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Detroit, 9:06 PM
Tue Dec 1
29 posts in the last 24 hours
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02/05/09
02/05/09
One more extraordinarily complex and expensive system that will render your car undrivable when it inevitably craps out. How about some stuff that puts me in more direct contact with what's happening in the car and on the road, and increases the physical pleasure of driving. And, no, I don't want an 8-way vibrating seat.
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
Look at the Sync system. Ford had a hand in its development, but rather than try to get the talent at Ford to put together the interface and hardware they worked with Microsoft.
Technology is still a fairly rapidly developing field. Carmakers, by the nature of their business, are not used to dealing with rapid change. Look at how long after the CD came out that they were still putting tape decks in cars.
I know there are those of us who don't really care for a lot of this. I don't really want to download "widgets" into my car's infotainment system. In fact, if all I had were a GPS screen with 3D graphics I would be set. However, I think that as we get more and more "connected" as a society there will be more and more people who will actually enjoy these features.
The purists, as usual, will be the minority.
02/05/09
02/05/09
I think the reliability was better in the 70s.
02/05/09
02/05/09
GPS? easy.
Bluetooth? easy.
XM? easy.
DVD? easy.
Calendar? I know Toyota's in-car nav has it, at the least.
Text? Sync does it.
WiMax? easy-ish.
So really it's just email and widgets, which you can also do with an iPhone and some two-sided tape. That, and the integration of everything.
I'm not impressed.
02/05/09
Why in the name of God do we need cars to do this shit? Will they be wiping our asses and informing us if our pee contains trace amounts of peanut oil next? Will they tell me when my girlfriend is ovulating?
I don't care. I want a car to drive, not relieve me of any sense of purpose in life.
I just want cars to go back to having standard, turn-key ignitions; not this "insert fob, shift weight to left butt cheek, depress gas, place transmission lever in D, rub stomach and pat head simultaneously, key lawyer screen, press red start button, enjoy your drive.
" crap.
/End rant.
02/05/09
02/05/09
Never mind the safety aspects of it. I like my in-dash trip computer with basic stats (temp, mpg, avg speed, time, etc). And I enjoy my CD player and changer.
Neither takes my eyes off the road for more than 1 second, ever. And all the control inputs are tactile and easily memorized.
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
It even tells you when your pee contains trace amounts of peanut oil?
02/05/09
I agree with you.. one hundred meeeeelioooon percent!
I dont want a nav system in my car.. because of having a device tell me shit.
If I want to go finding out where stuff is.. Im enough of a intelligent human being that I cant get lost easily. Especially if ya take 2 seconds to drive around and figure out where ya are.. instead of latching ya fuckin hands to the fuckin wheel.
NOW...
I refuse to have a GPS unit in my car
I refuse to have sat radio in my car
I refuse to have any incar tv, internet electro b.s in my car.
My car is for driving.. and tearing assholes of other bastards who brake at 80mph with 20 car lengths.
My car is for driving.. high speeds... corners, cornering...
Not this.. sitting back pansy bullshit.
Yes.. I also agree.
I wont buy a car with the push button tech
I also wont buy one with a hard drive mounted in the vehicle.
Ive gone on enough trips to far out places where I can figure out where I am by driving around. It takes a lot to get me lost.
My car is not a computer.
Ya dont buy a car to have SYNC or a computer stuffed in it.
Ya buy a car.. to get from one place to another.. as fuckin quick and as satisfying as god damn possible.
02/05/09
We are so completely on the same page here that I think hell must have just frozen over.
I guess purists like us, there will always be DC2 Integras and early GM F-bodies. If you can find any that haven't been totally thrashed and trashed by idiot kids, that is.
02/05/09
02/05/09
I'm glad I'm not alone with the pushbutton start. JUST GIVE ME A FUCKING KEY. No hands-free, no buttons, no bullshit. And make it plain, metal, normal-sized key that I can actually fit on a key ring and into my pocket.
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
Can't you see it? "Unlock the doors please" "I'm sorry, I can't do that..." as the train rolls toward you...
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
02/05/09
12/31/08
What I WOULD like to see in my vehicle is an LCD screen that would give me real-time diagnostic information so I could see what the heck the OBDII and CAN systems are doing. Would that be too much to ask?
/rant
01/01/09