Driving change - a wide open plain for innovation

There's a wide open space for innovation in making car rides more entertaining!

This Fast Company article by Neal Ungerleider is worth a read:

In the 2030s, your speed might be regulated by roadside devices, so no more glancing at the odometer. Instead, your car could be watching you. According to William Chergosky, interior chief designer at Toyota R&D lab Calty Design Research, vehicles will likely be filled with sensors that track eye motion, body language, and who is in the car. "Although it feels very advanced right now," he says, "technology integrated into cars is really at its infancy." And if there are dashboards at all, they'll probably be packed with sophisticated safety and entertainment technologies. 

I'm just not sure that I really want sensors outside my car making decisions for me.

I'll be the first to admit that for someone who has driven in four countries, I must have the lowest mileage ever. It's just that as a naturalized New Yorker, I've become a pretty serious fan of public transport. I did rack up some serious miles this past week over Thanksgiving celebrations using Zipcar. I drove to and from Philadelphia twice, to be with family but hop back to NYC for a party and return for some more turkey-based celebrations. So, 440 miles later, I had a couple of thoughts on the driving experience:

• Interactive GPS: While Google Maps has made navigation a dream, I had to wonder why I was still stuck in a one-lane traffic jam midway through the trip. I have read about the traffic called Waze, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Allowing for greater voice-based navigation support would have made the trip a vastly more pleasant experience. 
• Family DJ: Traveling with two pre-teens with a seemingly encyclopedic grasp of emerging music makes DJ'ing fraught with peril. I wonder how long it will take for a more integrated, passenger-friendly system that takes the variety of Sirius XM, the portability of iPhones/iPads and the collaboration/ social tools more ubiquitous. I'm sure there are high-end systems out there...now, just need to wait for the ZipCars of the world to catch up.
• Cross-car collaboration: You have family cell phone plans, so I'm hoping it's not going to be long before we can connect a small subset of cars together. It would have helped tremendously when I kept falling behind on family trips when following the cars of my speedy siblings.