitoring, etc. I don't know why you guys act like he's gonna use this thing for surfing the web while driving.
So I take it none of you have or ever will get a navigation in your car? --- yeah.. I thought so.
@wireless.nemo
Hrmm... let me think. MAYBE BECAUSE HE'S GOT MY.YAHOO.COM LOADED IN THE PICTURE.
No touchscreen? Lame.
Carputers are OLD news. And I do mean OLD. I have one in my PT (well, had, before I recently totaled it) - handy, but a touchscreen is a must.
was the inclusion of a computer and the totaling of the car a coincidence?
Ditto... I have more than this in my bug:
http://www.midiwall.com/bug/#carpc
I do enough terribly risky things while I drive...
I would undoubtedly die with this in my car. I would hope that it wasn't mentioned as a cause of death in my obituary although I suspect it would make engadget.
It seems to be more tech inside a car,also it leads to traffic violation.
That's so getting stolen the second you're in a bad area.
Law enforcement has been doing this for years, but anyone can get those mounts and docks for their laptop or computer setups.
I help set them up regularly for police, and they can be a big hassle. And if you want a passenger to ride with you, these setups aren't the way to go.
They are generally unsafe during an accident, and they can be distracting (leading to a higher likelihood of getting into an accident in the first place). There's alot of bare metal that can get shoved through someone due to an airbag deployment, so in many cases the airbag is removed before installing these systems, leaving the passenger without a critical safety device. As if a bulky laptop/monitor/keyboard flying around the car wasn't bad enough.
Most things are unsafe during an accident.
I keep a pointed steal bar in my backseat just in case there are not enough dangerous objects flying around when I get into an accident.
... damn, a good snarky comment foiled by a spelling oversight.
I didn't notice it until you pointed it out, but now that you have, I feel the need to make fun of you. It helps my self esteem. Here we go:
Yeah, and a steel bar would hurt too.
No hard feelings.
None taken. I noticed it right after I hit submit :p
Good 'ol XP...
Cue the OS fanboys/haters in 3...2...
Imagine the look on the face of the cop when this guy gets pulled over watching porn. LCD cleaner in the glovebox, and no that is not 'printer paper'.
Talk about a very "unclassy" install.
And then I read "Caravan" and I understood.
That setup would have been much more useful with something like a 9" or 12" touchscreen.
As for safety, that's easy: wire into the OBDII port and have the touchscreen become disabled when the car is moving or in gear, just like OEM systems.
I was thinking that too - or better yet - a slate tablet w/ a touch screen. Nothing more complicated than a DC to DC adapter for power and a stand to mount the tablet on. Used ones can be had for a good price.
His design needs a LOT more work.
WHY is this news worthy? I've had a 15" touchscreen LCD in my astro panel van for over a year now. I use a ram-mount with a vesa adapter, there is an entire industry for this, this is NOTHING NEW. mp3car.com, stupid
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f316/jizzajam/DVC00045.jpg
yey me, i'm the shit
Any mod that makes a blowjob impossible while driving = crap in my books.
Yeah but there's porn.
Wow. Some dude put a computer in his car. I'm amazed. Frontpage news.
Wow... this one really does play doom!!!
Oh..... I'm so sorry.....
It'd be a sweet idea, if you could fit dual 8800GTs and a QX9750 in it. MicroATC possibly to small though.
Anyway, yah, carputers are old news.
Dude, where's my Firefox?
He calls himself a geek and he's using IE???
Excuse me, but just because you don't like IE7, doesn't mean it's complete crap.
IE7 may not be the best, but it's a pretty ok browser. At least give him credit for using the latest version, IE6 is horrible.
While I'm not saying other browsers aren't better in some way, I still think IE7 is way more streamlined and simple to use, has the best built-in RSS feeds, awesome tabbed browsing, and add-ons are pretty good for the most part.
So please don't flame other browsers. It's just a browser for pete sakes.
Calm down dear. When did I say anything bad about IE?
"you're in a Jonny cab, please state your destination"
He can use it to read the news report about his auto accident while he's still sitting on the side of the road.
I took a cab in Minneapolis and the driver was watching a pirated copy of ratatouille on a 17 inch laptop, while he drove. lol.
Wonder which one crashes first, the car or the computer....