We all have good ideas. Why are so few of these ever brought to light?

So, every now and then, an idea pops into my head. Occasionally, they’re good ideas. You know, ideas where you scratch your head and go, “hey, I’m not that smart, so if I thought of it, why hasn’t anyone else?”

Here’s an example. You may recall I wrote an article about the iPod interface in my Acura and how horrible it is. It got me thinking. There is a fair bit of standardization in car stereos… size, for instance. There are several standard sizes of car stereos so that aftermarket head units can fit into the dashboard of pretty much any car. So if there is this much standardization, why isn’t there more?

So, here’s the idea. Car stereos should be completely modular. The main head unit should be basically a collection of controls and one or more displays. It should contain pretty much only the software and hardware necessary to handle the input of the buttons and dials and to output information to the display. Then it should have one or more interface jacks, completely standardized (think USB port here). I say one or more because I don’t see any reason why the standards shouldn’t call for each module that’s used to have a port of its own so that modules can be daisy-chained.

Okay… the modules. Here’s the brilliance. There should be modules available for a la carte purchase and installation to enhance the function of your car stereo. Each module would have software that tells the head unit to add it to the list of selectable modules, as well as software to handle the control inputs from the head unit, and then to send display data back to the head unit in one of a number of formats: graphical, numerical, alpha-numerical, etc.

Each module will have a singular function, such as radio, or satellite radio, or MP3 player interface, DVD player, CD player, auxiliary input, amp, pre-amp, etc. Then all you need to do is select the modules that you want and install them. Each module handles the inputs from the head unit and does it’s thing, sending any audio, video, etc. back to the head unit, which then processes the return data and either displays it or sends it to the audio-out modules (pre-amp, etc.).

I think the brilliance and simplicity and obvious benefit to such a system are apparent. And don’t tell me it can’t be done or it’s too expensive. I can, for a few hundred dollars, buy a computer that can do all of that times a million, all dependent on the software that’s installed. Now, someone, go out and make it happen!

Another brilliant idea, which I can’t take credit for because my girlfriend thought it up, is this. Why don’t centerlilne brakelights give more information about the amount of brake being applied? I discussed this with my girlfriend and told her the obvious issues I saw with her initial design idea.

Basically, she was thinking that the brake pedal’s position could determine the amount of braking and then the centerline brakelight, which is frequently an array of LEDs, could light up fewer or more LEDs depending on how hard the pedal’s being pressed. I countered with the idea that the pedal’s position is almost arbitrary to the amount of braking because it can be offset by condition of calipers and other brake hardware, amount of brake fluid in the reservoir, etc.

But then as we discussed the idea, we arrove at some better conclusions. Why not employ an accelerometer to determine how hard the car is braking? As well, most cars today have sensors in the wheels to determine the need for anit-lock brakes to deploy. Why not use some of that technology for the brakelights as well? Obviously, if the car is skidding, the brakelights should be on full intensity (all LEDs lit). If the car is slowing rapidly, same thing. But if someone is riding their brake as they’re cosating down a hill, then there is far less need for a full array of lit LEDs. As well, I think it is a better thing to know if someone is decelerating, rather than if they’re simply pressing the brake pedal. What if someone down-shifts? Or if the road is uphill and they don’t continue to apply the gas, then it would definitely be nice to know if the cars in front of me are slowing, regardless if that slowing is from braking or not.

Okay, so there are 2 ideas that I think are worthy of a lot of merit. What are your thoughts on them? Do you have any great ideas? Share them.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 9:48 am and is filed under Cars, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.