Custom Toyota MR2 carputer presents the ultimate distraction for drivers

This insanely kitted out Toyota MR2 is being put up for sale by its owner somewhere in Germany -- he's a highly motivated seller, provided you have the prerequisite electronics and programming (especially Visual Basic) skills. The standard gauges and indicators in the car have been removed, replaced with touch screens and a console mounted iDrive knob, offering the pilot of this machine control over almost every aspect of its operation: climate control, GPS, fuel consumption, mirrors, radar/laser, wireless transfer of music from a home computer, lights, fog lights... and the all-important VCD playback. Also listed on the original posting is something called the "police button" which "virtually controls the police." This might have been something that Google mistranslated, but we prefer to think otherwise.

[Via Autoblog]

[bryan @ Sep 14th 2008 4:08PM]

K.I.T.T.

[EmoChicksAreHot.....Seriously @ Sep 14th 2008 4:40PM]

if it wasn't for Joseph making the first reference I would have said the same thing.

[Erik @ Sep 14th 2008 4:10PM]

Its a Toyota MR2, not M2.

[TheKillerDynamo @ Sep 14th 2008 4:12PM]

It's even on the floor mats, how hard is that to miss?

[Tony @ Sep 14th 2008 4:25PM]

Not to mention the website is MR2forum.de. That doesn't even require translation.

What kind of tech blog is this?

[Conrad @ Sep 14th 2008 5:23PM]

There's been a lot of typos on here lately it seems. Seriously though saying M2 instead of MR2 is just dumb.

Sweet car none the less

[Kyle @ Sep 14th 2008 4:11PM]

Another letdown from the engadget staff...

That's an MR2 not M2.
It even says it on the floormats for pete's sake!

[steven @ Sep 14th 2008 5:05PM]

Who cares? It's a piece of crap Toyota.

[SupaYoYoMan @ Sep 14th 2008 5:28PM]

MR2 is an awesome car! My first car as well. Handles like a dream and is fairly easy to maintain... :-\ kinda sad you guys didn't get the name right..

but the computer is pretty sick..

[iEye @ Sep 14th 2008 5:35PM]

Actually the MR2, just like the Nissan 300zx, was a jewel, designed with a little flair and a proper little roadster to boot. Unfortunately the problem lies within the brains! BRAINS!, of the people who think they are driving a supercar, and cannot resist the urge to SpLuRgE on gigantic wings, rims and other wal-mart crap to make it look "cool"

Now as long as you don't "customize" it or try to egg on people in Buick GN's and such other cars... they are nice to have around...

[Nipponese @ Sep 15th 2008 1:06AM]

@steven

You have no idea what the MR2 is do you? It was the first midship sports car to go to production in Japan, when Toyota tried to beat Nissan to the punch when the rumored Nissan mid4 was to come out (which they never produced). MR2 is a great pleasure to drive with its 50/50 weight ratio and its light weight body on a RWD drive train. Its agility in corners is next to none, almost akin to carts.

[Jensen @ Sep 16th 2008 2:38PM]

The MK1 mk2 was around 44/56 front/rear weight distribution. It makes for a lot of tail-happy fun with the RWD, especially with the SC option in 88-89. The MK2 is also super tail-happy, especially without the LSD and with the turbo in 1991 and up.

[jcy @ Sep 14th 2008 4:14PM]

do you guys not feel embarassment when you make mistakes like this b/c you think the internet is overly informal and mistakes are self-correcting in the comments? if so, you disgust me.

[▀█▀ █ ▀█▀ ▄█▀ @ Sep 14th 2008 4:16PM]

This isn't even legal to drive in Germany :(

[Freakin Ijit @ Sep 14th 2008 4:22PM]

It's not legal to have video display visible to a driver in some (many?) states in The States, either, unless the display is for car diagnostics, etc - DVD/movie playing is right out.

Maybe the police button puts up a fast diagnostic display...

[brandon @ Sep 14th 2008 5:02PM]

Yay for tits!!!

[KGB @ Sep 14th 2008 4:16PM]

Its even posted in MR2 forums!!

But the car is very cool. Car makers should look in to this.

[greg @ Sep 14th 2008 7:47PM]

no machine guns, rocket launchers, or stealth setting? no thanx

[Lee @ Sep 14th 2008 9:25PM]

Hey KGB,

It won't be the Russian secret police chasing you in a James Bond rendition. You will need the auto oil slick, heat seaking rockets, cluster bombs and machines guns when the Biatch Palin-Ole Fart McCain raise the twisted cross on PA AVE after which everyone is a presumed terrorist that must be destroyed. Seig heil to the corporations. That is when you will need a pimped out machine like the 1 above to skitter away like the good guy you are!

