APB For iCar: Apple Could Go Automotive, And Could Spell Death for Dashboards
ZNET's Larry Dignan has been looking for a new car. We don't know what specific sets of wheels he's been sampling, but one thing is for sure: He doesn't like what he's finding on the dashboards.
He writes, "Two weeks of car shopping has driven home two big points for me: User interface matters. Car companies aren't all that good at it." He then suggests that Volkswagen and Apple might be able to get together to change all that.
Dignan goes on to discuss the pros and (mostly) cons of in-car entertainment and communications systems from Acura and Ford. But what he really wants is for Apple to jump in the game. It's worth pointing out at this point that he's not the only one who has speculated about the advent of the iCar, or at least partnership between Apple and a major automaker. Both General Motors and Ford have their hookups. Ford has been working with Microsoft for a while, and GM recently joined with Google.
Who wouldn't want Apple on the road, except maybe...Apple?
Apple is the odd man out, and you can imagine the general salivating that would take place if the undisputed world user-interface leader announced that it wanted to change that. I wrote about this last year, and explained why it would actually be a problem. The carmakers really need Silicon Valley for its software expertise, not to remake the experience of driving.
But it's probably worth it to revisit this discussion. Dignan points to Volkswagen at a potential Apple partner, and rumors to that effect have been floated over the past few years. VW would like to bolster its presence in the U.S. market and will be looking for differentiators. And you couldn't find bigger differentiators than the wizards of Cupertino.
Time to stop fixating on the dashboard?
Zignan's preoccupation is with simplicity. Swamped by the doodads on dashboard layouts of many modern cars, it's easy to believe that carmakers simply believe that more is more. I've visited car design studios where the message is totally different, but in the end, the designers don't often win and the status quo prevails.
Button creep
So you get button creep, or worse, something like BMW's derided iDrive system. Solutions always seem to offer something new, such as voice-activated music browsing or mobile-device integration, without significantly changing the user experience. When you test drive a brand-new car, you're still confronted by the familiar inputs -- speedometer, tach, gauges, stereo, climate controls -- plus all the new toys.
The device is the dashboard
My theory about about why Apple has stayed out of cars is that it doesn't want to be in an environment where anyone else -- like, say, the guys who make the car itself -- control the experience. However, some of the more interesting types of new mobility I've seen in the past year or so take abundant advantage of what Apple is good at -- by using Apple products to essentially replace the conventional dash.
So complicated ideas like device integration and customized software don't really enter the picture. Somebody instead wants to design a new kind of car and, instead of putting in a dashboard, just provides a mounting point for an iPad or an iPhone. Presto! Your car can't actually function without Apple.
Best of all, when you aren't driving, you can take your device with you. Obviously not something you can do with most dashboards. Apple and carmakers would have to resolve questions, about safety and whether a device could be counted on to deliver all the right kind of essential info to the driver. But one thing's for sure: Apple would like it because it would control everything.
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Photo: GM Media/OnStar-Verizon