Bill Gates, after meeting with Korean President Lee, announced Microsoft will invest $100M+ in setting up the "Automotive IT Innovation Center" jointly with Hyundai-Kia Motors, the nation's premier auto company.

According to Reuters, the first product under the partnership would be a voice-controlled system linking mobile devices to car stereo systems; Later versions are expected to include multimedia and navigation-related features.

In plain English: the US-bound Hyundai and Kia vehicles will soon have Microsoft-powered gadgets inside the cars. Which means those cars will be the first models that come with the integrated Ctrl + Alt + Del keys on dashboard. :)

As evidenced by Ray Ozzie's "Mesh" plan, Microsoft is working hard on its new corporate vision to provide ubiquitous connected experience across all devices and environments, including the driver's seat. Meanwhile, other companies like Apple should also be looking at similar opportunities.

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Hyundai Introduces In-car Dual Display LCD

Other | 2008/02/19 10:44 | Web 2.0 Asia
This has absolutely nothing to do with web innovations, but I still find this new thing from Korea quite interesting and worth blogging about. Hyundai Motor Company will introduce in-dash LCD monitor that simultaneously displays two different images/videos based on the viewer angle. This means the driver can see the navigation while at the same time the passenger watches a DVD movie. Hyundai says this will help preventing accidents caused by drivers who watch DVDs or satellite TV on their in-car entertainment system while driving. Quite neat.

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TAG Dual Display, Hyundai, Navigation