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Automakers look to incorporate your phone into dashboard

, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – Your phone stores music. It can connect to radio stations like ²ÝÝ®´«Ã½, and it can give you directions. So what’s the point of having a car dashboard anymore?

That’s the thinking of some automakers, including General Motors. They are now focused on taking what’s on your phone and putting it on a screen on the dashboard.

There are a number of payoffs for the car owner. You get the convenience and familiarity of your phone on your dashboard, and you don’t have to pay more for a fancy in-car entertainment system.

“There is a race to see who can integrate it as seamlessly and as intuitively as possible,” Dave Lyon, an executive design director at GM, tells .

The downside is that using more data in the car almost certainly means signing up for a bigger data plan with your cellphone company. The challenge also is making these new dashboards feature-filled, yet not distracting.

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