Tuesday, December 15, 2009 |
12:11 - A few of my favorite things
http://nexus404.com/Blog/2009/12/02/2011-audi-a8-is-stacked-with-gadgets-new-audi-se
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Whee! Audi's now putting Google Earth in their cars:
Are you in the market for a new car? Might I suggest the all new 2011 Audi A8 full-size sedan, that will come loaded, and I mean absolutely loaded, with tech toys (I’m sure thats what Audi calls them) for the German automotive connoisseur. These tech features include, a Google Earth navigation system, a 19-speaker sound system, and an internet connection and WiFi network. That’s right, your car can be connected to the internet.
The internet connection is provided to the car via a UMTS (3G) connection, and the car then spits that out via a WiFi network, perfect for browsing your laptop while going 65 mph down the highway (also, ideally, perfect for browsing the web while a pal drives). The WiFi network’s usefulness doesn’t stop there, as you can use it to wirelessly stream music from your MP3 player to the car’s speakers. No contracts are required for the 3G connection (probably built into the car’s price, similar to the Amazon Kindle and other things of that nature). The car’s navigation system streams satellite pictures from Google Earth, giving you a (theoretical) preview of your surroundings, instead of the bland roads and streets that most GPS systems give you.
Only the A8 so far, so there's at least some passing plausibility of this feature being designed for the benefit of a passenger who's calling the shots, rather than used primarily by a distracted driver. Of course, when they start sticking it into the S5 and R8, then we know there's no going back to the age of innocence.
Speaking of Google Earth, I wonder how difficult it would be to create convincing-looking synthetic terrain and imagery data? I was just thinking how cool it would be to fly around a fully 3D-realized version of Tolkien's Middle-Earth with my SpaceNavigator...
UPDATE: And speaking of the S5 and R8... oh God.
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