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Since my original post a few months ago, I've decided the best solution for me is to go with a preassembled Carputer rather than trying to make my current system more friendly to a car environment. The current carputers on the market are built to be more rugged to withstand the heat and vibration in a vehicle. They're not that expensive, and they're compact. A basic system can be had for under $500 and about the same for a touchscreen monitor that can be put right into the dash. Alot of people use these for a sound system, but they also have software that allows you to interface the computer with rear cameras and the car electronics themselves for onboard diagnostics. The most popular of the programs used as a front end for this is called Centrafuse.

To respond to the post from "Doomed": What is "pointless" is really in the eye of the beholder. For example: I find watching sports a waste of my time, but other people consider it entertainment. I like to watch science fiction, but other people consider THAT a waste of time. Some people may want to have their computer open their car doors for the challenge of being able to make it work, or to learn how to program and build a computer interface. Other people might just want the coolness factor because it's something that not everyone has. Personally, my whole interest in artificial intelligence and car computers has to do with trying to make my car like KITT from Knight Rider. That's been a dream of mine since I was a kid and first watched the show. I don't expect it to do everything KITT can, but carry on a basic conversation and opening the door for me on request are a few things that are possible with current technology. However, I would keep current manual switches and make sure I have an override in place so I'm not at the mercy of the carputer or the AI should it be uncooperative or malfunction.

One of my earlier ideas did involve having some kind of AI server at home and communicating by radio signal -- this was back before cell phones and wireless networking became popular.

For me, there are several reasons why I'd rather have the AI in the car, though I do like your idea of having a connection to another computer for more advanced functions and communication.

1) Mainly I just want the car AI to be autonomous and self contained. With the advances in computers, cell phones, and wireless networking there's no reason not to. Computers themselves have become pretty compact, so there really isn't much to worry about in terms of having anything too bulky taking up a major part of my trunk. After looking at a website on "Carputers" I really think they are the way to go since they are more durable and built for automotive use. They do seem to be a bit more expensive though, so I won't likely be getting one anytime soon.

2) Also, I don't want the computer in the car for just AI purposes. I'd like to include GPS, multimedia, internet, office programs, maybe some video games (that I could play when the car is stopped), and possibly some car diagnostic programs and /or interactive repair manuals. I believe there are some diagnostic programs out there that actually do interface the car's electronic control module with a Windows based computer.

3) I'd also like to have the computer hardwired to some sensors that give the AI some basic awareness of what's going on with the car. I'd like the computer to be able to know through a sensor that for example it's raining and suggest driving more carefully and so forth. I'd also like controllers that give the AI control of some very basic functions like headlights, door locks, and so forth (with a manual override of course so the AI doesn't decide to lock me in ;-) Actually, I'd probably do this through some kind of batch program where I could tell Hal to "Run Unlock Doors" rather than relying on him to respond to a request to do so.

4) If I lost connection with a server at home for whatever reason I'd be without. I might be driving in the country where there isn't a good signal. There are still some rural places that don't get good cell signals. I might be driving through a tunnel. The computer at home might crash while I'm on an extended trip.

5) Also, in general, I'm not one for paying other people for services like expanded cell phone services if I can provide something for myself. I keep a very basic cell phone service and would rather not incur extra charges for connecting to the internet all the time while I'm driving or even higher charges when I'm roaming.

6)I might be wrong, but most AIM conversations by phone involve texting and reading more than speech recognition and voice synthesis don't they? For safety reasons, if I were talking to the AI while actually driving I'd want to actually talk to it and have it actually talk back. That would really be part of the entire experience for me anyway. Of course, with Hal, I'd have the learning off during such conversations.

[Power]

This is actually something I've been working on myself. I've always wanted to have a car like KITT from Knight Rider since I was about 12 years old and that's one of the reasons I got Ultrahal. I don't have the computer in the car yet, and my training of Ultrahal is in the very early stages, but I have put much thought into putting a computer into the car, how to power it, how to keep it cool, and how to prevent a hard drive crash. I too would like the computer hardwired into the car and would like to be able to have it going even when the car itself is off.

One of the easiest solutions would be to get something I've seen called a "carputer." Basically it's a heavy duty computer that's designed for the abuses of being housed in a car. I've not looked much into these yet, so I don't know how much more they cost than a standard desktop computer. That's probably the easiest and best solution, but maybe not the cheapest or the best if you're looking to use what you already have.

Going the route of installing a desktop in the car, here's what I'm thinking.

