There’s a new information display going into many cars, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Automakers and gadget purveyors are increasingly turning to applications for Apple’s iPhone and other smartphones as a way to bring more high-tech electronics into cars.
The apps are varied. Chrysler is using smartphones to replace a car’s bulky paper owner’s manual. Audi is about to let drivers use their smartphones to check out their car’s fuel mileage and other performance data — and be able to upload it to measure results against data from other Audi owners.
“Apple iPhone users are used to the kind of ‘wow’ applications that the smartphone offers,” says David Tait, Audi of America’s chief of aftermarket parts. “We’re very pleased to give them another highly useful tool.”
Audi was giving demonstrations here last week at the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show, the big annual trade show of aftermarket parts and automotive technology.
With some of the latest apps, smartphones are becoming an extension of the car itself. Besides offering another platform for providing information to drivers, smartphones have key advantages over built-in gadgets. Their portability allows motorists to keep their auto data close at hand even when they are away from their cars. And unlike electronics in the car, Web-based applications are easier to keep up to date.
Some automakers already are deep into using them. GM’s OnStar in-car communications service, for instance, unveiled a feature over the summer that lets subscribers remotely start or lock their cars from their smartphones and even remotely blink the headlights or honk the horn to find a car in a crowded lot.
Audi’s iPhone CarMonitor app, still under development, will let drivers keep tabs on key performance data by plugging an iPhone into the car’s OBD-II port in the dashboard, the plug-in that mechanics use to communicate…