I think Honda played it safe and conservative when it accesorized their TSX or non-US Accord.

Bluetooth may thrive on cell phones but it is almost dead for the PC market (thread has been discussed extensively). If future cars are to integrate Wi-Fi, then Bluetooth will not provide enough bandwidth.

DVD Audio is impressive although the support is scant and has yet to overtake SACD as the replacement for the CD (sorta like Blue Ray vs. HD-DVD). Go to BestBuy and you will see why.

Does anyone know why the TL bothered including a cassette deck? Sorta ironic for such a high-tech laden car.

 

Probably because they're going for a slightly older demographic and determined that the target customers would value a cassette player.

 

Good question.... maybe hey just need someting cheap to fill up the empty spot on the dash..... =P

I don't even know where my cassetes are.....

 

The overall trend will be to have a screen as the output device and voice as the human input device while having a whole bunch of seperate items as in car input devices - GPS, CD, radio, sat, car related info, wireless, etc.. I just hope they keep things that change quickly, like wireless, in some sort of seperate upgradeable module.

 

WiFi is no replacement for Bluetooth. It's a short-range technology designed to replace cables. WiFi is a wireless LAN, it's more power hungry and designed for data and long distance. I don't see why you would need WiFi in a car, unless you wanted to surf the net in your garage.

 

The trend is to "light" up who cities of either public or pay (ex. Tmobile Tzones) with 802.11x Wi-Fi. Maybe it will one day be a possibility to surf the net on your Navi, but more realisticly it could be used for applications that use text to speech (like having your e-mail or stock quotes read to you on the way to work). Another possibility is to use the cell phone data network (GPRS, EDGE, Verizon 1X, etc.). The cell phone companies are working on integrating 802.11x compatibility into their cell phones so that you speak on a phone on either the voice network or 802.11x seamlessly.