Can you imagine an iPad/iPhone controlling your car?

We have seen the proliferation of mobile computing and its impact on our daily lives, so much so that at times one wonders if it has encroached upon our privacy.

Ken Auletta, author of The Highwaymen, had observed the growing intensity of competition for control of the world's fastest growing industry: communications. The contestants are the huge Hollywood studios, the television networks, and telephone, publishing, and computer companies.

Nonetheless, has anyone or could Ken have imagined the promulgation of “communications” into automotive? Can you imagine the tablet or smartphone becoming the central control console of your car?

Is it so inconceivable to have a communication device such as the tablet or smartphone to manage the communication and applications in your car such as the radio, air-con, navigation system, etc?

Now, telematics is a growing market for the automotive industry not limited to basic functions like the GPS.

In fact, Telematics2.0 is an extension of traditional telematics utilising Smartphone technology within a telematics style solution. Henceforth, a smartphone or tablet could easily be a telematic device.

Although the navigation system was launched in the market since the 1990s, adoption had been slowed as there were few map applications, and the navigation system was only a single function device.

Today, devices such as the iPhone and Galaxy Note2 have a huge preloaded suite of applications, ranging from music, entertainment, games to LBS.

Google maps is one of the most popular apps for smartphones.

With such a huge suite of apps, the smartphone or tablet could easily replace the car radio and navigation system, provide entertainment such as music, movies and games, or be converted into the remote control for the air-con.

One of the projected applications for the smartphone was eWallet, to be able to make payments via the smart chip. What about using this eWallet function to make toll, ERP or parking payments? Or replace the IU in the car?

One of the major challenges would be the barrier erected by the automotive manufacturers, who want to design and build-in the telematic device into the car with functions and applications for managing the various components of the car such as the security and safety systems, connection to the ECU (engine control unit), remote diagnostics, etc.

Notwithstanding such a hindrance, it wouldn’t be long before the smartphone or tablet become an integral part of the vehicle providing the driver with a wide range of applications at his finger tips to alleviate the burden of driving.