Ask HN: How would you reinvent telematics systems for cars?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=643236

by cars4fun • 17 years ago

2 10 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Google Wave attempts to answer the question of what e-mail would look like if it were invented today.

Given that I work in R&D at a major car manufacturer, I've asked myself the same question of in-car telematics systems. We now have things in the car like speech recognition, image recognition, GPS, and Internet connectivity. Yet virtually the only thing I use in the car on a daily basis is AM/FM radio.

What are some of your ideas (while keeping safety in mind) for seamlessly connecting the driver and passengers with these cool new technologies that are available today?

soc• 17 years ago

What is really needed is to have all vehicles, roads, lights, and stop signs linked together.

For example, a car should refuse to let the driver proceed thru a light/stop sign unless it's clear. Imagine all the money that would be saved from property/medical damages.

khandekars• 17 years ago

Many times I wish the below mentioned, but perhaps it will take quite a few decades to achieve it.

If we could have a global infrastructure, wherein we tell the car the place we wish to visit, which causes the car to automatically figure out: the optimal route based on constantly changing traffic and weather conditions, refilling, obeying all rules such as one-way / speed limitations and so on, it will be truly amazing achievement.

The technology is there, fragmented in thousands of pieces; it needs to be weaved as a cohesive whole in a reliable and safe manner.

In a nutshell, save the time for driving the vehicles for an entire civilization, :)

cars4fun3• 17 years ago

This is definitely in the works. The biggest problem is convincing the countless local authorities to upgrade their existing traffic systems to support a technology that's not in the market yet.

stonemetal2• 17 years ago

You would have to be smarter about it than wait for local gov. Vision systems that can read street signs. etc. OCR on street signs should be pretty easy since they use High contrast simple fonts.

yan• 17 years ago

Don't know how useful or practical this will be, but I noticed anything sitting on my dash is clearly reflected on my windshield. Placing a HUD screen on top of the dash, close to the windshield defroster vents pointing up, flipped horizontally, and focused on infinity can get your current speed/fuel/etc without taking your eyes off the road.

cars4fun3• 17 years ago

Lexus has this in production: http://lexusenthusiast.com/2009/01/20/lexus-2010-rx-heads-up...

HeyLaughingBoy• 17 years ago

Traffic situation. I live out in the sticks so I don't know about recent construction in the city & 'burbs. The result is that often when I go into the city, I get stuck in traffic that I would have known to avoid if I were still living there.

GPS that would display streets with level of congestion would be excellent.

bayareaguy• 17 years ago

How about just opening up the documentation necessary to service or modify the mechanical and microprocessor-based systems in my car and then putting that into a kindle-like device? I'd much rather have something that would help me diagnose, maintain and modify my vehicle then something like a GPS. I'd also want to subscribe to service that would keep this documentation up to date.

Ask HN: How would you reinvent telematics systems for cars?

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