US 5,794,164 · Granted 1998-08-11
Microsoft's 1998 Vision for the Car Dashboard Computer
Imagine a computer built into your car's dashboard that can run music, GPS, security systems, and diagnostics all at once — and you can swap out the face panel to use it as a portable device in your pocket. That's what Microsoft patented in 1998: a modular car computer with two processors working together.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a vehicle-mounted computer system with a stationary base unit containing one processor and a detachable faceplate with its own processor. What's protected is the specific architecture where the base processor controls the main operating system (entertainment, navigation, communications, security, diagnostics) when attached, while the faceplate processor becomes subservient. When detached, the faceplate becomes an independent RF-enabled portable device. The design also covers the use of removable storage drives (CD, floppy, hard disk) to load custom applications onto the system.
Why it matters
This patent represents an early vision of modular, software-extensible automotive computers — a concept that presaged modern infotainment systems and connected car platforms by decades. Filing in 1995 and granted in 1998, it captures Microsoft's ambition to embed its open operating system architecture into vehicles at a time when car computers were still closed, proprietary systems. The dual-processor design with a detachable portable component was technically innovative for its era, even if the specific product implementation never became mainstream.
Real-world use
You encounter this concept every time you use a modern car's touchscreen dashboard to navigate, stream music, or check diagnostics — though modern systems evolved differently than this 1998 vision anticipated.
Original USPTO abstract
A vehicle computer system has a housing sized to be mounted in a vehicle dashboard or other appropriate location, a computer mounted within the housing, and an open platform operating system which executes on an open hardware architecture computer. The open platform operating system supports multiple different applications that can be supplied by a vehicle user. For instance, the operating system can support applications pertaining to entertainment, navigation, communications, security, diagnostics, and others. The computer has one or more storage drive (e.g., CD drive, floppy disk drive, cassette player, or hard disk drive) which permits the vehicle user to download programs from a storage medium (e.g., CD, diskette, cassette, or hard disk) to the computer. In the described implementation, the computer has two independent processors. One processor, which runs the operating system, is mounted in a stationary base unit of the housing and the other processor is mounted to a faceplate which is detachable from the base unit. When the faceplate is attached, the first processor provides the primary control over all operating systems (i.e., entertainment, navigation, communications, security, diagnostics, and others) and the faceplate processor is subservient. When the faceplate is detached, it forms a portable RF device with the faceplate processor providing radio and communications capabilities.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,794,164
- Filing date
- 1995-11-29
- Grant date
- 1998-08-11
- Assignee
- Microsoft Corporation
- Inventor(s)
- BECKERT; RICHARD D., MOELLER; MARK M., WONG; WILLIAM
- CPC class
- G01C21/3688
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