Dashboard Linux 249
zebziggle writes "The dashPC has Global Positioning (GPS) and Navigation, DVDs, Games (Quake 3, SoF, UT), Address book database, etc. It can run any programs that will run on an Intel/AMD i686 class computer. There is a Basic Stamp micro-controller that interfaces the Linux box to the car ignition for controlled boot/shutdown." The article says Linux, but that screenshot tells a different story. The website has other stuff and a lot more pictures.
what's better? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:what's better? (Score:2, Funny)
See Comment... (Score:2)
VMWare (Score:2, Insightful)
(Did you even look at the links?)
Cool setup, actually. Too bad he had to have M$ just for the GPS support (DeLorme).
couple it with a "heads-up" display... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:what's better? (Score:2)
Jetta Coupe? (Score:3, Insightful)
Something about this site seems awfully fishy.
Re:Jetta Coupe? -Amendment (Score:1, Flamebait)
And WHO in their right minds uses fake woodgrain on a Jetta? That makes the entire car look sooo cheezy!
Re:Jetta Coupe? (Score:1)
in the US...or was. I wasn't very popular, so VW dropped it when the did the JettaIII.
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/8783/coupehi
That car, however, IS a sedan.
Re:Jetta Coupe? (Score:4, Insightful)
JOhn
Re:Jetta Coupe? (Score:3, Funny)
Also can clearly see the front door handle in one of the pictures with the back door open.
The only thing that make this site fishy is that your head is buried in silt.
This site and the information is one of the best uses for linux on pc equipment. I saw it a while back and is an arguement that if done right linux can be very user friendly.
Overall this is a great hack.
Re:Jetta Coupe? (Score:2)
I did read the whole site, dumbass. The site claims that VMware was used only for GPS equipment for Win98, yet the desktop shows Windoze clearly being used for other purposes as well...including Winamp/MP3 playing.
WIth all that work on WIndows, it makes you wonder why he even installed windows.
As for the Jetta Coupe ordeal, the PICTURES clearly show a sedan, but the features with the "beauty" shots clearly shows a Coupe....with him trying to show how nice a car he has, you'd figure he'd actually show HIS car! (Notice he never takes any pictures of the exterior of his own car--lowered suspension my ass.)
Re:Jetta Coupe? (Score:1, Offtopic)
The photo on the "features" page is a modified form of a photograph of that VW concept car . It was painted a lovely blue we don't get here in the US -- Jazz Blue. (A few Jazz Blue Golfs did make it as close as Canada, though. And you can get the color -- renamed -- on the Audi S4.)
I can't seem to find a valid URL for the original photo at the moment, unfortunately.
Jetta coupes existed for the first- and second-generation models only. They might come back for Generation 5, though. Who knows?
Re:Jetta Coupe? (Score:2)
Volkswagen officially called it the Coupe Study CJ [geocities.com]. And I think that's the color Audi calls Nogaro Blue.
</karmawhore>
Beowulf? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Beowulf? (Score:1)
Frame style? (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Frame style? (Score:2)
Re:Frame style? (Score:1)
Re:Frame style? (Score:2)
Stuck at a green light. (Score:1)
On the other hand, for kids in the back seat with head phones, maybe quiet trips will make a comeback.
Driver distractions (Score:4, Funny)
However, the rather pointless walnut styling on the keyboard really sells the thing to me
Re:Driver distractions (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Driver distractions (Score:1)
I SO want to play Grand Theft Auto 3 when I'm driving...
Re:Driver distractions (Score:2, Funny)
The Next Step (Score:5, Funny)
Cameras mounted on the front of the car would provide the driver with images from the road. The rest of the 'screen' could be divided into whatever the user(s) would like.
Say the passenger wants to play Quake, he opens a window and plays it on the right side, while the screen in the middle plays The Lion King for the kids in the back.
This would also allow stronger bodies on cars, as the composite used in place of windows would be far stronger than glass.
