Twenty years ago in your car you had a radio and probably either a cassette or CD player.
Fast forward to 2012 and say hello to the connected car. And there’s a very good chance that your next new car will probably include some or all of features that are being discussed this week at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
What is a connected car?
A connected car can provide emergency services, security features, traffic and weather, navigation, information, Google and Bing search results, Internet radio and much more through mobile devices, embedded telematics and broadcast services.
The best news for public radio listeners is that the Public Radio industry is among the leaders in bringing this technology to consumers.
On Monday, NPR announced an exciting collaboration with Ford Motor Company that will give public radio a prominent place in the next generation of Ford’s Internet-connected cars. A new version of the NPR News app will enable drivers of cars equipped with Ford SYNC to listen to their favorite public radio programs and stations on their own schedule – just as they do on their mobile devices now.
The video below offers a sampling of how the app will work.
NPR is the first major news organization to integrate its content into an emerging fleet of Internet-connected cars.
This is the first step that will lead to making it significantly easier for listeners to tune into all of the great St. Louis Public Radio programs on-demand but also to listen to all three of our services (our news service, The Gateway, and Classical | 90.7 KWMU) without the need of a HD Radio.
