There are different kinds of technology that we can incorporate to modern cars. Cars could designed primarily for geeks, from adding one small gadget to incorporating many new components to create a full-fledged digital car mod, With small improvement we add to our car, our vehicle could become closer and closer approaching the Batmobile. The basic digital technology we could add to our car is GPS navigation, especially in affordable car models without such a feature. Latest navigation capabilities in cars include touchscreen technology and voice recognition. With these navigation features, we should have the peace of mind that we would be much less likely to get lost.
Advanced navigation system could actually save gas and time, because we will be guided to the nearest pizza joint or gas station when travelling to other cities. Some car systems could even provide information like sports scores, latest news and stock quotes; by being connected to the Internet. A few years ago, the practice of war driving was popular and it is intended as an activity to locate wireless networks on the road. This will require us to install portable laptops in cars and it should be great to have a mobile computing device at our disposal. Hardcore geeks could still do this by radiating WiFi signals and inviting others to share their music and files. Obviously, it doesn’t mean that we should use our computer while driving and we should work with these digital devices only when the car has stopped. Seeking for wireless hotspots may no longer be a relevant thing to do because cellular network providers have offered affordable data plans; but it is still possible to trade files with other geeks. In fact, there are people who carry full-fledged desktop gaming rig in their car along with compact, portable generators that allow them to perform multiplayer sessions with others through wireless networks.
Many people want to include onboard diagnostics or OBD in their cars. In many cars produced after 1996, we can often find the system built in to them. Some cars come with dedicated mobile app and PC software, so it is possible to pair the car with our smartphone, tablet and laptop. This should allow us to get an overview of information gathered from sensors. OBD provides different information stream. As an example, we are able to view the torque and horsepower at any RPM by examining the statistics that can be downloaded. We could see the actual gas mileage and how fast we can do from 0 to 60mph.
In areas that are affected by cold winter, it is surely nice to have our car idling, heating its engines and defrosting its internal components. Some cars don’t only have remote starter, but also timer-based system that can start themselves at specific time of the day, especially during the morning. This can be performed while the car is fully locked, so we shouldn’t be worried by the possibility of theft.