Talisman
Re:The Next Step (Score:2, Interesting)
I think a full on windscreen display would be a bit OTT. By the time that comes viable, the cars will be flying themselves
Re:The Next Step (Score:1)
You don't wanna see your binary-only nvidia driver blow up on you when driving (or X for that matter).
Re:The Next Step (Score:1)
Re:The Next Step (Score:1)
I can see it now. The monitors go blank, you can't see a thing out the window, and you are driving down the Interstate at 85 miles an hour. What do you do? Crash, that's what.
Also, I can imagine that people who suffer from claustrophobia would have a hard time in a vehicle such as this, no matter if they are seeing the outside through a virtual method.
I guess I just do not see the use of virtual monitors in vehicles happening for some time to come. Glass is cheap, and can be strengthened to provide quite a bit of protection.
Re:The Next Step (Score:4, Interesting)
(Actually my idea I had was about 7 years ago, while I was a major trekkie, was for a car that looked like and worked like a ST:TNG shuttlecraft. I had blueprints and everything, but somewhere along the lines I grew up
Re:The Next Step (Score:2)
Do we get the rest of the cool SPV features with that?
http://members.tripod.com/chris_bishop_ca/page2
Re:The Next Step (Score:5, Funny)
It's all fun and games until someone *thinks* they're playing Carmageddon but they're really driving around the Target parking lot at 80 mph...
Re:The Next Step (Score:4, Interesting)
First off, the windshield is big enough that if any significant portion of the glass gets damaged enough so that you can't see it, you generally can see enough to pull over to the side of the road. Glass is ungodly simple this way--if you critically damage part of it, the whole thing isn't going to fail.
Secondly, glass is relatively easy to fix and cheap to replace: A new windshield runs for around $200. Any camera/monitor combo would likely cost tens of times as much. What's more, even if you've got a chasm-of-doom running down the middle of your windshield, you can still drive (albeit not terribly legally). With a cam/monitor combo, a dead camera means a useless car.
Lastly, and most importantly, is the human factor. The human optical system is a very complex systems that's been honed for tens of thousands of years to process lots of bits of information at once. When I'm driving down the freeway at 75mph, maybe ten or twenty car-lengths behind someone, I can feel if I'm getting closer or farther away from them, despite there being a speed difference of only a couple of mph. Most peoples' eyes are also much sharper than most LCD screens (we won't discuss CRTs -- they're big, heavy, and a major safety hazard -- would you like a vacuum-filled glass tube in front of your head when you get in a wreck?) I've seen camera-and-LCD rear-view mirror replacements, and I haven't been impressed. Even at high resolutions, there's a lack of detail and intuitive connection to the image. It's the same feeling as looking through a periscope--your mind loses its connection to the object that you're looking at. You don't have any of those problems with glass.
Re:The Next Step (Score:2)
Everyone who drives a Riveria from the years 1989-1996 do. That center system is a 9" monocrome tube.
They are very safe, and work better in a vehicle that isnt in the warm south.
Re:The Next Step (Score:2)
Re:The Next Step (Score:2)
The info about the mods is on the 4th page - http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/3q00/honda/ins
Re:The Next Step (Score:2)
Rendundant, yes; but it had to be said!
Re:The Next Step (Score:3, Funny)
That's all very well and good until you swerve to avoid a fucking X10 popup and end up taking out some poor grannie crossing the road.com.
Depth perception (Score:2)
Kids: Don't try driving your parents' car with one eye closed.
I've never had depth perception, and I'm here to tell you I leave a lot more space when I'm driving then most people because of it.
Games!?!?! (Score:2, Funny)
The software page mentions VmWare (Score:1)
Is there no good Linux GPS/Atlas stuff out there? Maybe someone should give them a pointer to it.
Re:The software page mentions VmWare (Score:2, Informative)
GPSDrive HOMEPAGE [kraftvoll.at]
Read this! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Read this! (Score:4, Insightful)
God we're dumb.
