Car Radio Technology Past, Present and Future

Considering how far along car technology has come can be a very eye-opening endeavor. It is so much more than just am/fm radio these days.

If you wanted radio when you drove, you had to figure out a way to rig up your home system into your car. These solutions were not mass produced, rather they were individual work-arounds that people came up with. The manufacturer's release didn't usually even include any sort of radio technology prior to the 1950s and 1960s.

The 1960s brought us reel-to-reel. Shortly thereafter 8 track carts showed up, which evolved into the cassettes in the 1970s and 1980s. We first saw CDs in our cars in 85 - now 28 years ago!

Since CDs first arrived, car audio has been more focused on digital computer technologies that develop in a parallel manner. There were a number of the same methods being used here - portability and data storage were very important, so there was a focus on being able to store more and more in smaller spaces.

Now, who remembers what a car phone used to look like? The actual, wired, first auto phones. The really big phones that you had to wire to your car itself. Even though old radios actually tend to look pretty cool, the first portable phones look completely horrible. The audio components in your car today are so far developed beyond what they started out as, that you might not even recognize the technology that used to perform the same function.

All these components are merging into one in our modern day car, and functionality is being added at a lightning speed. MP3s have been a fundamental part of car audio for almost two decades. Cell phones are completely integrated thanks to Bluetooth wireless systems. And more and more we are seeing these control units incorporating features and abilities of our computers and smartphones.

The latest in-vehicle consoles - controllers such as the Clarion Next GATE or Sony's MirrorLink - allow for all the most popular apps to be included: GPS navigation, Pandora, Facebook, Twitter - it's all there and more. The technology today is so far advanced all a driver has to do is speak a few words and his car will tell him where to go.

There is virtually no way to predict what the next couple decades will bring, but suffice it to say that it will be amazing. We already know Google is working on a car that drives itself. And what of our in-car technology, media and entertainment? There is no limit to what we might be able to do. Or just the next few years!


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See what the future of car audio has in store by visiting Jim Sorenson's blog at http://clarionnextgate.com .