You’ve heard all the ‘if Microsoft built cars…’ gags, but the nightmare scenario of system crashes in the overtaking-lane, re-installing your engine and hitting the start button to switch off might just have taken a step closer reality.

Yep, Microsoft has just announced a new in-vehicle software platform that provides support for the first time to Intel processor hardware.

Officially, the move to integrate Intel means car-makers and their partners should be able to develop integrated multifunction systems for vehicles more flexibly, cheaper, and with greater design scaleability.

Or as Tom Phillips, boss of Microsoft Automotive says: ‘The auto industry is at an inflection point, where software plus services will redefine the future of the in-vehicle experience, and innovation is the new currency.’ Er, quite… Thank you Tom!

In fact, Microsoft operating systems are already out there. Existing generations of the platform provide car-makers with a platform to add mobile devices, speech integration and other features, while the latest version adds novelties such as the ability to download tracks from CDs to an onboard hard drive.

Fiat Group’s Blue&Me is built on the Microsoft Auto platform, and the latest Blue&Me application called eco: Drive demonstrates the scope for ‘upgradeability’, says the software giant.

Most Blue&Me-equipped Fiats can be upgraded to run eco: Drive by downloading software from the internet and transferring it to their vehicle on a USB memory stick. The system then collects data on acceleration, deceleration, gear-shifting and speed that can be analysed at home via the eco: Drive web portal. Check it out here: http://www.fiat.co.uk/ecodrive/#ecodrive/intro

The next generation Microsoft Auto 4.0 will be used by Fiat, Hyundai and Ford among others.

Source: http://pistonheads.co.uk/news/default.asp?storyId=19467



I haven't even got Blue&Me but this certainly looks cool.