The Center Stack (the place where the Car Radio and the Climate Controls used to be has grown into THE innovation center of the car today. We all can see it filling up with backup cameras, complex climate controls, phone interfaces, GPS systems, vehicle monitoring systems, music storage, internet wifi connections, apps, more apps and of course the car radio.
While all these innovations bring new OH WOW features really the car radio is pretty much the same. Really the only innovation in the last 10 years is the RDS system where we can sometimes see the song being played.
I've been on the road this Summer for business and family outings and the one innovation I wish the car radio had was a way for me to find the music and stations I want. Say we are driving through South Western Ohio and I want to hear WEBN, but I can't remember the frequency. Wouldn't it be great if I could just hit a button and find ROCK stations and there would pop up WEBN and maybe a few others to pick from. Or my son want to find the Hip-Hop or CHR station. Imagine if we could just yell at the radio or press a button and have a list pop up to pick from.
This is probably a simple solution. How about just including a quick code in the RDS data that IDs the format we play and build it into the radio software? Of course the radio makers would have to build some new software, but isn't it time to update just a little? Maybe we need to start working with the electronic folks and start innovating the car radio again - hey we should be due just 1 update a decade - right???
While all these innovations bring new OH WOW features really the car radio is pretty much the same. Really the only innovation in the last 10 years is the RDS system where we can sometimes see the song being played.
I've been on the road this Summer for business and family outings and the one innovation I wish the car radio had was a way for me to find the music and stations I want. Say we are driving through South Western Ohio and I want to hear WEBN, but I can't remember the frequency. Wouldn't it be great if I could just hit a button and find ROCK stations and there would pop up WEBN and maybe a few others to pick from. Or my son want to find the Hip-Hop or CHR station. Imagine if we could just yell at the radio or press a button and have a list pop up to pick from.
This is probably a simple solution. How about just including a quick code in the RDS data that IDs the format we play and build it into the radio software? Of course the radio makers would have to build some new software, but isn't it time to update just a little? Maybe we need to start working with the electronic folks and start innovating the car radio again - hey we should be due just 1 update a decade - right???
Dave - you may want to investigate the radio in the Toyota Corolla. I had one as a rental last week, and it did just what you're talking about. I had a list of genres on the screen, then it pulled up signals within that genre and tuned to them with a touch. It was a VERY slick little system.
ReplyDeleteHope all is going well!
Chris Pollard
CKDR Dryden, ON