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Originally Posted by DrtyJrze
Unfortunately it's going to take a LONG time before innovations like this become standard practice.
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I'm not sure it will take that long. LCD panels have become so inexpensive, I wonder if they're not coming to a Honda Civic near you. The software development costs are a significant factor though. However, that is changing as well.
In the past, systems like iDrive were built on top of a special class of operating system called RTOS (real-time operating systems). I believe iDrive is built on VxWorks, which is the same OS that powers a lot of network routers and other embedded devices. An RTOS is a niche technology, which means there aren't a large pool of really talented developers to write software for it. Compare this with something like Google's Android platform and Apple's iOS platform, which are a lot more like a desktop computer OS running on a handheld device, and you can see the differences in the software that gets developed for each pretty easily. It's all about the population of developers who are capable of writing software for the platform. The larger the population, the greater the likelihood that talented developers exist and can be hired to do the job.
The rapid growth of the smartphone market has fueled a mind-bogglingly rapid advancement in low power, system-on-a-chip hardware, as well as huge advances in the quality of the software that runs on them. To borrow a phrase from the tea party (only in this case, it's true), a rising tide floats all ships. Inexpensive processors like the nVidia Tegra/Qualcomm Snapdragon, and next generation software platforms like Blackberry QNX, are going to change the way automobile software is developed. Automobile manufacturers will leverage the commoditization of the hardware and software to push these systems in to lower-line automobiles in an effort to draw in millennial buyers, who have shown reluctance to purchase new cars.