It would drain your battery before a full day is up though ;) I've often thought a similar thing like this would work well for entertainment systems on flights too.
Cute trolling. Take it elsewhere.
CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#12Something worries me about commodifying driving distractions. Every day I see several people fiddling on their phones in the front seat, and I know I'm no less guilty. How much thought have you put in about safety criteria for these car apps?
Haven't thought about safety to be honest. Reason being cars already come with proprietary operating systems in the center console, so this wouldn't be any different safety-wise.
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#13Here is the idea, please vote if you like it: Most cars already have a big LCD in the center console for navigation or entertainment, but each manufacturer writes their own software for it. My idea is to have it run Android, which would allow anyone to make apps specifically for cars, entertainment or information-based, taking advantage of special API like vehicle speed, fuel, error codes, etc (from OBD2 or ECU). Thi…
For what it's worth, a lot of manufacturers use .NET actually. Microsoft started pushing for integration into those systems back in the WINCE days, and has made significant headway. The "SYNC" based players are just the latest iteration.
Figure the car development cycle is about 3 years, and realize Andriod was just starting to exist in the minds of car designers when this year's models were being designed. It'll be a while, but I wish you the best.
Bet you dollars to jelly beans that the Google driverless cars have Android though =)
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#14Here is the idea, please vote if you like it: Most cars already have a big LCD in the center console for navigation or entertainment, but each manufacturer writes their own software for it. My idea is to have it run Android, which would allow anyone to make apps specifically for cars, entertainment or information-based, taking advantage of special API like vehicle speed, fuel, error codes, etc (from OBD2 or ECU). Thi…
For what it's worth, a lot of manufacturers use .NET actually. Microsoft started pushing for integration into those systems back in the WINCE days, and has made significant headway. The "SYNC" based players are just the latest iteration. Figure the car development cycle is about 3 years, and realize Andriod was just starting to exist in the minds of car designers when this year's models were being designed. It'll be…
I know from a friend that a big German manufacturer uses .NET in their cars.
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#15Something worries me about commodifying driving distractions. Every day I see several people fiddling on their phones in the front seat, and I know I'm no less guilty. How much thought have you put in about safety criteria for these car apps?
Haven't thought about safety to be honest. Reason being cars already come with proprietary operating systems in the center console, so this wouldn't be any different safety-wise.
Sure, but most proprietary systems have only basic interactivity, which you might consider to be a feature rather than a flaw. Some even disable interaction while driving. An average driver already can't control much more than the steering wheel and pedals at once.
That said, I'd be totally down with some passive applications for a console. Maybe a navigation plugin that helps find the cheapest gas without wasting extra miles to get there, or a roadtrip meal planner that helps direct you to restaurants you like at proper eating hours.
Hopefully no Facebook though, and definitely no GTA.
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#16It would drain your battery before a full day is up though ;) I've often thought a similar thing like this would work well for entertainment systems on flights too.
It would be built into the car, instead of the navigation/entertainment system and feed off the alternator, so no battery drain :)
[deleted]
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#17Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#18Here is the idea, please vote if you like it: Most cars already have a big LCD in the center console for navigation or entertainment, but each manufacturer writes their own software for it. My idea is to have it run Android, which would allow anyone to make apps specifically for cars, entertainment or information-based, taking advantage of special API like vehicle speed, fuel, error codes, etc (from OBD2 or ECU). Thi…
For what it's worth, a lot of manufacturers use .NET actually. Microsoft started pushing for integration into those systems back in the WINCE days, and has made significant headway. The "SYNC" based players are just the latest iteration. Figure the car development cycle is about 3 years, and realize Andriod was just starting to exist in the minds of car designers when this year's models were being designed. It'll be…
This is definitely already happening - I tangentially work on a number of projects embedding Android into transport, and it's really just a matter of time before manufacturers adopt Android as a matter of course.
For example, the top two manufacturers of in-flight entertainment systems are already transitioning to Android (Thales and Panasonic). There are a number of benefits using Android like this, least of all you can take advantage of the hardware expertise that already exists for building Android backed devices, and leverage the larger amount of software talent available.
Of course, there are problems. All these embedded systems have very long shelf lives, much longer than a typical handset. A IFE unit in a plane might be expected to last 15 years at least, a car is hopefully going to spend a decade or more on the road. The hardware is not going to be upgraded - don't expect updates to later Android versions.
This presents problems for third-party development, assuming manufacturers offer it. Ideally, you'd hope for a manufacturer supplied SDK that offered you easily consumable information and telemetrics (vehicle speed, fuel level, etc) and an open app store. Car companies may not see an advantage to offering it at this time.
So really, the challenge isn't to convince car manufacturers to use Android: most are almost certainly already considering it for their high-end models. Instead, it's to get a tech eco-system that's open.
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haven't thought about safety to be honest. Reason being cars already come with proprietary operating systems in the center console, so this wouldn't be any different safety-wise.
Sure, but most proprietary systems have only basic interactivity, which you might consider to be a feature rather than a flaw. Some even disable interaction while driving. An average driver already can't control much more than the steering wheel and pedals at once. That said, I'd be totally down with some passive applications for a console. Maybe a navigation plugin that helps find the cheapest gas without wasting ex…
Right, so maybe a moderated app market would be a good solution, with apps being placed in two categories, one category that works whether driving or parked, and the other would only work when the car is parked.
Re: CarDroid: Android built into cars. Please vote so we can get funding
#20It would drain your battery before a full day is up though ;) I've often thought a similar thing like this would work well for entertainment systems on flights too.
Flight entertainment systems are moving to Android, but a number of factors (primarily the A380 and 787s both being severely delayed) mean this roll-out is taking a lot longer than originally planned. Both Thales (http://www.thales-ifs.com/topseries.aspx) and Panasonic (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/panasonic-testing-an...) will be moving to Android IFE systems.