LTE Connected Car: Dude, Where’s My Display?

With each week that passes, we get new versions of what Car 2.0 is really all about. Earth2Tech just produced a collection of eight cool iPhone apps for the next-generation automotive autocrat, and today comes word of a slick-looking, new LTE Connected Car. It’s equipped with 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband access technology, and includes independently operated touchscreens, video on demand, an in-car Wi-Fi network, advanced navigation and more. It’s an attempt to showcase for manufacturers and consumers what kinds of Internet applications and other digital content 4G might usher in for cars.

The concept car, a 2010 Prius, comes from the ng Connect Program, and Alcatel-Lucent, Atlantic Records, QNX Software Systems, Toyota Motor Sales, chumby and Kabillion partnered to create it. Here’s a tour of the interior, plus some of the car’s capabilities.

Consumers “will be able to access network- and cloud-based applications that put on-demand entertainment, infotainment, diagnostics, navigation and much more at their fingertips,” according to the announcement of the LTE Connected Car.

This is what the vehicle’s main menu looks like from the driver’s seat:

And this is what the driver and passenger displays look like in tandem:

One of the dual backseat displays includes remote home controls:

There are also some photos of the LTE Connected Car offering customized games to backseat passengers, and a diagram that implies that an advertising strategy could accompany the many types of content that the car can deliver. You can view the photos and the diagram here. We’ll take the features minus the ads, and one other thought comes to mind: With all those displays and all the dueling content, how much driver distraction would go on in this car? Hmm.

You can watch two videos showing off the LTE Connected car below. The first one shows off some of its capabilities, and the second one details how it was made and how the technology inside works.