Damon Lavrinc

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Stories By Damon Lavrinc

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    Technology By Damon Lavrinc

    Hands-on with Gracenote's automotive-grade MoodGrid

    Garmin has a new head unit (internally dubbed Everest) that's due to arrive in a few OEM vehicles later this year, and aside from an attractive interface, a revamped navigation system and one-shot voice commands, a new audio app from Gracenote could be included in the package.The app is called MoodGrid and it's a scaled down version of the Android-based version that Gracenote has been testing for the last year. Like the tablet app, the automotive-spec MoodGrid has a graph with Positive, Calm, Energetic and Dark on each axis. Place your finger anywhere between those points and the system scours your iPhone, iPod or Android device for tracks to match your mood. The automotive version uses a five-by-five grid and a new tablet version has the potential to tap into subscription music services to serve up the tunes. Check out the hands-on video after the break and expect to see MoodGrid in dealerships sometime this year.

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    Audi combines HUD with gesture controls, leaves us wanting

    Audi is back at CES for the second year in a row, complete with a retina-searing, biggie-sized booth, its next-gen Audi Command interface and a prototype heads-up display that combines three displays with gesture controls.The setup uses one HUD in front of the driver, another in front of the passenger and yet another display in the middle that's viewable by both people in the front seats. While that's not particularly revolutionary, the transfer of information from one display to the next is. If the passenger looks up a restaurant using their own display, she can swipe it over to the center HUD, providing the driver with navigation instructions. The display tech is still a few years away from production, but don't expect the gesture controls to come along for the ride.

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    Technology By Damon Lavrinc

    Mercedes-Benz gesture control concept is DICEy

    Ze Germans seem to be obsessed with Minority Report-style interior controls, and Mercedes-Benz has taken it to the next level with a full-scale interior with nary a button or switch to be found.Mercedes' Dynamic & Intuitive Control Experience (DICE) utilizes a series of proximity sensors to detect arm and hand movements, which control everything from music, navigation and social functionality to a heads-up display that comprises the entire windshield.You can get a feel for the system in action in the video after the break, but as you'll see, it's very beta, mistaking hand movements for selections and generally being a pain to use – let alone control while you're driving a car. Thankfully, Mercedes has plenty of time to work out the kinks as it won't be coming to production for at least a couple decades.

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    Technology By Damon Lavrinc

    Kia UVO2 is your Korean big brother, we go hands-on

    Kia's first entry into the infotainment realm had a slightly rocky start, but the Korean automaker is back at CES this year with UVO2, its second-generation in-dash telematics and connectivity platform. The big features in UVO2 include automatic crash notification, incorporated road-side assistance, service reminders and a brace of new vehicle tracking and geo-fencing features to make sure your teens don't stray too far, go too fast or stay out too late. Partner all that with an updated iPhone app that keeps track of maintenance and includes a vehicle finder that uses AR to find your ride, and it's a comprehensive update. But for now, Kia isn't saying exactly when UVO2 is hitting the market and how much the system will cost when it arrives. Get a taste of the new system in the hands-on after the break.

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    QNX finds a home inside a Porsche 911 (video)

    Blackberry's QNX division wants to expand its footprint and the next major push is inside your car. To that end, a handful of QNX engineers ripped out the stock (and pretty damned good) Porsche head unit on a 911 convertible and stuffed it with a new capacitive screen running the latest build of the OS. As you can see in the video after the jump, it's an attractive and quick setup, that does everything from VOIP calls to navigation, and since it's running the same software as the Playbook, it can theoretically run Android apps to boot – even if the reps on hand wouldn't admit it.

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    Hands-on with Mercedes-Benz mBrace2

    Mercedes-Benz showed off its next infotainment advancement in the form of mBrace2, a combination of telematics and infotainment, all powered by an embedded 3G modem. If you can make it through the video after the break, you'll see the new Facebook, Google POI and Street View integration, along with the updated browsing experience. Unfortunately, the data connection on the floor made for a sputtery, jilted experience. But that's not the only issue. The system still uses the central COMAND knob for navigating through the menus, but it also serves as a five-way controller to pan and click through the browser. Imagine using a D-pad to poke around the Web and you're not far off. Thankfully, an all-new system is due out in 2014 with the next generation S-Class flagship, but until then, new SL owners and the rest of the 2013 Mercedes lineup will have to make due with this.

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    Hands-on with NVIDIA-powered Audi Connect

    Last year Audi announced a partnership with NVIDIA to pack its next generation Audi Connect infotainment system with the chip-maker's Tegra graphics processor. The chipset is part of Audi's new modular multimedia system – dubbed MMX – which allows the automaker to upgrade the guts of its infotainment system as new hardware comes to market. Today, Audi showed off the fruits of their tie-up. The new Audi Connect system is set to arrive in the 2013 A3 and Audi trotted out a mock-up of the new compact hatch's interior to show off the next-gen system here at CES. The Touchpad (no, not that one) originally fitted to the Audi A7 and A8 has been incorporated into the MMI knob, allowing users to write individual letters to input destinations, point-of-interest and web searches in place of tedious scrolling. Audi also swapped the traditional buttons flanking the MMI knob with new toggle switches, all of which will make their way to other Audi models in the coming years. Finally, there's the ultra-thin seven-inch LCD powered by that Tegra chip, which renders 3D animations with ease, along with displaying Google Earth navigation and Google Street View images. Check it all out in the video after the jump.

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