Re:Read this! (Score:4, Funny)
When somebody gets hit when the driver's attention is distracted by the radio, phone, or tv it is an accident that was 100% avoidable in the eyes of the law. Just having this rig in your car makes you liable for any accident your in, and any would be theif walking pass your ride. If this is for passenger use Only(?) it fine, just like the game systems/TVs in minivans. Adding anything to the dashboard that distracts the driver is extremly dangerous period. Voice activitation and HUD won't solve the problem either, its still distracts.
IMHO when automated driving systems become standard (which they will) then I'll have no problem with the driver of the SUV fragging the scrpit kiddie in the minivan.
Re:Read this! (Score:2)
It's supposed to be for the passengers. However, he also admits (in the FAQ) that he does use it sometimes while driving. And if these started making it into Joe Driver's car, you know that drivers will start using it, no matter the intention. It already happens - I quite regularly see people using their laptops in cars.
He's running VMWare - Windows 98 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:He's running VMWare - Windows 98 (Score:2)
mayko xmap is gone, the open source xmap called hugo is gone, and noone will use the free map database (tiger line) for their map sources.
Linux fails miserably in the land of navigation and mapping, and unfortunately it will stay that way for a really long time.
yeah, that perl script... (Score:2)
#!/usr/bin/perl
open(INFILE,"while () {
if ($_ eq "[SHUTDOWN]\r\n") {
exec("/sbin/shutdown -h now");
}
}
Let's see!
H:\>perl
'PERL' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
There you have it.
Re:yeah, that perl script... (Score:2)
C:\>perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 6 subversion 1) configuration:
Platform:
osname=MSWin32, osvers=4.0, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
I also run '.pl' files as executables from the command line, without even having tu add the
Besides, like 300 other people have mentioned (because they read the article) - the guy was running VMWare on Linux...
sheeh
Re:He's running VMWare - Windows 98 (Score:2)
I just tried it and YES Delorme 5 works fine under wine with the delorme tripmate.
so the added costs and overhead for vmware and winsomething is overhead that was never needed.
Windows is not needed on this machine for any reason.
question... (Score:1)
Re:question... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:question... (Score:2)
Re:question... (Score:2)
did you just make that up? Nothing on the site indicates that the box has WiFi built in.
It's on his News page. The 10/25/01 entry had the following:
The screen resolution on the display is limited to 640x480 so I've decided to drop the window manager. I'm going to use perl/Tk to roll my own UI. I put a few pictures at the bottom of the pictures page. I'm currently downloading the images (via 802.11) for weather and traffic before I leave the parking garage. By the time I get out of the parking garage, the system has booted, the network connection is live, and the system pulls the images off the web. In addition, the car uploads the latest GPS coordinates, so if the car ever disappears, the authorities can recover it. Since ricochet went down, I'll have to figure out another way to do the wireless connectivity. I'm thinking about cellular at this point, but I'm not sure just yet. The user interface is coming along nicely. I also added a radio card to the system. It was killing me not having talk radio on my way in to work. The Hauppauge cards have a coax connector which is why I chose it.
Sometimes, when I'm stopped at a red light, I can get an ethernet connection. I must be jumping on to someones 802.11 base unit. All your 802.11 base are belong to us.
Re:question... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:question... (Score:2, Funny)
He looks ouside the window.. instant weather updates
Beowulf Clustering Anyone? (Score:1)
Now those long, traffic-jam laden commutes might not be so bad for society after all- just add a little distributed computing.
Ho-Hum, Friday afternoon ... (Score:5, Funny)
*My* passengers are to busy praying not to die, while I navigate my bmw @ 2xSpeed Limit speeds.
wowowow! (Score:2, Funny)
Hey is that... hmmm... (Score:1, Redundant)
If so then it's probably nothing new - just clever wiring and some GPS software.
I have to say though, the keyboard seems mighty stupid. And games??? I mean, maybe in a traffic jam but I can't see the point.
