I was actually planning on building my own car pc - had all the parts ordered and ready to install....
Then I got word that one of the employees that works for my father-in-law killed two people via a head-on collision because he was watching a movie using an in-car dvd player while driving. The accident was terrible, and I believe the driver who caused the accident literally watched the victims burn up in flames inside their car.
Subsequently I decided to sell all my car computer parts on ebay so that I'm not a hazard to other people on the road. The temptation for me to fiddle with a computer while driving is probably too high.
Driving is one place where tactile feedback really matter and touch screens are a POS. If the driver has to take their eyes off the road to change the radio station somewhere someone will get in an accident and die. On my G35 I really do not like how all of the radio preset buttons are smooth and flush next to each other no matter how 'nice' it looks. It makes it near impossible to push the correct one without looking. I added little bumps via super glue so I would know which button is which without having to look.
Going out of your way to add a generic ipad that is designed to require you to be looking at the screen and not the road is a bad mix. You could use it as a glorified screen and have special software that always ran and connected to the car via the usb port (exists on the iphone) and didn't let you do anything when moving that would be in a step in the right direction. Still, adding a distraction to the driver is usually not worth the risk.
Problem: Temptation to use computer while driving.
Solution: Disallow interface while in motion, or enable speech recognition, or (holy grail wishful thinking) have the computer safely drive the car for you so that you can play with it. There are probably hundreds of solutions, but let's just get the ball rolling.
Speaking of which, we need to do more work on machine vision, people :P (Tangentially related: Project Natal leads me to believe that video games will end up contributing more to science than most people suspect.)
good move. :) I don't use my ipod while driving because I skip songs on it too much (no built-in ipod control in my 15 y/o celica).
And in fact - I'm pretty sure this would be illegal for me: Rule 299 of Victoria's road rules states that it is an offence to drive a motor vehicle with a "TV receiver or visual display unit" if the screen is visible to the driver of the car or "is likely to distract another driver". In-car navigation systems are exempt.
(( While it's a bit of a nanny-state law - I'm pretty much in favour))
Then I got word that one of the employees that works for my father-in-law killed two people via a head-on collision because he was watching a movie using an in-car dvd player while driving. The accident was terrible, and I believe the driver who caused the accident literally watched the victims burn up in flames inside their car.
Subsequently I decided to sell all my car computer parts on ebay so that I'm not a hazard to other people on the road. The temptation for me to fiddle with a computer while driving is probably too high.