It's no secret that Apple doesn't like buttons, making the iPhone nearly free of the things and then further pushing the offensive by cropping the
3G Shuffle down to one massively overloaded input. Nartron Corporation is Apple's partner in button hate, bringing that bias to Chrysler of all places to develop a next-gen dashboard for the company's 200C concept. The system is called iQ Power and is unabashedly iPhone-inspired, featuring big, colorful controls and even cover-flow album art for media browsing. Interestingly the system will allow "any smartphone" to be used as an intelligent key, unlocking doors and even accessing a video stream of the car's interior -- which should do wonders for your auto's battery life. The system naturally offers
UConnect and features a wireless tablet that allows passengers to send music recommendations to the driver's console. Of course, passengers could also just speak up, but when you're as flush with profits as Chrysler is, why not blow some cash researching useless tech like in-car messaging?
[Thanks, Josh, photo courtesy of Adam Bird for
The New York Times]
posted April 15th 2009 8:21AM
BUTTONS ARE NOT BAD!!!!!!!
especially not the caps lock...
Agreed
"Interestingly the system will allow "any smartphone" to be used as an intelligent key"
Awww... too bad the iPhone is NOT a smart phone...
it is a phone to make Dumb people FEEL smart...!
Eat it Apple!
True... Buttons are not bad at all - especially in cars. Buttons and switches in automobiles make them more usable, especially to old people or those with disabilities. (For that matter, old people or those with disabilities can't really use the i-Phone either... )
Any driver can keep his eye on the street and still switch the wipers on. This would not as intuitive and easy if he were to use a touch screen.
I'm inclined to agree with Sid here. We (as human drivers) have already developed muscle memory and familiarity with the controls of the modern car (headlights, wipers, radio, etc.). To introduce a radically new platform seems dangerous. All I can imagine is my mother trying to operate a touch screen while driving and ending up wrapped around a tree.
@wagon
Are you still driving stick then, or are you just against any major advancements that would affect you now? I'm sure every generation was upset when their perfect little world changed, but you shouldn't try to argue against progress.
What if everyone decided they liked candles better than light bulbs? Progress is a good thing, and society will always make accommodations for those who can't operate the standard equipment (I have a friend who is paralyzed from the waist down, his foot controls are just on the wheel).
Mmmm... Dohnuts. -"Are you still driving stick then, or are you just against any major advancements that would affect you now?"
_Still_ driving stick? Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Side note: why does everything that has a touch screen _have_ to be "iPhone" related?
Manual transmission FTW. The only thing better than manual transmission is the fixed-ratio gear or direct-drive they use in some electric cars. Its a simpler, more efficient system
Filling a car up with more gadgets can only be a bad thing - 10 years of driving this cheap Chinese touch screen rubbish along some pothole-infested road should be enough to put a good bit of it beyond use. Sure a few multi-touch gimmicks and a Facebook icon will do great to sell a car but it will be a real pain in the ass when it breaks.
I'm probably the biggest gadget freak around just don't want the stuff built into a car. Its less reliable and only uses more power
I agree. It's about getting tactile feedback. iPhone lovers might resent this, but the lack of a good voice-dialer makes having the phone a pain to use in the car.
I would rather have the buttons and not have to take my eyes off the road. Now, if you could introduce some kind of augmented reality system, THAT would be cool. Replacing buttons with touchscreens is no longer good enough to be "innovative."
Think about touch only keyboard for yor mac. Cant be done as most people type with eyes on screen. Now think about how safe it would be in cars if you have to look at dashboard screen for every switch. With switches you have to glance whereabout the switch is and then you can use it with feel. This wont work with touchscreens.
Not every new thing is a good thing. Like manual gear is superior to automatic in economics etc. Yes, I still drive stick and will drive in the future.
This 'advancement' with the mention of 'still driving stick' reminds me of another futuristic technology advancement where they replaced wheel and gaspedal with a stick. It was viewed as a better system but died on the prototype car. So to the guy asking 'if you still drive stick', are you still driving wheel? :)
Implementing fruity-like dashboard is like asking for every single hazard on the road. I mean you already need two hands to drive most times and using same two hands to multi-touch dashboard is nonsensical ....is that even a word?
...not to mention making the repair (replacement) cost even more expensive.
Half the time I don't even use my hands to drive, I just use a knee.
My hands are kind of busy touching the steering wheel when I'm driving. And a touchable dashboard? Maybe the center console, but why would having to reach around your steering wheel while driving be convenient? I'm having trouble enough changing the clock come DST.
Sometimes I think the guys at engadget want to be jerks. They are at least TRYING to innovate. Their lack of innovation is what got them to this point in the first place.
Ha!
This is NOT innovation..
Chrystler cars are %50 more crappy than GM... meaning there should be a scrap yard not 100 miles from a factory, and all new cars out the door should head towards said scrap yard post haste!
Nuke the head office...
This is stupidity.
i think the head office has pretty much nuked itself. this will never see the light of day. chrysler is toast.
Touch screen in a car is just asking for an accident!!! I mean to use any sort of touch screen you need to look at the display.... shouldn't your eyes be on the road???
I bet most car users change the channel on the radio, volume, indicator, light etc by feeling the buttons, not looking at there they are located each time!
Looks good, but in practice its an incredibly stupid and dangerous idea!!!