Devices like these need to be voice controlled, if anything. Actually, someone needs to come up with an input device that can be mounted in the steering wheel and functions as both a mouse and basic keyboard, maybe even support for gestures and so on.
Oh, and definitely put the display in a HUD or something. More people have died from looking down to change the radio station than hit by trains at intersections =)
Re:Hey is that... hmmm... (Score:2)
Transform a traffic jam into a party? (Score:1)
Anyway, there is many practical uses for this. However, a sticker should state: "Don't surf and drive!"
it uses windows for the atlas (Score:1, Redundant)
* Red Hat Linux 7.1
* M$ Windows 98 installed on VMWare for Linux (used only for GPS/Street Atlas RWE)
* VMWare for Linux
* XMMS (Linux)
* StreetAtlas Road Warrior Edition
so the answer is: yes, indeed the screens do look like windows, because they are.
christian.
Windows in the screenshot, Linux in the text? (Score:1)
If (as has been previously suggested) this is not much more than a mini-PC with some additional extra stuff to manage a graceful shutdown, then replacing a full Win98 install with a Linux install should not be too difficult.
And he wouldn't have to may the M$ tax.
Just my C$0.02...
grnbrg
Single DIN GPS (Score:1)
I have a WRX with an area for a gauge pod on the dash that could hold a single din unit, I saw someone had mounted a Kenwood there.
Does anyone know if such a beast exists?
GPS Quake (Score:1)
Re:GPS Quake (Score:2)
Nifty (Score:4, Interesting)
I've put a system in my car that does a few of these things. It's based on a regular x86 system, but uses straight DC-DC for power (eats less power). The BASIC STAMP I used (BS2-SX) is set up to power up the computer on ignition and it can start the car on a signal from the computer, as well. I'm in the process of setting my trunk button on my keyless entry to turn on the computer instead. I have a 5" LCD (no touchscreen yet!) and tiny keyboard (keypad next to the LCD, too).
So far it has integratio with my GPS: moving map, output to my stereo, 802.11b (to work on it from my home, transfer music, etc), and the beginning of an interface to my car's CPU and testing system.
I'm using a big deep-cycle battery to power it (charges from car) when the car isn't on, but I really just want to make it more low-power from the bottom up. My car is pretty light-weight anyway (RX-7), so I'd like to lose the battery eventually.
This is mostly spare parts and home-built electronics, though, so I spent less than $200 on it as it is. My entire CD collection is in it in fairly high bitrate mp3/ogg files.
Once the car CPU interface is complete, I can have all sorts of useless realtime stats to look at instead of the road!
Now I just need retractable wings and I'm set. (Maybe oil-slick and caltrops, too!)
Re:Nifty (Score:2)
Great (Score:1, Funny)
I can not wait till cars start to fly and we have them start to hit buildings and fall from the sky so distracted drivers can kill people by the score. Because one or two at time is what we seem to be limited to now...
What we REALLY need . . . (Score:5, Funny)
So you'd actually have /dev/engine, /dev/wheel[0123] . . . Some stuff under /proc to report stats and the like. You'd have things like "steerd" running in the background to handle steering. Get a remote interet connection up and you could even SSH into your car to diagnose engine problems! Think of the possibilities!
You could even use the standard Linux sound structure to deal with your car's audio system. /dev/audio and the like. Have mpg123 for mp3s, some cd player to deal with CDs. Heck, since we're doing mp3s now, you could actually serve mp3s up to OTHER cars running Linux! We could probably hack up Gnutella to do some keen P2P stuff. ("Damn, I forgot my NIN CD at home. But wait! That Honda over there is sharing them! Great!")
Of course, then you've gotta worry about people h4x0ring into your car. That'd bite. We'd have to make sure there's some pretty thorough iptables rules going on . . . And what happens if your kernel panics? Doh! Probably not the best situation to be running a "testing" kernel on. I can see the website now: "Well, the bug that was causing engine meltdowns was fixed in 2.5.13-pre5, so I suggest everyone upgrade . . ."
