The power of a personal computer for car information and communications systems

Autonomous car navigation systems have been on the market since the mid-1980s. To date these systems have seen limited market acceptability due to high cost and lack of adequate map data bases and roadway infrastructure to make navigation systems more useful to the consumer. Today, Japan, the US, and Europe all have programs which are beginning to address making our highways more intelligent, specifying the infrastructure necessary for successful implementation. Many geographic areas are now being digitized and stored on CD ROM. Automakers are also now beginning to address the utility of these autonomous systems. One way to increase utility is to take advantage of the power of the personal computer to make a cost-effective car information and communication system which shares the navigation "computer", display and CD player. Some of the functions of the car information and communication system could include: operation and/or display of the automatic temperature control, audio and video entertainment center, trip computer, navigation system, cellular telephone, and car diagnostics. Certain features could be incorporated by taking advantage of the "computer" in the car. These features might include: autodialing, maintenance logs, "yellow pages" directory, paging, route determination and electronic mail. This paper will discuss a conceptual car information and communication system that is based on a highly-integrated, two chip "PC", the Intel386(TM)SL, which could utilize a PC-like Windows(TM) operating system, notebook PC memory cards and CD ROM based maps.