[VictorV]

First of all: this is not a feature request, but a discussion to hear what people thinks about this.

As we can see on the development of cars, probably all mainstream cars will have some kind of smart technology/media center/computer in just a few years. This software ain't always the best of the best, and the user experience is often bad.

I would love to use XBMC in my car, but it lacks some important features for use in a road environment. Map drawing and GPS support is the main feature I would say. Telephony (hands-free), car data etc. I could intergrate through addons. I could use a thrid-party software for the map/gps functionality, but then you don't get the feeling of tight cooperation between the various modules of the carputer. Think of the possibilities with a open source community driven map in the car..

I have no experience with such programming and little experience with map plotting and maps at all, so I'm not quite sure how much work it would be to intergrate something like this as some kind of map player for the XBMC. I guess there might be some open source project one could use. For the actual map one could maybe look at openStreetMap?

I'm aware some will just say that XBMC is not an operating system, and don't will have all kinds of features. I agree in this, but maybe this also could widening the marked for XBMC and maybe also get some sponsors from a completly new marked?

Personally a think this is a marked that will peak in a few years when a computer connected to the internet are standard equipment in most cars.

Social networks connected with gps position plotting, live updates on maps through friends, playing video while waiting for the green light, all sorts of great statistics, visual car data and more... all in a nice XBMC wrapping

[toineb]

I am running centrafuse in my car.

http://www.centrafuse.com/

[Rixtar]

Strange I just logged on to post something similar, I just go meself a Hilux Surf (Again) and this one came with a flip down lcd in the back for the kids. I was thinking of throwing an Asrock ion or a Acer Revo with probably an OpenElec XBMC build (not worried about any other PC functions) under the drivers seat and loading it wiv a whole load of stuff for the kids. would then use one of Pulse Eights fine remotes for control.

My one question would be how to supply stable power to the PC?

[natethomas]

Re: using open street map: That's actually theoretically an example of something XBMC could do once binary addons are implemented. Somebody could make an entirely separate street map program, and xbmc would be able to open it. Unfortunately, getting binary addons going has been a real bear of a process and progress is fairly slow. Nonetheless, it's certainly a thought for the future.

[Ned Scott]

Strange I just logged on to post something similar, I just go meself a Hilux Surf (Again) and this one came with a flip down lcd in the back for the kids. I was thinking of throwing an Asrock ion or a Acer Revo with probably an OpenElec XBMC build (not worried about any other PC functions) under the drivers seat and loading it wiv a whole load of stuff for the kids. would then use one of Pulse Eights fine remotes for control.

My one question would be how to supply stable power to the PC?

miniITX mobo with 12 volt PSU or just buy a PicoPSU and that will give you a 12 volt input.

[Ned Scott]

playing video while waiting for the green light

I really hope you're joking

[htpc guy]

The biggest issue though is how to supply an internet connection? The only option I can think of is using a wifi hotspot provided by a smartphone. Problem is that these plans are extremely expensive and there are data caps. Is there an option I'm overlooking?

[mike-1]

PSU Something like this, will provide regulated 12v output, including during engine cranks.

Internet connection could be done with a mobile broadband USB dongle. Or with Wifi all scraping could be done from home when content is added, so no need to connect whilst driving.

[VictorV]

The biggest issue though is how to supply an internet connection? The only option I can think of is using a wifi hotspot provided by a smartphone. Problem is that these plans are extremely expensive and there are data caps. Is there an option I'm overlooking?

Atleast in Norway, a mobile 3g internet connection is widespread and a reasonable solution. For larger data transfers (updates, info scraping..) local wifis may be used as an alternative.

Ned Scott: yeah, I was joking :p

[VictorV]

LeWeb 2011: Renault and TomTom to introduce in-car Android ‘tablet’

Guess things like this will be more common, but i'll rather see XBMC

[fryed_1]

Maybe for some of those show cars with giant fold-down TV's and all that, but I'm not sure if I could see it in the dashboard.

First of all it would have be optimized for touchscreen and big fonts/icons that you normally wouldn't have to worry about on a 40+ TV. Scale it down to a 7" screen in your dashboard and all the descriptions and pretty details in the skins really don't mean anything if you can't read it.