Gives a whole new meaning to the whole "no warranty implied" thing, eh? Would you want the preemptible kernel patches on that thing?
So what do most cars actually run on, anyway?
Re:What we REALLY need . . . (Score:1)
Embedded RTOSs I'm guessing. Mostly custom made.
Anyways, I'd hate to have linux running on my system, imagine if steerd segfaulted, or my car got h4x0rd by an 31337 5kR1p7 K1dd13.
Re:What we REALLY need . . . (Score:2)
I certainly woudl not want linux running my car.
Re:What we REALLY need . . . (Score:2)
DEV CAR
My normal reaction to vanity tags is "loser"... this is the only one I have ever envied.
Had to be said. . . (Score:2)
This would give an all new meaning to system crash.
I know, I know. I'm just lucky there isn't a "Punny (-1)" moderation category.
-"Zow"
Just a few questions (Score:1)
First, can it download my e-mail? Second, can it read my e-mail, and maybe e-books, to me, using a text to speech synthesizer? Third, can it read it to me in a pleasing female voice?
Priceless... (Score:5, Funny)
802.11b Wireless LAN card: US$120
Airsnort: Free
Sending a WinPopUp that says "YOU ARE AN IDIOT" to the moron who just cut you off: Priceless
For some things there are hand signals, for everything else, there's Linux.
Needs a heads-up display (Score:1)
Scripting this baby (Score:3, Funny)
cat "right 30" >
cat "25" >
sleep 2
cat "0" >
cat "left 30" >
cat "reverse" >
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Re:So if most of your apps are Windows... (Score:4, Insightful)
let's say he only wanted certain processes starting or stopping at particular times?
what if he wanted to run his choice of a journaling filesystem and wanted to tweak it for speed?
what if he wanted to run a webserver and database server without having to waste money on any licenses?
let's see you hack a unsupported touchscreen display into windows, hahaha.
look, with linux (and vmware) he has the best of both worlds PLUS ultimate configurability. he can make his car computer do whatever he wants.
if he were to install only windows, boy would he be limiting the power of his project.
Re:So if most of your apps are Windows... (Score:2)
As long as the process is a linux process and not a windows one.
let's see you hack a unsupported touchscreen display into windows, hahaha.
since when does anyone release a device without windows drivers? The only people who have those sorts of problems are non-windows users (and XP users currently I guess), or those that built their own gear.
Besides, generating appropriate mouseup and mousedown events using SendMessage isn't too hard if you really wanted to do it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So if most of your apps are Windows... (Score:4, Insightful)
JOhn
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So if most of your apps are Windows... (Score:2)
JOhn
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Carmegeddon (Score:4, Funny)
-cpd
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
More info at www.dashpc.com !!! (Score:2, Informative)
Please mod up so other people can actually find useful info.
P.S. Is anyone else pissed at VW for not bringing their in-dash navigation system that is available for Passat in Europe?
More reasons to get in an accident (Score:4, Funny)
badger
major design problem (Score:5, Insightful)
LCD's die when they freeze and most every LCD from his listed source are rated only down to 20 degrees F michigan get's to -1 -2 on a regular basis every winter (except this winter, it was 65 yesterday) and in minnesota it gets to -15 at least twice.
the best choice for an LCD is something designed for vehicle use which has a wide temperature range. Nothing from his supplier is useable in a vehicle in the upper 40% of the northern hemisphere.
redundant -1 (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Wow, a dashboard linux box running windows, ama (Score:1, Offtopic)
Hmm, just like the Best Buy circular I got yesterday - the front was all about a Sony Vaio Pentium 4 with Windows XP, but of course the screen shot was showing Mac OS (and not OS X either). You may have seen it - the screenshot was an email program with a mail being composed about getting one of the new N'Sync bobble-head (there's a redundant statement) dolls. If technology companies can't get their ads straight, it's no wonder that the rest of the world is so confused about what's what.
Re:Basic Stamp? (Score:2)