A German Magazine is reporting that Apple and Mercedes Benz have signed a deal whereby Apple will design an in-car maintenance, communication and navigation system for inclusion in Mercedes Benz vehicles from 2009.
Mercedes will have exclusive rights to the new Apple in-car system for 6 months. The article speculated as to whether the Apple system will rely on Google Maps as the iPhone does, however no firmer details were available.
Given the small form factor of the Mini Mac, it’s not a stretch to imagine a similar sized OS X powered unit being built into vehicles.
(in part via FourSprung)
Mercedes are way cooler than toasters.
It is surprising that Microsoft has not been aggressive in pursuing the vehicle market. It is hard to believe that it has not been proposed and analyzed.
It would be great if you could get a quote from someone regarding this void.
Um, iDrive? There were a few attempts to bring Windows into the car, but none of them reached any critical success.
There’s also this effort by Microsoft.
Anyone that knows me will tell you that I’m no Microsoft fan, but the claim that there hasn’t been a push to put Windows in automobiles doesn’t seem true to me.
Sujal
Bad Photoshop skills.
Windows Automotive:
http://www.micr...dowsautomotive/
> there has been no serious effort so far to deliver Windows into vehicles
There hasn’t?
http://www.micr...ve/default.mspx
“Drivers and passengers can now experience Microsoft technology in over 60 preinstalled and aftermarket devices from 18 world-class automakers and suppliers including Acura, BMW, Citroën, Clarion Co. Ltd., DaimlerChrysler, Fiat, Subaru, Honda, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, NexTech, Toyota and Volvo.”
My 2006 Acura TL car navigation is running Windows. I know this, since my Acura is the first Acura that had iPod connectivity. My friend at Apple Japan worked on all the deals for iPod connectivity for Japanese auto manufacturers and mentioned that my car nav was running Windows.
Microsoft has a large presence in the automotive industry – it’s just there is no boot screen displaying Windows
How about a real device that is shiping in cars TODAY:
http://www.fiat...tOID=1074102848
How about a real device that will be shipping in 2008 model year cars:
http://www.syncmyride.com
I think that Microsoft is firmly established in the automotive world.
Hmmm…
Microsoft has a Windows CE based product shipping in Fiat vehicles:
http://www.fiat...OID=-1073763035
AND, Ford has announced a Microsoft-based product also:
http://www.ford...ngYouInSync.htm
By far the worst thing about the Mercedes is the current Nav system. The COMAND system has such an unacceptable UI that I bought an external GPS. If Apple does the electronics, Mercedes will have me for a long time (especially if they build an SLK63).
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to buy?
Computers in cars are cool; but what is there left to add? Perhaps passengers can have use for the computer.
BMW could also use some Apple lovin for their iDrive toggle thingamajig..right now it’s an over-engineered pos.
because a cell phone wasn’t a big enough distraction
coming soon, twitter related car accidents
i am astonished by how inaccurate the article is duncan, for the contraire MS has the biggest leverage in the automotive market and even got special versions of the initiative with things like sync, and they have also designed a protptype software for a automatic traffic control for a long distance navigation system and of course the navigation system itself..
Love your work Duncan, but I agree with Avatar — this needed at least a simple Google search before the anti-MS dig in the last paragraph …
Wow, clearly reporting facts isn’t necessary to land a job with TechCrunch. At least make an attempt at researching something before boldly saying something like “there has been no serious effort so far to deliver Windows into vehicles”.
I believe you can add Ford to Scott’s list of Automakers who are part of Microsofts “not serious effort”…
http://news.bbc...ess/6240479.stm
If this quality of article is considered worthy of TechCrunch it’s goodbye.
Why is the size of the Mini Mac relevant, if there is such a thing as iPhone, which works with Google Maps, and probably GPS functions supports?
i don’t think i want windows controlling my car. what happens when it can’t find the right driver? does it crash?
…yes, i went there.
Article corrected. Apologies that I wasn’t aware of the Microsoft car product, Microsoft is everywhere after all.
If I am not mistaken, BMW uses a MS-based OS
How can you blame a man for being anti-MS?
So apple a design company more than ever?
– Design of software and hardware …
– consultants?
– anything apple cant do?
Attempting to dominate the world has been a largely unsuccessful endeavor by all those have tried. I love Apple because it has been so focused and unwavering regarding it’s design principles. I hope my love for it doesn’t diminish as Apple branches out and spreads itself thin…
Oh, Apple.
My, my, BMW… what a big nose you have? Can you say edsel?
Did I say BMW? Mercedes!
Maybe you shouldn’t use google to translate german magazin articles
Apple will not design an in-car maintenance system, it will design an entertainment system.
I just watched a recent video clip on Scoble with Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and it got me thinking. Schmidt just said, when asked about radio advertising, “the car is not yet an addressable device”. Is this Mercedes deal one orchestrated by Google via Apple to control and enrich in car advertising?
Does that mean Mercedes vehicles will now run slower?
Just having a stereo, navigation, telephone and in-car mananagement system that has gone through a typical Apple usability design would be such a major improvement. Mercedes has recently released wonderful cars (the CLS is fantastic) but stereo and GPS systems are so unusable it is not even funny.
this is huge…and a new direction…this is why they dropped the word ‘Computer’ from Apple Inc…smart move…
I believe iMobile has the Apple market beat by a number of years. These guys have been out now for 6 years with in car pc’s that operate wit no problem
Great it’s corrected, would have been better if the original text was still shown struck out so could see why all the comments are here.
I would say that this is pretty HUGE.
This is quite an additional brand builder for an amazing brand.
I will be watching how this one plays out.
Charlie