[Anton @ Sep 14th 2008 4:17PM]

And here I though people weren't distracted enough while texting at the wheel.

[BigD145 @ Sep 14th 2008 4:45PM]

Hey now. I need to shave and apply mascara while I drive.

[Fubar @ Sep 14th 2008 6:50PM]

Wait, shave *and* mascara?

OK, on second thought, I don't want to know.

[Chris @ Sep 14th 2008 4:19PM]

Hey I´m form Germany.
So the google translation isn't that good. The police button fades out some informations on the screen if you get into a police control or something similar.

[huhu @ Sep 14th 2008 4:38PM]

Yeah...you´re right. I´m from Germany, too.

The steering wheel looks "(&!"%§ though...

[Froggy @ Sep 14th 2008 4:20PM]

so, if it's running vista, will you have to confirm "yes, I do want to break" when on the autobahn at 130 mph? cos that might be a little annoying.

[PeterF @ Sep 14th 2008 4:24PM]

HAHA That is SO hilarious!
NOT!

[Reece @ Sep 14th 2008 4:43PM]

You mean 'brake,' right?

[Illrigger @ Sep 14th 2008 5:16PM]

No, it's OSX, and you need to type your password to do it.

[Xander @ Sep 14th 2008 4:23PM]

Did anyone else notice that those screen look like the are modeled after the Star Trek LCARS screens? Very impressive by the way, wish I could do something like that for my F-150.

[kadajawi @ Sep 14th 2008 5:39PM]

Yeah, noticed that too. Awesome. Great car.

[Logan Five @ Sep 14th 2008 7:51PM]

Yeah, I noticed the LCARS derived theme as well. Looks very cool.

[mrhett @ Sep 14th 2008 4:23PM]

wtf? the steering wheel kills the car.

[emptystreets130 @ Sep 14th 2008 4:37PM]

that's the original steering wheel.

[Doug @ Sep 14th 2008 8:12PM]

Hahaha, Basic steering wheel ftw! lolz!

[computer.dude.28 @ Sep 14th 2008 4:25PM]

The police button probably just shuts the screen off.

[MadMike @ Sep 14th 2008 4:41PM]

Or it could track them from the MDT data. 99% of that stuff is unencrypted. Only S.W.A.T and Tactical channels are encrypted. So in the US you can technically get GPS data from the police cars.

[EmoChicksAreHot.....Seriously @ Sep 14th 2008 4:52PM]

"Michael,it's the po-po!Hit the "Police Button!"

It either
A:turns everything off
B:Turns on a radar detector/jammer
C:Turns you into a high class middle age white man if your black.

[bill @ Sep 15th 2008 10:38PM]

Uh, no. It lets you control the police! Learn how to read!!

[Benson @ Sep 14th 2008 5:08PM]

A:Engages quad turbos and nitrous injection for an extra ~400 hp. Spoilers then deploy at 85 mph.

[Benson @ Sep 14th 2008 5:09PM]

s/A/D/

Not sure how I botched that up.

[Gareth @ Sep 14th 2008 4:26PM]

Someone's a Trek fan.

Is that a LCARS based interface or what?!

[pgpprotector @ Sep 14th 2008 4:45PM]

VB.NET works fine for creating real time software, I've seen it used in production environments without issues.

[noname @ Sep 14th 2008 4:46PM]

Actually I love it - of course there are some usability problems, but it seems far more informational and usable then many factory sollutions.

[aaron @ Sep 14th 2008 5:14PM]

Wait wait! Let's point out one more redundant time that it's an MR2 and not an M2. Hilarious.

[Michael @ Sep 14th 2008 5:15PM]

I have an MR2 Spyder, and I've been eyeing the Mac Mini Carputer system to add to it, however, I do want a turbo as well. Oh decisions!

[POV @ Sep 14th 2008 5:37PM]

I would definitely have opted for something other than 'Madonna - Give it 2 me' playing whilst taking those shots. I can just see 'LaroCroft' cruising to his Madonna tunes.

[lanejasper69 @ Sep 14th 2008 5:38PM]

hahaha, And one system crash and you lose complete control of the car....this is soooooo 80's

[lanejasper69 @ Sep 14th 2008 5:40PM]

I for one know it's an MR2 now, thanks all...I needed those multiple posts

But, If I wanted an M2 lets say, where would I find one?

[Steve Childs @ Sep 15th 2008 5:42AM]

Kent England, although its probably not the M2 you were thinking of...

[meinnit @ Sep 14th 2008 5:56PM]

Looks like he still needs the standard lcd clock to tell him the time though.