INRETE, a company from Europe that focuses mainly on Internet services for the automotive industry, has just rolled out Automatica, a special kind of device which will plug itself into the vehicle’s USB without the need for any kind of additional modifications, where it will allow users to enjoy the latest music or audiobook right from a personal cloud storage service and podcast channels, and all of this is made possible thanks to the Automatica website. Of course, for the more modern minded folks out there, this is definitely an evolution of the CD player, and some might say that it is the Dropbox actually gaining a life of its own, updating automatically all the time. In order to make use of the Automatica, all you need to do is make sure that there is a USB port in your vehicle, and you are good to go.
Basically, Automatica will be able to create a local cache of your contents, where it will then stash away 24 hours of audio right within the internal flash memory. Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or Microsoft SkyDrive users will be able to enjoy flawless updates directly to to the USB device, making sure that you will be able to enjoy the latest content at all times. The entire setup is said to be extremely user friendly, where you will get to enjoy an initial personalization feature thanks to the Automatica website, letting you select the kind of podcasts and cloud services that you want to associate to the device.
Once the Wi-Fi connection is up and running, there no longer is any need to hook up the device to a computer in order to perform an update, as the Wi-Fi connection will pave the way for automatic audio content updates. The device itself leverages the different Wi-Fi connections that are available in the vicinity, in addition to your smartphone Wi-Fi tethering while driving.
Giorgio Bernardi, President of INRETE, said, “This plug and play device allows for users that have a USB port in their vehicle to enjoy instant audio content – without any further modifications to the vehicle. Our goal is to simplify this process by making it easy to use, yet make it personal for each user with our online interface”.
You can place a pre-order for the INRETE Automatica at $99 a pop if you are interested.
Press Release