Computer software giant transforms a Ford Mustang into the ultimate connected car.
Microsoft has built a retro-rod with Windows power.
The "Project Detroit" custom car has been co-built with Microsoft to showcase what is possible when a car is equipped with the maximum amount of computing gadgets - essentially, it's a muscle car with brains.
The car is adorned with numerous Windows gadgets, including a touch-screen digital instrument cluster display with eight unique "skins", and a tablet for the front passenger to browse the internet or play Xbox games - all of which can be displayed to other road users in the rear glass section. It can even send other road users a message: for example, Microsoft claims you could tell someone who is a bit too close for comfort to "Stop tailgating me please!"
It's equipped with a WiFi hotspot running on the 4G phone network, and telemetry such as the car's speed, engine revs and its fuel level are stored in a server in the cloud. The driver can also track the location of the car via GPS, and even unlock and start the car from a Windows-equipped Nokia mobile.
Like a police car, the Mustang is fitted with an external audio system (something of a PA system) that can blare music outside of the car, be used to talk to other road users, or even to warn people - or inquisitive canines - to stay away from the car. It also gets Kinect cameras at the front and rear of the car, the vision from which can be viewed via a phone or tablet app.
The vehicle was built by car modification experts West Coast Customs, and while it may look like a classic 1967 Mustang Fastback, that's just the replica body on top. Underneath and inside the car is actually a 2012 model Ford Mustang.
The already stunning styling of the classic Mustang has been turned up a notch, with integrated blue LEDs behind the brakes and the grille, which also features Windows logo. There's even a neat little Xbox 360 logo in the tail-light, and the matte black paint is all kinds of sexy.
Sadly for the petrol-headed geeks among us, there's no information available on what engine the car runs. However, if it's to live up to its "Project Detroit" name, we'd expect a big burbling V8 under the bonnet.
If Microsoft built cars...
If Microsoft built cars...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: If Microsoft built cars...
So it stalls frequently and requires restarting? 
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan
Re: If Microsoft built cars...
You've actually got to install a service pack each time before you can restart it...
Why is it that when Miley Cyrus gets naked and licks a hammer it's 'art' and 'edgy' but when I do it I'm 'drunk' and 'banned from the hardware store'?
Re: If Microsoft built cars...
Ah yes - Redmond, WA....the hot bed of speed tuning. 
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
yrs,
rubato