Imagine…

• Your car is a mobile hotspot.
• Your HD radio tags any of the songs that come on the radio so that you can decide if you want to buy them for your iPod later.
• Instead of gauges above your steering column, there is a screen which displays gauges… any type of gauges you want…
• Instead of radio and HVAC controls, there is an interactive touch screen that has those controls… as well as whatever other controls you might need.

  

  Image via Wikipedia

• Your phone is ‘Bluetoothed’ into the car… not only to make calls, but anything else your phone or mobile device is capable of doing.
• When you are parked, you can browse the internet on the touch screen.
• While moving you can access bookmarks…
• What about doing a Google Voice Search and displaying the results on either of the computer screens in your car?
• The Nav system can be constantly updated with road changes, traffic and even weather.
• And when the technology changes, the system is upgradeable… both hardware and software.

Ford is rolling out the beginnings of that very system in just a few months.  It is called MyFord Touch (there will also be a MyMercury Touch and MyLincoln Touch).  It will be coming out on the 2011 Ford Edge, and then the 2012 Ford Focus.

Much of this is already on the market…

But not by any of the major manufacturers.  And not all together.  And certainly not integrated completely into the car like this.  I’ve read a few of the reports, but my mind just reels with the possibilities.

Just like software for a laptop, if this system is built the way it could be… with reasonably open architecture… the car could be modified with all sorts of third party apps (think iPhone or Droid).  Don’t like the instrument arrangement?  Change it.  Want to change the look of the arrays?  Change them.  Would you like different information displayed?  Change it.

But the coolest thing would be this…

• You arrive in a new town.
• You need to take your client to a nice Japanese restaurant.
• Do a Google search for nearby, highly rated Japanese restaurants…
• Automatically send the address to the nav system…
• There is a GREAT place, but it is about 30 minutes away.
• While on the road, the nav system finds out there is an accident on the Interstate… and re-routes you around it.
• Oh, and you also called and made a reservation…

It would be a lot of fun…

It might be Ford coming out first, but the other manufacturers will follow suit.