When it comes to expensive purchases, cars rank right up there. Not only are they designed to go fast, they’re designed to do so in relative comfort and safety, while costing as little to do so as possible. Even with all of that design they’re still complicated machines to operate. Yet, they can simultaneously be boring. What’s engaging about coasting down an open stretch of highway? Nothing.
So we’ve devised ways to keep ourselves entertained, typically through passive entertainment from the likes of music or talk radio playing through the car’s stereo. But recently the smartphone has stood to change the way we think about entertainment in the car, along with disrupting other things.
So how can we put mobile to work to provide the same level of entertainment in our cars as it does in our homes? Are the mapping services on our smartphones good enough to replace a dedicated GPS unit in the car? And is it even safe to be using these things while we drive?