XBMC: a future in cars?

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

I am running centrafuse in my car.

http://www.centrafuse.com/

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?

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.

Rixtar Wrote: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.

Quote:playing video while waiting for the green light

I really hope you're joking

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?

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.

htpc guy Wrote: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

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