Which is worse- I-Drive or Windows?

[Kirby]

Full Article

Click the Start Menu to shutdown your engine!!

By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com


DETROIT--Microsoft wants your next car or SUV to run Windows.

It's no joke. The world's largest software company is revving up to position itself as the largest supplier of software to car manufacturers, with a custom version of Windows CE controlling everything from in-vehicle entertainment to satellite navigation.

"We're providing the end-to-end telematic system," says Peter Wengert, an electrical engineer who is now a marketing manager for Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit. Telematics is the auto industry's term for networked cars.

Microsoft is racing to take advantage of what appears to be an inexorable trend toward smarter cars. General Motors says software and electronics already are responsible for more than one-third of the cost of a typical automobile, and an IBM executive predicted this week that the figure will be closer to 90 percent in five years.

Implanting Windows into automobiles makes sense for a company whose share price has been mostly stagnant for four years. While PC sales have slowed and are expected to enjoy future growth rates only in the single digits, in-car computing remains a young market. Also, Linux has become a real threat to Microsoft on desktops and servers--but it's not as established in the automotive arena.

 

[wood_e]

God... that would be TERRIBLE... I can just see it now... driving along the highway

POP

NEW CRITICAL UPDATES ARE AVAILABLE!

or like... your hardware is incompatable with Windows Car Edition SP2

 

[deutsch100]

Oh no....Scheiße!! Windows in any car, especially a modern German car would be technology death.

"Please pull your vehicle safely off the road, and re-start you windows program"...oh no!!!!! [???1]

 

[Big Daddy]

Wow, let's hope she doesn't freeze up on you and you can't shut her down! Yikes!

 

[gizzy]

While driving your car down a steep mountain path:

Brake driver error:
An error has occured with the brake driver.
Reinstall the brake driver and reboot.

 

[Big Daddy]

This is a good thread, funny too! "Strike another key to continue"

 

[jrt67ss350]

Which one is worse? I don't know; it's already happening: the GUI for idrive runs on Windows CE.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2002/mar02/03-04BMWpr.asp

 

[theBMWenthusiast]

ill like it if i can play computer games while someone else drives

 

[Average Jae]

what i want to know is, will the BSoD come w/ this version too?

also will there be a load time btw turning the ignition to actual start up of the car?

 

[aNoodle]

I can hear the posts now....ALERT! The Bug Bear virus is spreading! Run out to the garage, click auto update, reboot, run your anti-virus software, update that too, reboot, run this free utility you can download from MS off the web, reboot.

 

[andreyiv]

Hehehehe. What if you are playing a racing game and you chose a bimmer. Everything is going fine and then you crash badly in it, I hope windiws will not think that it would be more realistic if the real bimmer crashes too.

"The SRS driver has been updated, please pull over so we can test the airbag."

 

[PhatBimmer]

Why can't anyone think of Apple these days....BMW and Apple = very nice couple

 

[andreyiv]

Yeah, look at the iPod integration, they can't even get that set up with no issues. Oh and PhatBimmer, I beat you by mere seconds, look at the post times.

How do you get higher quality videos off flixvault.net?

 

[Murray BMF]

I don't have iDrive and I use a Macintosh at home. Guess I'm lucky huh!

 

[andreyiv]

There are other alternatives to windows btw.

 

[KevRC4130]

I'm sure Apple could design a very intuitive car operating system, and it would probably a lot more stable, just like how OSX is much more stable than XP... Apple for life!

 

[Chesty Bonds]

I hate all this computer technology s*** in the new cars. Get back to the real art of driving by using your brain and the regulation of an accelerator with you FOOT. Jeez, is that so much to ask these days???

 

[Bryan330i]

God... that would be TERRIBLE... I can just see it now... driving along the highway

POP

NEW CRITICAL UPDATES ARE AVAILABLE!

or like... your hardware is incompatable with Windows Car Edition SP2

You are killing me

 

[Bryan330i]

If Microsoft made cars

1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.

2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, restart and drive on.

3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too.

4. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.

5. Amiga would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.

6. Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.

7. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.

8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.

9. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.

10. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.

11. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.

12. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.

13. They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.

14. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.

15. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes. Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.

16. Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!

17. If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!

18. If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friends, and then copy it.

19. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganise the ignition for a few days before it worked.

20. You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.



Author: Mr. Welsh?

 

[bahnstormer]

98 was bad but i think bill and co is past that. i've been running xp for a few years now and its stable as a rock so long as u know what u're doing....unfort many ppl that buy cars have no idea what they are doing =\