I just got back from the car/home audio place where they did a professional install of the video screen for my in-car computer. I’ve just recently rebuilt the whole system and figured it was time to put on a decent interface, instead of the radioshack project-box I had been using.
Lorelei (my car) has, in addition to the normal car radio stuff:
[ul]
[li]well over 1000 mp3s[/li][li]GPS with both Street Atlas 8 and Rand McNally Streetfinder[/li][li]a rather ergonomic trackball mounted on the center armrest[/li][li]a really cool looking 4" LCD monitor on the dash, with power controlled by a discreet switch under the steering wheel[/li][li]normal Windows stuff for passengers to play with if bored (solitaire, etc)[/li][/ul]
The computer is mounted in the trunk on some shock absorbing foam. It’s a homebuilt K6-300 with 64M Ram, 13Gigs of hard drive, Awe64 Soundcard, and ATI tv-out video card. The stereo thinks that the computer is a cd-changer.
Isn’t one of the large SUV’s being offered now with an optional PC? Ford Explorer, perhaps. Or maybe they’re talking about that as a future offering… And people complain about cell phones* now!
I thought about doing a heads up display on the windshield (the LCD has a switch to left-right reverse it which would make the reflection correct), but I figured I didn’t want any more cop-bait than I had to. The dinosaur is a '95 Ford Probe