Indian Electric Car with Linux Tablet Computer

India's automotive and computer industries have achieved remarkable synergy in the Reva NXG. The dull looking Reva electric car has been transformed for a motor show by cutting off the roof and embedding an Indian Linux touch screen computer in the dashboard.

Up-market cars now have a large screen for navigation and entertainment in the center of the dashboard. Some also have a second screen replacing the speedometer in front of the driver. The NXG has just one large screen in the middle of the dashboard for both functions.

Building an electronic display for a car is a major engineering task. Reva have sidestepped the problem for the prototype by embedding an Indian made tablet computer in the dashboard. This Linux touch screen computer is then programmed to be the speedometer, GPS navigation system and MP3 player. In addition it has Internet access via GPRS (popular in India).