More Gadgets Please

Here at KickingTires, we’ve got a pulse on how people use their cars day-in and day-out. We hear from readers as well as our own staff members, who drive numerous new cars all the time. We have athletes, moms, dads, single folks, people with long commutes and those who have to do urban driving. What they all agree on is the need for some good in-car entertainment and navigation features, no matter the vehicle.

This is probably the biggest area of expansion in the automotive aftermarket as well, with navigation systems exploding as an entire segment that just a few years ago was almost non-existent. Then there are the MP3 players, like iPods and others, and of course cell phones and smart phones. Automakers themselves are delivering more complex and robust infotainment systems that need to work with all this gear, as well as perform hefty tasks like checking traffic and weather via voice commands.

We’re going to cover this segment just like we do everything else on Cars.com: with the consumer in mind. There will be as little technical jargon as possible, and we won’t inundate the blog with every news item that comes up. Most posts will be hands-on reports and reviews of gadgets and automakers’ systems. If there are specific gadgets out there you’re interested in, drop us a comment below or an email at editor@cars.com

Comments

I'm not interested in specific gadgets per say, but in better integration of all possible things out there. For example, I should be able to navigate through my I-Pod with the steering wheel controls. Or have the songs for my satellite radio show up in the radio info screen (and not in large letters that require scrolling or refreshing the screen 5 times just for one song.)