The purpose of this thread is to shame the automakers for living in the 1980's with using ancient vehicle technology such as dot matrix screens, and losing out on revenue streams from advertising, music, and other services. Google would pay handsomely to be the search engine for a car when people are searching for billions of dollars in products and services.
Having many of the functions of a smartphone such as navigation built into a car is a safety feature. Once drivers opt for a dot matrix radio from the 80's to save money they will resort to smartphones and other gadgets for navigation which is extremely dangerous.
We are now starting to see cars connected to cellular services, that would allow people to do searches within this system, rather than pull out their phone. This cellular connection will allow people to download apps such as navigation (Garmin, Google). It could be programmed with voice recognition.
It should be standard and not a $2000 premium option.
Don't use your smartphone for navigation! It causes you to phone droop (holding your phone in your arm causes fatigue), and dangerously droop the smartphone over the passenger car seat causing you to turn your head over 80-90 degrees down. You lose your peripheral vision of the road for precious seconds.
In many cases you are looking at a 4 inch screen trying to discern your direction. The GPS accuracy is not as good as in dash systems. This small screen requires you to change your eye focus, than readjust back to the road.
You also put strain on your hand that could damage your median nerve and cause carpal tunnel.
Here is a large screen that is also built into the area by the speedometer. The screen is large which does not require a driver to change their focus looking at navigation and you can still use your peripheral vision. It is connected with a cellular connection allowing the driver to perform searches with voice recognition. It could be upgraded to accepting phone calls. A driver no longer has to use his smartphone to perform any function in the car.
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In any event, upgrading to a infotainment system with navigation results in a $2000-$4000 extra charge for the vehicle. Automakers use this trickery to entice buyers with a low price, than upon visiting and deciding to purchase they are hit with this excessive costs. It is a safety system that should be standard on all cars.
With these scary statistics we need to move many of the function of our smartphones to this car infotainment/navigation system that can be connected to a cellular service so that we never have to look at a smartphone screen again while driving. With computer tablets and laptops, running full operating systems for $500, with 4K screens why are we using this ancient technology in our cars!!!
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