Project Status: Still Dreaming
I'm loving all the technology that will soon be available in cars. Specifically speaking of the head units which are much like built in smart phones. Android Auto is something I had been hoping for for such a long time and I'm very glad that it is slowly becoming a thing.
I had been waiting for Android Auto just as when I patiently waited for the first Android phone to come out, the G1, so many years ago. I had already downloaded the very first release of Android to begin learning to build apps before that G1 ever came out. At the time I had a mile long list of app ideas for phones. Likewise; I now have the same lengthy list of apps for Android in-car systems.
Being able to view the current "fare" ticking up as I drive around will actually help me to save gas and be more aware of the direct impact my driving habits have on my budget. For some reason when I really need to get away to think, I just get in and drive. Sometimes I drive till I feel lost or until I find someplace new that I haven't explored before. Then I always wonder how much that venture just cost me.
To go beyond the taxi fare idea, I would also like to tie in mileage reports for work. There are often times when I need to drive for work and I ultimately end up turning in a mileage log. I have to admit I am pretty bad at keeping up with mileage logs. I wish that I the app could keep a log of trips and I could simply tag some of them as work related. That way when I need to work on my mileage report I have a pretty good amount of data to relate to. This is probably another app though because with just a little more effort I could develop it so that it generates these reports for me. In the cases where jobs have very specific forms to turn in it could feed the data into their templates. So many ideas, so little time.