Connected (Google Reader) Car
There are so many concepts floating about “Connected Car” and this is touted to be the next big thing in Convergence (which itself has been the next big thing for over a decade).
I have been wanting a simple feature in my car. If someone offers just this much, I would be glad.
During the morning commutes, when I stop at red lights, it usually takes 3-4 minutes at every junction to move again. During that time, I catch up with Google Reader (rarely other Apps but mostly GR it is) on my phone - which is a bit dangerous. The guy ahead starts moving & I realize it a moment or two later. People from behind start honking, people from the next lane start cutting into my lane at this smallest of the opportunity, I throw the phone into my pocket or into the seat next to me & so on. So many times, I get angry at the guy cutting in and honk at him. Some times, the phone falls down. Overall, chaos ensures & I need to be very alert to avoid an accident & control the road rage.
What is want is to be able to read GR on a screen in my dashboard / a small screen on my steering wheel that would automatically go off when I move to first gear or when the car moves at greater than 5 Km/hr (many times it is just about a few inches of moving ahead while I can continue reading). This would help me quickly realize when the guy ahead is moving and also not worry about placing the phone somewhere before I move.
There could be further complex things that can be done mixing up things like a sensor placed at the front of the car to check the distance between my car and the guy ahead and so on. But you get the idea.
Well, my interests lie in Google Reader but I am sure this can be extended to any kind of activity done on a phone.
So far, I see that people talk about navigation apps, social networking, remote operations like switching on the AC before you reach the car, reading out emails, picking up calls from the car etc etc but not THIS one. Let me know if such a thing exists.
And yeah, I do not want to be paying another bill for this service. The thing should connect with my smartphone seamlessly (with my phone acting as a Wi Fi hot spot or even over BT simply).
Update:: Upon searching on this, I find that such features are already available in some high end cars - at least concepts have been showcased. Someone reading this may please choose to gift me one of those!
