Microsoft Bets Big On Computing For the Car 378
dstates writes "The automobile industry may be hurting, but Microsoft is doubling down and making a massive new investment in its automotive business unit. Microsoft already works closely with a number of car companies and will enhance that effort with more people and more resources. Sync developed as a collaboration with Ford Motor Co. allows motorists to control their cell phones, music players and navigation systems with voice commands while they drive. Microsoft is also making 'Live Search' technology available to automakers to develop in-car search and navigation. Detroit native Tom Philips, the new unit leader said 'There are a lot of technologies that are two to three years out that are going to provide even more connectivity and innovation. There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives.'"
a prediction (Score:2, Insightful)
You can pry it from my cold dead hands (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to retain control of my car, thank you very much, and adding a bunch of so called 'var computers' is not going to do that.
Keep your grubby mitts off my vehicle.
Has promise outside of the "car" (Score:4, Insightful)
Even if the "car" as we know it is disappearing, Microsoft's work should transfer over nicely to whatever replaces it. I doubt there's much about Microsoft's system that assumes an internal combustion engine. If the car should die, the need for people to get from A to B does not die with it. Maybe more people will be taking electric cars, or trains, or some weird sci-fi individual self-navigating capsules in a mesh of tubes. In all of those cases, Microsoft's software would still have a place. Seems like a promising investment to me.
Yay, disconnect! (Score:3, Insightful)
There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives.'"
Good. I want that disconnect when people are driving half-ton pieces of metal that could kill someone. You think cell phones are distracting? Jus' picture someone trying to reply to a flamewar... in rush hour...
Get that lock-in going (Score:1, Insightful)
That's because those pesky free-software freaks haven't figured out how to replace their car's sofware with linux yet. Still space for a good-old-fashioned monopoly lock-in.
Disconnect (Score:3, Insightful)
.
Probably because when people are in their cars they are driving around large, heavy, and potentially lethal, vehicles. Now Microsoft wants those people to be distracted by unreliable Microsoft software.
experience?! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a novel idea: maybe we should focus on DRIVING while we're in the car.
Re:Has promise outside of the "car" (Score:1, Insightful)
That's not a tinfoil-hat supposition, either... I think their goals are mostly innocuous and business-related.
Yes... (Score:4, Insightful)
>There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives.'"
Yes. My car doesn't suddenly quit for no reason.
Re:It's Clippy For The Microsoft Auto! (Score:3, Insightful)
Is anyone else homicidally enraged by the new "adaptive volume control" that seems to be standard in new cars these days? Speed up, the radio gets louder, slow down the radio gets quieter.
I've driven in some cars where it's semi-bearable...I don't quite notice it for a while because it's gradual. And I've driven in others where the volume goes up and down like a cracked out kangaroo to the point where I end up having to stomp on the brakes, whip off the road and punch the radio until it stops.
Re:You can pry it from my cold dead hands (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to retain control of my car, thank you very much, and adding a bunch of so called 'var computers' is not going to do that.
Keep your grubby mitts off my vehicle.
It's far too late for that. You "lost" control of your cars in the early 80's, when they started using computers to regulate everything from fuel flow to your transmission. The only difference now is that you can actually see the computer interface.
Re:a prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
PREDICTION: Microsoft is rehashing old failed attempts again...
They did this in the 90's with the autoPC platform. it was an utter failure.
Just like how tablet pc's have been a failure to the masses over and over and over again..
Re:Zune? (Score:5, Insightful)
Navigational updates are a good thing...That stuff is only as useful as it is current, but it has big brother possibilities which I don't particularly care for, and I'm pretty mellow (for a geek) about potential violations of my privacy.
Microsoft especially has proven repeatedly that they are more than willing to sell out their customers...In my mind that's the real issue, above and beyond issues of utility or stability. Do you want them to have that kind of access to your life?
Hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
"Detroit native Tom Philips, the new unit leader said 'There are a lot of technologies that are two to three years out that are going to provide even more connectivity and innovation. There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives.'"
Maybe, just maybe, the reason for the disconnect is that we're in a giant heap of metal hurtling at 70mph amid a bevy of other giant heaps of metal.
I think we should preserve that disconnect.
Re:but no DOS (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no disk in a EECIV, just a nice reliable ROM. Without microprocessors and electric fuel injectors you'ld be stuck with an analog open loop system (carburetor).
Uhh, I liked carburetors, thanks. In fact, I liked it when I could tune up my car myself without a bunch of digital instruments. When I was younger I enjoyed working on my car... I spent many weekends with the hood open. The parent poster is right in that the computerization of cars has taken some of the fun out of working on them. We always seem to equate analog with bad here, but I liked it when cars were simpler to build and maintain, thanks.
Re:I won't buy a car with it (Score:2, Insightful)
You may not be offered a way to tell. The interface will almost certainly be highly custom to the brand, you probably will not know what is running the GUI.
I'd just be happy... (Score:3, Insightful)
if control interfaces and APIs would become standardized.
Everything is designed for i$foo. My head unit can read mp3s from a flash drive, but it doesn't do it optimally unless you use their software to put stuff on there (kenwood).
I also own a sansa, which I love. It was $100, so I don't care if I break it of lose it (the point of a portable player that doesn't do anything else). And I don't need anything special to put the music on it. It's just a mass storage device to my OS (which isn't OSX or M$).
It sure would be nice if I could just plug my sansa into my car, or anybody else's, and queue up the music. I'm sure apple's patenting makes this a dream. Instead, I have things in 3 locations: the home server, the sansa, and the hard drive that stays in the car, and if I want to control something out of the box, the only option is Apple hardware, which doesn't easily interface with anything else that I use computer-wise.
What About Boot Time? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:TomTom (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't foresee MS making anything that cheap that goes into a car.
Doesn't matter, the price will be built into the new car price. Most people would rather have GPS on their dash than a standalone unit hanging off their windshield by a suction cup with a wire dangling down to the cigarette lighter, which they can no longer use. The same will apply to every convenience technology to come.
Re:Slightly off-topic (Score:1, Insightful)
"There's such a disconnect between what people experience in their cars and what they experience in the rest of their lives"
And I wouldn't have it any other way. Why would I want all the annoyances and distractions of modern life to start pissing me off in my one last sanctuary?
Re:Obligatory (Score:3, Insightful)
Hey Microsoft, how about promoting a focus on driving, and don't mess with stuff until you get there?
Re:TomTom (Score:2, Insightful)
Your local meth head agrees. Much easier to steal the add-on unit dangling by suction cups and power cord than to hack away at the dash, and whatchagot, the shards of a Lexus GPs that no one wants...
Perhaps we can get a Taser wired up to the car, so when you break the glass you get a little bonus by touching anything in or on the car. Of course, then, the market for replacement power cords dries up.
There's no way to avoid hurting someone in this, is there...
No, no, no! (Score:3, Insightful)