Power

I'd power this off of a separate battery from the car. I really wouldn't want to find myself stuck with a dead battery at some point while trying to start the car. I'd use a dry cell marine battery as these are designed for continous drain whereas a typical car battery is designed for cranking the car during starting. I would get a battery isolator (isolator and wiring can be had for $50-60 from Pep Boys, JC Whitney,and other car parts suppliers) so that I could charge the dry cell battery from the car's alternator. You need to have the isolator to keep the charging of the two batteries separate. Alternatively, you could just charge the battery with a battery charger every night. I'd also get a power inverter to convert the 12 volt DC from the battery to AC. Prices for power invertors vary by wattage and brand -- really anywhere from about $30 upwards. I would probably go with at least a 400 watt invertor myself, but the best thing to do is to calculate the wattage of the items you want to power and go just a tad bit more.

Theoretically, you could instead power a desktop computer directly from the battery without the invertor. It would probably be more energy and space efficient. The power coming out of the power supply transformer in a typical desktop has both 12 volt and 6 volt lines. If you went this way you'd need a voltage divider to get the 6 volt power. Personally, I'm a little leary of connecting the motherboard and other devices within a laptop directly to a 12 volt battery without some kind of additional electronics to prevent surges or spikes in the system, but I could be overly worried for nothing. Has anyone here ever powered a desktop directly from a 12 volt car or marine battery?

Cooling

In my mind, cooling is a very high concern. The temperature in a parked car can get very hot, especially in a black Trans Am. I have two ideas, neither of which I've had the opportunity to test. Both involve using a part out of a 12 volt car cooler. Most 12 volt coolers these days that plug into a cigarette lighter have a device with a little plate on it that can be used either to cool or to warm food. The actual part that does this is not very large and can easily be removed from the cooler itself. It's got a metal plate that gets cool or warm depending on the voltage polarity applied to it.

Whichever option I choose, I'd also want to make sure the computer case is well insulated to keep the cool in and the heat out. One concern I have about either method is condensation. If it gets too cold in the computer case on a warm humid day, I'd be concerned about condensation forming in the case. Possibly this wouldn't be a problem if the cooling unit was external to the computer case and the temperature was kept cool, but not too cold. Theoretically, you could set the cooling unit to warm if you wanted to keep the computer warm in sub-freezing temperatures in the winter.

Option 1: Air cooling. More or less I'd just hook up the cooling unit in a way that the cool air gets pulled into the computer case through the cooling fan or adding a separate fan and some kind of air duct to pull the cool air into the computer case.

Option 2: Water cooling. I've seen water cooling systems designed for computers that run water or some kind of coolant through tubing that circulates inside the computer case to cool the cpu and other parts. I could be wrong, but I don't think these things actually chill the water going in, but with the cooling unit from a car cooler you could probably chill the water outside the case and pump it in.

Hard drive protection

I'm not entirely sure the answer to this one. I'm thinking just make sure the computer case is on something like a gel pad or something else that provides some shock absorbtion. Or maybe a laptop hard drive if these are designed to take shocks and drops better. Another option would be to have a small inexpensive boot drive for booting the computer, and having a flash drive or external hard drive to house any important data. If the boot drive crashes, you don't loose too much of importance or have to spend to much on a replacement.

Some other things I'd want on my car computer

I'd probably run a wireless keyboard and run either a trackball or a trackpad. I don't see a mouse as being too practical in a car.

I'd have a video card with audio / video outputs that I could run directly to a car video monitor or stereo system with video display.

I would have an extended range wireless network card. At minimum, I'd be able to connect to the internet for updates and internet from the driveway without having to run a network cable to the car every time I wanted to update anything. Theoretically, I'd also be able to pick up an internet signal from the parking lot anywhere there was a wifi hotspot.

As far as Ultrahal is concerned

I'd love to be able to have some sensors and controllers wired to the computer and interfacing with Hal to give him some basic self awareness and the ability to activate things on the car.

Sensors -- maybe to know the speed the car is going, whether forward or reverse, whether the lights are on or the windshield wipers so the AI would know it's raining and be able to say something appropriate. It would also be cool to have Ultrahal hooked to a car alarm and programmed to speak or react in certain ways if the alarm sensors get tripped.

Controllers -- things like the trunk, power locks and power windows, headlights and some other things that would be fun to have voice controlled

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I haven't gotten to the point of building or testing any of these, but if anyone does try them I'd love to hear about it.

Mel