That's exactly what I thought. When I do something on the dash, i quickly glance to see what button I want to hit, then do it out of the corner of my eye. I'm not focused on some menu system where I have to constantly look and touch to get to the function I want. Ever been a passenger while the driver is scrolling through tracks on their Ipod mini? I can only imagine what this would bring in real life. Maybe touch interfaces for the video system pointed at the passengers, but for the driver? A dangerous distraction.
Yeah I totally agree. Any controls in a car that aren't hands-free should be based on physical buttons that ideally would each have a unique and easily recognizable shape. I rarely if ever look at my car stereo when changing stations, or tracks, or volume, or whatever else.
like that won't be a driving distraction at all. I can just see people having their eyes glued to the dash doing whatever; without ever looking up at the road; thus causing a serious accident.
I can change the volume on my car radio, turn off the airconditioner, use a stick shift, turn on the lights and use my windscreen wipers (all five modes) all without looking at them. Why? Because they provide haptic feedback... like buttons do. Touchs requires looking at the screen, and when you're looking at the screen, you're not looking at the road. Sounds like an awful idea.
Same thought here, most I control with my wheel instead of fiddling with the buttons somewhere on the dash and even so atleast i can do that without looking at what i´m touching. Now imagine touching blindly your dashboard which is a touchscreen and accidently you hit the gps instead of your radio and switch it towards a different location. This is just begging for troubles.
Further.. seriously engadget did Apple invent the touchscreen? I don´t think so, plenty of companies are already integrating them in their gadgets for a long time.
*facepalm*
Stuff like your car controls should be physical buttons that are easily distinguishable in function by feel. I should be able to operate any of the controls in my car without having to look away from the road.
Spot on!
In the winter time when I'm wearing gloves, I can see this type of thing either not working or get completely annoying.
"cropping the 3G Shuffle down to one massively overloaded input"
I'd hardly call the remote an input. Hell, it's on the output device (headphones).
Also, I sincerely hope that this isn't a sign of things to come.
I think the fact that the guy in the pic is leaning forward, placing his whole palm (at least his open hand) on the dashboard, and NOT LOOKING OUT THE GIANT WINDOW IN FRONT OF HIM, are all damn good reasons that this is a damn bad idea. And people bitch about BMW's iDrive.
If you look at the windscreen (windshield in US), it looks like the pedestrian he's hit flying over the roof!
I Lol'd...
We can look forward to even more car accidents in the future.
Unlike the Engadget editors, I can actually see the point of that 'passengers send music requests' thing, though. That way they won't have to bug the driver, and he won't have to fiddle around with the stereo when he should be keeping his attention to the road.
"Passengers send music requests"??
When I'm driving, it's MY choice of music.
Or silence.
Like it, or lump it.
I'm driving, I'm in charge of the vehicle.
"I'd hardly call the remote an input. Hell, it's on the output device (headphones)."
...that still doesn't mean a remote isn't an input device.
NO!!
Just NO!!
This is not innovation. It's just plain stupid.
The only 'innovation' required in car controls is a simple system that resets ALL the lights back to OFF when the car is stopped and turned off. That way, all the dipshits who don't know how to turn their friggin fog lights off for days after any fog won't look like such dipshits.
And the rest of us, who are intelligent enough to operate a simple (inexpensive!!) switch, will be able to see without being blinded by fog lights left on when its NOT FOGGY!!
Im just going to say it because i know a few of us are thinking about it. But apple is in the works for in-dash development with BMW or god knows who else and they'll probably release something like this....difference is, most people will probably love it.
N41
This has nothing to do with the iPhone or an ipod shuffle. How did they manage to talk (for almost half the article) about Apple than what was pictured?
Yeah, seriously. There's even a link to the ipod shuffle in there. WTF?
I think the engadget eds know throwing the words "apple" and other derivatives will result in a flamefest regardless of the topic. Boosts traffic I guess.
But didnt you know Apple invented everything, and have also invented everything in the future.
Even products that havent been invented yet, have already been pre-invented by Apple
Even as I type this reply, I'm basically just doing Apple's bidding.
Isnt that right engadget ?
Engadget for teh Fail
F-
This is effing ridiculous.
But i like buttons. More buttons are better. The only thing better than buttons are levers. And Eva Green.
This has to be one the most hair brained ideas I've heard of.
Especially if your hare is hairy
Oh dont call it Iphone/Apple inspired... Apple's going to go after them for IP infringement... and the auto industry is in a bad enough condition as is! :)
"Interestingly the system will allow "any smartphone" to be used as an intelligent key..."
Well I guess that leaves the iPhone right out.
nice
No. The iPhone uses wireless technologies that already existed in other smartphones (Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G) and more. So it does include iPhones.
And there is no formal definition of a "smartphone", why would you leave iPhone out of the equation.
Ignorant fool.
I think what sweet greggo was trying to point out is that many (myself included) do not consider the iPhone to truly be a "smartphone." The limits and constraints imposed by Apple on use of and development for the iPhone go completely against my idea of what a true smartphone is. However, there is no standard definition recognized by the industry, so a "smartphone" is whatever you think it is.
Just my $.02
Don't mind the iDiot, he's just part of the collective.
Touchscreen driving can't be that bad, guys, Wesley Crusher did it on TNG every week!