It’s fascinating to think about how far and fast car radio technology has evolved. You can’t even call it a “car radio” anymore, because it includes so much more than that.

Since the beginning of the automobile age, if someone knew how to put a home radio in their car, it was pretty much the only option. Typically these were DIY and modified versions of home radios, home stereos, which the typical technician could have come up with. Rarely, if ever, was anything included in the initial build of those older cars prior to the 50s / 60s (hard to find an exact date / car model that was first shipped with a radio factory installed).

In the 1960s there were reel-to-reel players that rapidly evolved to 8-track cartridges, which then in turn rapidly evolved to cassette tapes in the late 1970s as well. 1985 saw the first car CD player,! now 28 years ago!

After CDs arrived, it became clear that digital was the way to go and we soon saw that automotive technology was following the path of the computer system. Many of the same technologies have been used, and the trend of reducing data to the smallest physical units was very beneficial for car audio, as portability was a primary consideration.

Now who remembers what a car phone used to be like? A real, true, real first-generation car phone. The really big phones that you had to connect to your car. While it is true that past generation car audio equipment can look and feel quite retro, the cell phone technology we used to have seems absolutely prehistoric. Technology in the car has progressed at a dizzying rate and if you compare components from day one to what we have today, you may not even know that they worked the same way.

Today we see a fusion of these technologies into one unit that controls music, radio, communication and much more than we ever dreamed of. MP3s have been a fundamental part of car audio for almost two decades. Mobile phones are fully integrated thanks to Bluetooth wireless systems. And more and more we see that these control units incorporate features and capabilities of our computers and smartphones.

The latest generation of controllers built for car travel (controllers like Sony’s MirrorLink or Clarion Next GATE) include all the popular apps everyone uses today: radio streaming, Facebook, Twitter, GPS, and the ability to add more. There is so much available for both the driver and the passenger that never was before, and it can be at your fingertips.

Brilliant things are coming for technology in the future: We see Google developing an automated car as our infotainment consoles only get more robust. What will the next two decades bring? Or even just in the next few years!