

Driving the Audi A7, the first car with Google Earth onboard. - technologizer
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2079434,00.html

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r00fus
"For obvious reasons, you can't watch movies while the car is in motion. You
can, however, listen to the audio. And you can watch on the MMI display
whenever the vehicle is stopped, even if it's just for a moment."

Why is this even a feature? Wouldn't it make more sense to just pause the
audio and video and black out the screen when the car is in motion?

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Lagged2Death
_Why is this even a feature?_

My wife just bought a VW (which shares a lot of compenentry and design talent
with Audi) and it is (IMHO) full of over-thought UI "features" like this that
just make the car mysterious to use. A lot of the software UI in particular is
just execrable. A ton of fun to drive, though.

 _Wouldn't it make more sense to just..._

I think it would make even more sense to not build so much soon-to-be-obsolete
electronic gear into a car that may (mechanically speaking) be viable
transportation for decades.

But I guess car makers, like the makers of anything, are more interested in
features that help the cars sell rather than features that make the cars easy
to live with.

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dman
I am currently in the market to buy a car and couldnt agree with you more. I
dont want my car to get obsolete because hdmi got replaced with displayport!

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wccrawford
Google Earth, or Google Maps?

From everything in the description (except the name) it sounds more like
Maps... And Maps would be more useful, too.

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geekfactor
Earth.

Here's a neat video of the system in action:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S14sAYOJQ8A>

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RyanMcGreal
What kind of lunatic would try and drive to the _Louvre_?

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rcthompson
The first car with Google Earth onboard, not counting all the cars with smart
phone windshield mounts.

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olalonde
GPS companies must be pissed off...

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bhartzer
I can't wait until I can get Google Earth in my Porsche 911 Turbo.

