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There’s a tsunami of tech in cop cars, and the vehicles themselves are increasingly hi-tech. But the basic problem is: The cop tech doesn’t talk to the car tech - and vice-versa.
This makes turning a civilian car into a cop car an exercise in Dickensian modification. They’re still screwing PCs and radar control boxes onto dashboards with self-tapping screws. It’s expensive, inelegant and cumbersome. Kinda like hanging onto those old audio cassettes today - or even glorifying them on a bad shirt...
So, Fujitsu Australia hatched this bold plan to turn this situation around, and get the cop tech talking to the car tech. That’s gunna make the fitout cheaper for the taxpayer, and the functionality better for the cops.
But hilariously enough, the biggest impediment to date has been finding a carmaker prepared to open the door to integration on the vehicle side.
The usual suspects - Holden, Ford, three-point swastika - they all sent the Japanese tech giant packing. But one carmaker said ‘yes’. And this is the result.
Imagine if carmakers opened the door in this way to aftermarket modification. Do you want to ditch that key and have secure biometric access to your car? Maybe add a surround camera system and just drag and drop a control app onto the infotainment screen? How about fitting and customising the information on a new head-up display? But the car industry is famous for building firewalls between its products and everything non-genuine. They’re using the tech as a barrier, not an opportunity...
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