Would you use Facebook in Your Car?
There is plenty of evidence to support the notion that we need to concentrate whilst we drive if we want to be safe, be that by not talking on the telephone or by paying attention on wet roads.
That hasn't stopped designers at Mercedes-Benz designing cars that have built in Facebook applications however.
The cars will have a custom built version of Facebook into the cars telematics system. They are set to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
The interface won't be identical to the traditional web based interface, nor even that used on mobile phones. Instead it will be a stripped down interface offering a limited range of features designed specifically for drivers. This will include features such as the location of their friends and businesses of interest to the driver.
Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships and Platform Marketing at Facebook, believes this move is another sign of the expansion of Facebook into the ever increasing array of web connected devices.
"Now that cars have screens that are intelligent, you would expect that more and more car manufacturers will want to make those screens capable of allowing people to connect with their friends and take advantage of the social context that comes along with that," Rose said in an interview.
"One of the core things that people do on their screens in the car is GPS navigation and the ability to see which of your friends are nearby is something we think will be really interesting for people."
Keeping drivers safe
Mercedes are at pains to say that these new devices will not making driving more dangerous. Robert Policano, the head of Telematics Services at Mercedes, believes that they are no more distracting than traditional satellite navigation systems. The system detects when the car is in motion and blocks any attempt to enter text whilst on the move.
However drivers can still post to Facebook, albeit via a custom built system of tapping or turning a knob on the dashboard, which will let the driver post one of a number of pre-written messages to their Facebook wall.
If a particular destination is already entered into the car's navigation system, the driver can automatically publish a Facebook posting stating they are en route to that destination, along with an estimated time of arrival, based on the current traffic patterns.
Would you want to use Facebook whilst you're driving?
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