Anyone heard of "Carwings" before? It's only in Japan so far.

Part of an Edmunds article:

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In November, Nissan launched its third-generation Carwings service in concert with the introduction of the latest Skyline sedan (known as the Infiniti G35 in the U.S.). Offered as part of the car's optional navigation system, Carwings lets users access and view content from a limited number of Web sites that have partnered with Nissan, including Yahoo! Japan, Sony's So-net lifestyle blog, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and Nissan Drive Navi, a Nissan travel guide blog.

Carwings also uses text-to-speech technology to read the Internet content aloud, so the driver can concentrate on the road rather than on the display.

Users can select the Internet content they want only while the car is parked. Once the car is in motion, the navigation system will automatically go online to retrieve the content from a Nissan server, format it for the system's LCD screen and begin to read it.

Read full story at: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...19212?imw=Y#12

Picture:
http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/1...screen.500.jpg

 

Sweet! I hope they bring that to Canada and U.S. And hopefully for those of us that already bought the 07 G35 with Nav will be able to upgrade somehow.

 

IMO they have quite a few minor bugs they need to fix in the HD/MusicBox system that I sure hope they address before trying to rollout something that will read web pages to me.

 

we need to have a hack first so that we don't have to do everything in park

 

+1. More of the Nav's capabilities should be available when moving. Maybe a compromise with Inifiniti's lawyers is as follows: there's a sensor in the front passenger seat that can tell if there's a passenger in it (used when determining whether the passenger's air bag should be on or off). Maybe that same sensor can be used to tell if there's a passenger. If so, provide all the Nav capabilities, and assume it's the passenger who's using the Nav... and for those without a passenger, the easy hack would be to put a weight in the passenger's seat :-)

I've used aftermarket Navs (Garmin Nuvi, Tom Tom). They all have warning screens when they come up (to appease their lawyers). They also have the capability to limit the features if you're moving (or not to limit the features, depending on a user-settable preference). IMO, the Infiniti Nav should give you the capability to determine whether you want features limited or not if you're moving.

 

Yeah, it would be great if the passenger seat had a weight sensor. It's really annoying to want to set a new location, especially you are running late, to have to pull over. A weight sensor would be great, it's not like they have to take out the seat or anything, just modify the software.

 

Aren't you using voice commands?

 

I use voice commands a fair amount, and although it can be frustrating if it doesn't understand you no matter how many ways you try to "salsipuedes avenue", I do understand disabling the keyboard entry while moving.

What bugs me most is that it only shows one page of options in many cases while moving. If I search for nearby banks while moving, it will only show the five closest. If the one I want isn't on that list, I have to wait a few minutesand seach again. That can't be less distracting that being able to scroll down tothe next five on the list.