The mornings trawl through my news items I discover this little gem from WIRED, regarding a quote from Dick Brass, VP of the automotive business unit at Microsoft.  They want a Microsoft OS in every car on Earth!  WOW, now that sort of ambition even outstrips the number of desktop PCs.  Looking at Microsofts site we can see they are talking up the use of .net technology within the automobile market.  This is all very interesting and scary at the same time. 

Having my car 'net' aware could be very handy, especially for sync'ing up MP3's and various other wee goodies while on the move.  Although, this technology is aimed more at the health of the car with respect to oil changes and general servicing.  For Microsoft to dominating this area as well scares me somewhat.  Already I read that BMW, Toyota, Volvo, Fiat and even my beloved Subaru has Microsoft software running inside.

But I do remember Java having a play in this arena a long time ago.  Didn't I see a 'Java enabled' car at a JavaOne?  I think I did.  I did a quick Google on this, and found this press clipping, regarding a Belgium company that had launched Java software.  Their domain sadly goes no where, so lets hope they were bought up as oppose to going out of business.  I wonder how far down the road Sun has taken Java.

It would be kinda of cool to have a Java enabled car.  We'd need a whole new API and no doubt a JSR to head this up.  Maybe we can call it the CARlet.  We can load up our small network aware CARlets that can talk with other car users while we pass them.  Would make sitting in traffic so much more bearable.

We may be losing the automobile market, but we've at least got a car name with Java in it!  Chrysler Java