Freeman Thomas, the DaimlerChrysler VP who oversaw the Super8 Hemi's design, says the new car "embodies the culture and essence of American optimism. The bold, in-your-face design shows our ability to embrace our love for the sedan and meld it with invigorating execution and technological advancement. With its distinctive tall stance, Hemi powertrain, and telematics applications throughout, the Super8 symbolizes everything we loved about sedans then, plus everything we need now."
"Everything we need now" apparently includes Linux and Java -- because they're both embedded in the sexy new concept car's "Infotronic" system!
What's an Infotronic system?
DaimlerChrysler describes the Super8 Hemi's Infotronic system as "a state-of-the-art embedded computer system, which was designed to satisfy the never-ending thirst of tomorrow's automobile drivers and passengers for Internet based data and information. The goal of the Infotronic system is to provide Infotainment, 'edutainment,' and entertainment services that meet the lifestyle of each individual driver or passenger."
As you might expect, the system lets drivers (could pose road safety problems) and passengers browse the web, send and receive e-mail, listen to MP3s and digital quality radio, play games, interact with smart home appliances, and run a variety of PDA-like applications.
The Super8 Hemi's Infotronic system was developed at the DaimlerChrysler Research and Technology Center (RTC) in collaboration with Sun Microsystems. Dr. Wieland Holfelder, who manages the RTC's Smart Vehicles Group, explains the key objective of the system this way: "We believe our vehicles provide more than just transportation: they provide personal mobility to reflect our customers' lifestyles. Therefore, when a change in lifestyle occurs -- such as the ubiquity of the Internet -- we try to reflect that change in our products. With the Infotronic system on the Dodge Super8 Hemi, we prototyped how we at DC RTNA envision such lifestyle changes could affect our future products."
very nice