| Tuesday, February 7, 2006 |
14:49 - On the road of life, don't be evil
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/02/06/google.vw.reut/index.html
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Argh! Just when I was feeling like my interest in Volkswagen had waned, they have to go and do something like this (via Lance):
Volkswagen of America Inc., said Friday it is working on a prototype vehicle which features Google Inc.'s satellite mapping software to give drivers a bird's eye view of the road ahead.
The two companies are working with the graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp.to build an in-car navigation map system and a three-dimensional display so passengers can recognize where they are in relation to the surrounding topography.
Hella' cool. Even if this particular solution doesn't make it into cars, you just know that something very much like it eventually will.
Same goes for aviation gear, too; this stuff is going to be such an integral part of your standard entry-level glass cockpit that today's blocky clumsy GPS maps will look about as useful as the vast green flat expanses of Microsoft Flight Simulator circa 1992.
I'll say it again: it's really hard to get too mad at Google when there's Google Earth to play with.
I'm currently plowing through Undaunted Courage, a biographical account of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, that my brother got me for my birthday. The book itself is fascinating, but it's all the more so when I've got Google Earth up on my big-screen monitor, allowing me to follow along with the whole expedition's route, down the Ohio and up the Missouri, over Lemhi pass, over the Bitterroots to Weippe Prairie, and down the Clearwater and Columbia—and back. This might well be the future of illustration when it comes to nonfiction and history books: live links to Google Earth tours of the locations described.
I can even zoom in on Sierra-At-Tahoe and follow all my favorite ski runs at eye level. I swear, this is what I've been dreaming about all my life.
(Huh huh huh. Weippe.)
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Brian Tiemann
