Back in the 1956, there were ideas about what the connected car would be like in the future with driverless auto-piloted cars at the GM Motorama Exhibit. In the video below you can see the roots of many connected car features, including auto pilot, video screens and an OnStar-like adviser.
Starting off with snappy song, the family turns the radio to 1976 and the car converts to a super Firebird 2, gas turbine car with many futuristic connected car features.
The family uses OnStar-like communication, talking to a “control tower” with an adviser “Mr. Tower Man” who offers routes on a map. There a large video screen in the center stack and instrument panel.
The instrument panel talks to the driver telling him how much gas is left. Auto pilot is engaged by placing the car on the beam of the high speed safety lane. The driver pushes the steering wheel into the dash to enjoy driving without steering similar to the Budii car or Mercedes-Benz self-driving car.
Instead of a glove box, there is a cooler/refrigerator box filled with orange juice and ice cream.
The adviser sends the family to a special “Sunset Inn that is a honey and the hostess is a dream.” The food is pre-digested and cooked by infrared. Yum.
The adviser announces to the driver, that he must take back to hands on wheel steering.
This very much like GM’s announcement that OnStar will offer hotel bookings and Dunkin’ Donut incentives.
The most amusing part of the video are how little traffic is on the roadways.
The back seats have table trays but not TV screens or tablets for viewing videos.
Do you recognize any other connected car technology of today? Please let us know in the comments below.