Going forward with technology in the automobile industry usually starts from the more expensive cars like the Ferrari Enzo, Lamborghini Gallardo, Ford GT, but in this case it starts with a household brand by the name of Volkswagen. Audi is a part of Volkswagen or the other way around (who knows these days) so I'd expect this type of product to start in a high end brand like that. Better for the averge consumer I'd say and so I'm not complaining.
With a 7-inch touchscreen in the midle of your VW Jetta, Golf, New Beetle, or any other VW, you are pimping right there. It would honestly make me look twice at a vehicle that looks good AND comes with a crazy interface. Now the twist to this story is Apple has been recently collaborating with VW and if you look closely at the zoomed in picture of the display, you'll see some coverflow.
As Autoblog describes it, the concept touchscreen monitor "controls all conceivable functions" and is meant to demonstrate how future human-machine interfaces might look and operate.
-AutoBlog
Since it is developed by Apple you would think there would be multi-touch capabilites but there is no official word yet. Obviously this would increase the possiblity you'd be more focused on scrolling, or doing whatever on Space Up! that you'd completely forget that you're driving. There are going to be later posts on removing that possibility. 
The official word on it though is it will use sensors that react to gestures infront of the screen without touching it but it will also be capable of being touched which will be perfect to some late adapters or just old-fashioned people. The touchscreen is intuitive and makes for a great alternative to a GPS, MyGig, and Sync that are being offered on other cars. The beauty of this all is we won't have to wait until 2015 or an unannounced date for this to be on our favourite VW model, VW says it will be available on all 2009 models. Some say this is what Apple has in store for us in January at MacWorld but I say they will have another completely new product to blow our mind. Bring in the new year with a new Apple.
Labels: Transportation