Stefan Mileschin

Many pilots would agree that Garmin's aviation products are some of the most desirable solutions in the sky. Multiple flight displays and advanced avionics offer the ultimate glass cockpit experience, even in a single-engine Cessna. Now, the company is hoping to bring some of that functionality and style to ground-based vehicles, with the K2 in-dash infotainment system. We saw some early hints of this impressive rig over at our sister site Autoblog during least year's CES, but Garmin is finally ready to drop the curtain officially, sharing the very first render and plenty of details to boot.

At the system's core is a 10-inch touchscreen, with a customizable 12-inch instrument panel positioned just behind the steering wheel. That second display is where you'll find all the essential gauges, but it also provides navigation, vehicle info, along with communications, including text messages and email, and more info on whatever music you're currently playing. K2 is powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor with the ability to feed content to multiple screens, including some for passengers in the back. There's onboard 3D navigation and plenty of realtime info, including gas prices, traffic and weather forecasts. Of course, the system connects to your smartphone over Bluetooth, providing access to data, media, and the like. There's also a heavy helping of voice control.

Now, while all that sounds fairly par for the course, Garmin reps seem to be very excited about K2, and based on the company's track record in the aviation sector, we're more than a little curious ourselves. Fortunately, we're told to expect some hands-on time at the show, and while we haven't seen anything beyond the render above just yet, we should have plenty more to report in the days to come. Until then, feel free to drive past the break and take a gander at the PR.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/07/g...inment-system/