Soon, your new car will be more entertaining and informative than your best friend. In addition to playing your favorite songs, your car will find parking spaces, identify upcoming traffic jams and tell you how to drive around them, and pay tolls, eliminating the need for road-clogging tollbooths. That day is closer than you think: Japan already has cars that identify parking spots and the United Arab Emirates is getting Global Positioning System-equipped cars that can report speed and location to the government.
While carmakers are working hard to bring the info part of “in-car infotainment” into North American showrooms, the entertainment is slower coming due to copyright concerns, such as how artists will be paid for content and the prospect of in-car illegal downloads.
“Automakers are looking to see what the other industries are doing to address the issue,” says Frank Viquez, an analyst with ABI Research.
“I don’t see automakers in North America selling songs for download (the way Apple does through iTunes).
A third party would have to do it, but a lot of agreements need to be made.”
So, while Japan’s drivers can buy tunes from an in-car jukebox, U.S. drivers have to be content with satellite radio and iPod connectors in new cars.
But who’s complaining? There was a time when only the rich had cars with phones, TVs and drivers to whisk them to their destinations.
Now, that kind of luxury is within reach for many more people – subbing out the driver for a global positioning system with a voice readout.
More cars are coming off the assembly line with cool stuff already built in: American Honda Motor Co., for instance, recently announced that more than 550,000 of its 2006 cars and SUVs will have XM Satellite Radio.
GM will make its OnStar road-safety service standard on all cars by 2007. And more new cars are being built with an eye toward optional equipment, such as dashboard panels ready to be outfitted with an optional GPS.
And if car buyers aren’t ordering optional equipment from the factory, they’re buying it from third-party companies and having it installed. This aftermarket business is booming. Below are some ways to turn your current car into the car of tomorrow.
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