T3 Motion’s GT3 Hybrid Car Built Around Apple iPad

By Ian Bell August 2, 2010

When we last checked in on the development of the upcoming GT3 hybrid electric consumer vehicle. developer T3 Motion mentioned it had been working on the exterior body. It now has moved into the interior, mentioning today a number of technologies it plans to incorporate, including the innovative (and possibly distracting) use of an Apple iPad as the car’s central information hub.

A model of the vehicle’s interior, seen below, shows how the iPad looks to be docked into the GT3, replacing what otherwise might be a standard car information center. T3 Motion says that the Apple tablet, with its built-in software and huge selection of developer apps, could be used for everything from travel planning and GPS to audio, video and games. This could prove to be quite a useful marriage between electric car and iPad if the company pulls it off, though the idea of a driver taking their eyes off the road to watch a streaming movie might not be a good idea.

T3 Motion also plans to incorporate into this electric car a 5BARz cellular network extender, which the company says will provide for “faster Internet services (including 3G) for mobile web browsing and e-mail along with stronger signals and better reception for cell phone calls and messaging.” This technology is said to work with any mobile device and will be tied to the iPad to increase its range and data rate.

And, for those who like Google Maps and such, the GT3 will make use of a Motiontrak 300 “black box” in-car video and data recording system This system tracks vehicle speed, location and g-force shocks, with built in GPS being integrated into Google Maps to track precise location and provide a vehicle movement overview. Software reportedly will allow the user to see video footage from the vehicle’s perspective, overhead Google Earth location display, and numeric as well as graphical data on a single screen. Again, sounds very cool, but we hope you aren’t taking your eyes off the road to enjoy all of these bells and whistles.

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