Secondly XBMC, to me, is a media center... not a home for GPS, navigation and finding the nearest starbucks. I guess the music could transfer over pretty well, but you would be limited in the library you take with you. I have nearly 20Tb at home and have no need to have any of that available in my car. Even on trips, I can put enough stuff on a 16Gb usb stick or upload to the ipad to entertain the family and kids in the back for the duration of the drive.

If anything and I had the time/money to do it, I would toss a simple PC under the seat with just enough space for a season of Dora/Diego or maybe a dozen movies, set it up with wifi and duct-tape a couple inexpensive tablets to the backs of headrests so the kids can watch their own shows and I'm not hearing them argue about Snow White vs Cinderella all day.

[aptalca]

Honestly, I think an android based system would be best in this situation.

Perhaps when xbmc is finally released for android, that would be the ultimate solution.

Imagine a touchscreen stereo that runs on android, provides Bluetooth hands free while getting the internet connection from the phone through bluetooth as well, has google nav and maps and pandora and all that. . . That would be awesome.

For now, I would probably go with a cheap capacitative 7" android tablet or an ipad if xbmc is required. And you could put a wifi nas in the trunk for storage

[paulrockliffe]

I bought an iPad mount and ziptied it to my heater vents and use my iPad for this, works perfectly. I run XBMC on it, but use the 5-finger swipe to swap between XBMC and TomTom.

[XMBC_FREAK]

I understand the concept of having XBMC in the car, but there are many better options out there. XBMC is a media center designed for home use in which it does a great job!

I have built alot, around 20 or so daily used carpc's in various types of european cars when I had my shop. I have used diy frontends designed for use in a vehicle and some I designed. There's centrafuse ,roadunner, mpegcar, and professionally built software from xenarc and mp3car. They are vastly different from XBMC in so many ways becuase its purpose built. Large buttons for touchscreen, GPS, FAx ,Phone, internet, tv, music, movies, surround sound ( yes in a car must use multiple amps ), voice control, front and rear cameras, start/shutdown controllers and more. Every Os you can think of from linux, windows and mac has been used in a car. This was 8 years ago and so much has changed since then. Miniitx picoitx motherboards are nothing new, there are motorized screen with built in pc's designed for single and double din and special designed versions like for 350z and infinity vehicles and others.

I really enjoy working with XBMC but designing XBMC for car use is something I Really believe wont happen since there are other solutions that are solid, supported, and ready to use.

Check out MP3CAR.COM and you will see many ideas and projects, everything I stated is my personal opinion from years of realworld experience. Also fyi if a police officer notices you watching movies at a stop light ,in cali its a large ticket, and thats why you see parking brake signal needed to view video on standard car stereos. Of course you can just ground that wire on some stereos but most now need a firmware change as the movement has been made to use gyros instead of a ground signal.

[ace42588]

I am currently attempting to use XBMC as a media server for my carPC install. I bought a cheap Android tablet from woot to install in the dash, but found it lacking in pretty much every way. I had a netbook at my disposal, so I decided to see if I could use it to play the media and use the tablet as the controller/now playing display. So far I've tried install XBMC on top of ubuntu and installing XBMC live (yes, I know they are very similar) but performance issues make it nearly unusable. The other issue I see is being able to launch Pandora: the Android remotes available allow you to view the "Now Playing" screen OR use the Android touchscreen as a remote (meaning you need to view the output connected to the XBMC box). In other words, I don't know how to launch Pandora remotely.

My (theoretical) setup will be: El cheapo Android tablet mounted to the dash, connected to a charger through a switched voltage source (the battery life is actually one of the only decent things about the tablet; an android app will change the settings to keep the screen on while charging)

A netbook will run XBMC with the Pandora plugin and have whatever other media I want to have and also serve as a wifi bridge. Using Tasker (or similar) my phone will be triggered to share its data via wifi hotspot, which will be picked up by the netbook, and shared to a router in the vehicle.

The router will serve as a Wake-on-Lan source for the netbook.

In short, I see potential.