Just curious if anyone has considered or is planning on going this route for some in car entertainment. You figure with the cheap cost of the Pi, and a liliput screen, it would be one of the cheapest options available for a 'carputer'. Was never a really big ICE guy but always interested in what people do in the DIY world.

 

It ran across my mind. Never really put a ton of thought into though.

 

I just ordered mine. I have no idea what I am going to do with it

 

haha seems to be the thought process of just about anyone I've talked to.

But honestly, we all know it has a ton of potential. And now that I think about it more, it should really lend itself very well to a CarPC. To be honest, I'd really be happy with something that automatically pairs up with and charges my cell. Then either pulls up the screen image on a touchscreen in car, or, has some super simple UI of some kind that mimics EVERYTHING on the cell. Slap in a 64GB MicroSD and have a ton of music at my disposal, Pandora, movie playback, have a perfectly working call interface and the best navigation out there with live traffic updates. For free. Quite honestly, all this is already possible by just slapping your phone in a cradle of some kind and connecting charge/audio wires (streaming BT-Audio degrades quality). But then you have to use your tiny cell screen for everything. Plus you have to dig it out of your pocket every time you get in the car, then pull it all back apart again when you get out, because let's face it, you're not leaving your cell in the car.

So our options have been:
1) Installing a manufactured car headunit. These have only very recently became more "Android like" by allowing your phone to pair up and stream Pandora etc. And of course, it doesn't charge your phone. Plus, again, streaming BT-Audio sucks. So you're left with a large SD card or iPod.
2) Build a CarPC. TONS of flexibility. But requires quite a bit of labor fabbing in an aftermarket touchscreen, constructing the PC, hiding it somewhere that won't get in the way or overheat, running all the cables, etc. And it's simply not cheap once all said and done. Lastly, I haven't talking to one CarPC owner who hasn't had to troubleshoot bugs in their setup at least once. Comes with the ownership.
3) Install a tablet. This has really been the best solution as of late. It does require some fabbing to install, but that's about it. Then you essentially have an entire CarPC in one smaller package. The only minor problems I have with it is that I'm not sure how well the bluetooth calling would work out. The tablet has bluetooth, sure, but I don't think the UI is going to do anything when a call comes in. Lastly, it requires internet for anything cool (navi etc). So that means tethering to your phone which destroys battery life.

I just want a larger version of my phone in my car. Is that so much to ask?

So maybe the raspberry pi will be essentially a tablet computer once you add in your touchscreen of choice. Might be fun to play with.

 

Video isn't necessary in a car. It would be distracting. I have a usb port in my radio. An 8gig flash drive holds all the mp3's/wma's I need. Unless you can get Nav (with a complete database of maps) and/or some ODB II connection and software going, I don't see it being really useful.

 

That is exactly the way I view car entertainment. I mean my HU plays DVDs and crap but I have yet to ever actually use it lol. The only cool thing would be to display digital gauges like the GTR does heh.

 

Navigation using a built-in map database is dated. With this, or a tablet, you'd have access to Google Maps or Sprint/Verizon Navigation where maps are constantly updated and real-time traffic updates are included. OBDII items are a given with any of these options. Shelldude has already done it.

And I watch/listen to TV shows and movies on long highway trips. Lots of Seinfeld reruns that I don't even have to really look at to enjoy. lol

 

true but then you need to either pay for 3g service or tether like you mentioned previously

 

Shelldude is using Win7, not Linux. I think the availability and quality of the applications is the limiting factor. Along with drivers for what ever gps antenna you are using.

 

He's using an Android tablet running Honeycomb. Antennas are all built-in.

 

My mistake. I must have read his post wrong.