I'm thinking about doing this for my Camry.

Instead of paying around $1,000 or so for one of those portable dashboard GPS units like the ones offered by Megelan, I was thinking about assembling a PC for the car using one of them small, ITX motherboards.

If you think about it, what do you get for a $1,000 buck portable GPS unit? That's it, a GPS unit. For around a 3rd to a half less than that, I can have not only a GPS, I will have an MP3 player and a DVD player being displayed on a 7 inch TFT touch screen.

It just seems to make more sense.

A few carputer models to look at (http://www.cappuccinopc.com/solutions/carpc.asp)

this would multiply accidents by like 80% a good idea if u have a navigator/person who will use it for u, but truthfully the driver needs to drive the fkin car, not worry about whos callin his cell phone or if he got that email, or if that one bimbo online posted some new photos.

im not hating on the idea, its cool and all but people are not computer literate enough to be able to handle this right now.

besides are u really in ur car that much?

Well, thing is, much of this technology is already available as options on many new cars now.

The 2007 Camry XLE and SE, for example, comes with an in-dash touch screen with GPS, MP3/DVD-player that is also capable of making and receiving phone calls. Japan has had this technology as a standard package for their cars for about half a decade now.

Personally, I feel the issue of distractions and accidents becomes a personal-responsibility thing.

We already run that risk simply with the portable GPS units and cell phones in cars. As far as writing laws like Cook County's anti-cellphone in cars bill...I really don't think common sense can be legislated. This has to be learned.

Sorry, I just found this page on the internet. Some guy assembled his own carputer inside a tupper-ware container that is under his passenger-side seat.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Tupperware-puter (http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/CarPuter)

That Tupperware-puter looks alot nicer then it sounds. I'm not sure its such a great idea to mount that hardware in plain sight. I don't know what areas you guys live in but around me, that would be stolen in a heartbeat. I would want something easily detachable so I could store it in the trunk or atleast toss it under the seat.

Yeah, only a fool would leave stuff in plain sight, just waiting for someone to break in, yank the cables and run off, especially if you live in a big city.

One of the things about ITX motherboards that make it so popular, is that they are so small and can generate so little heat, you can use almost any small, hollow box in to a PC.

Look at the sizes of some of these boards...

Small ITX Motherboards (http://www.mini-itx.com/2006/03/10/via-show-c7-boards-at-cebit)