Here at TUAW we've seen lots of uses for the iPhone as a remote control, but if you were watching and thinking that those projects were way too safe, then the guys at Waterloo Labs have got you covered. They approached the project with a low budget and DIY attitude, building a low-cost (relatively speaking) car that is controlled by a first generation iPhone. Not content with just building the car, they also chose to car-surf on the hood and roof, Teen Wolf style, while testing their handiwork.

While we at TUAW do not condone such dangerous behavior, we can recommend that you watch this other video by Waterloo Labs as a more in-depth instructional video on how to build your own vehicle.

Our colleague, Sam Abuelsamid, at Autoblog has pointed out the release of a roadside assistance app from automaker MINI. The app, MINI Roadside Assistance [iTunes link], is a collaboration between the automaker and insurance company Allstate and allows one to access roadside assistance as well as the specify its cause

So, say you're driving your MINI to Las Vegas for your buddy's bachelor party. During the drive, your car overheats; it's 120 degrees and you forgot were too lazy to check the coolant before you left, what'd you expect to happen? Well, no need to worry -- roadside assistance is just a few taps away with MINI Roadside Assistance.

MINI Roadside Assistance is available as a free download. MINI Cooper not included. More info and a demo video are available at Sam's article.

Let's face it, the less distractions you have while driving the better, even if the government can't decide whether or not to tell you how dangerous phones + cars can be. Last week I was happy to see Penn Jillette (a magician whose work I've admired since I was too young to say the name of his current show) on Twitter proudly announce he was going to quit calling and texting in the car. Bravo!

Penn happens to sport an iPhone, and like any modern cell phone, it has "airplane mode." I'm going to show you how to set the iPhone to this "no call" mode, and explain why you probably don't have to while driving. Plus, if you absolutely must talk while driving I'll explain a helpful trick with the 3GS. You should never under any circumstances try to type while driving -- pull over, already.

To turn off your iPhone's cell radio, thus preventing distracting text messages, push messages and phone calls, go to Settings > Airplane Mode and turn the switch ON. Pretty easy, yes, I know. But unless you are going to use the iPhone's audio in your car (and there's like a zillion apps for that), you could just as easily turn off the ringer. The switch above the volume buttons on the left of the screen controls the mute for external sounds. When you arrive at your destination, check your phone for missed calls, etc.

If you have a 3GS, you can use the Apple headphones that came with it to activate Voice Control, giving you a relatively safe method of interacting with your iPhone while driving (except for a proper, Bluetooth speaker/mic or in-car solution, I guess). Plug in the headphones and put the headphone directly connected to the microphone in your ear. Press and hold the "middle" button (in-between the volume buttons) for about 3 seconds, until you hear the beeps. Voice Control is now on! You can control the iPod functions and make calls, but I recommend you try Voice Control before you start driving. Note that there are voice dialing apps for previous iPhones, but I feel having to see the screen to push even one button is an unacceptable distraction.

The New York Times and many other news outlets have reported on the unreleased government study showing that even talking on the phone increased the likelihood of having an accident -- whether you are hands-free calling or not. Driving and chatting with a disembodied voice can be distracting, apparently. So, again, the only truly safe thing to do is to switch off your cell radio entirely (Airplane mode). This won't allow you to play streaming radio stations, but it may save your life. Otherwise, use your willpower to ignore the chimes, rings and buzzes, and if you absolutely must talk or text, pull over.

When all of those iPhone 3.0 features were first announced, one of the features that stuck out most to me was the incoming A2DP ability -- the new iPhone OS will let you stream out music to a Bluetooth source, like headphones... or your car. And over at Cars.com, the guys got their hands on a Toyota Venza with Bluetooth capability, and did just that, as you can see in the video above. It's pretty slick -- no wires, no annoying pairing, just hit the Bluetooth button on the iPod, choose the car's Bluetooth source, and press play. We're not sure about audio quality (it should be at least listenable), but it looks super cool.

There are, as usual, some catches. I for one was disappointed to hear that this A2DP ability won't work with first-gen iPhones like mine -- you'll need to have a 3G to do something like this. And of course, this will require the iPhone OS 3.0, which isn't technically out yet (though devs in Apple's development program are playing with it right now, which is why you can see it in the video above). And finally, you'll need a car with the Bluetooth capability, which (though I haven't owned or shopped for a car for a few years, so maybe things have changed a bit) is still kind of hard to find.

But hey, even if you're not there yet, here's a look at the future. Where we're going, you won't need wires to get your iPod playing music on the car stereo.

Perhaps you've seen a Volkswagen Beetle driving around with a flower in its dashboard bud vase. People put all sorts of things in there, but we say ditch the gerbera daisies and go for something more useful.

Bug owner Nathan Barry has hacked his bud vase to accommodate his iPhone. By sawing away one slot for his USB car charger's cable and another to steady the iPhone, he made a clever stand that's easy to see from the driver's seat.

Good job, Nathan! My iPhone can be found bouncing around the passenger seat when I'm in my wife's car. The audio jack in my car is hidden inside the arm rest, which is even less convenient. Yes, I've tried FM transmitters but decided that they're manufactured by Satan himself.

So, how do you listen to your iPhone (or iPod) in your car?

iPhone Savior believes that they have a picture of Steve Jobs' car. The picture, taken outside of the Yerba Buena Center shortly after the "Let's Rock" event last Tuesday, depicts a Mercedes SL55 AMG without a California license plate.

Why doesn't Steve have a license plate? Well, the old story goes something like this: He convinced the California DMV to allow him a barcode sticker instead of a plate after several incidents of stolen plates. Now, don't take this story to the bank, because there's several versions of it.

iPhone Savior has more pictures posted on their site, along with an in-depth write up about the car in question.

Jeremy Horwitz at iLounge has written a comprehensive guide for integrating the iPhone with you car, from a budget-friendly rig to the ultimate set-up.

The problem, of course, is that there's no single device, cable or solution that will manage calls, music, and charge your iPhone's battery simultaneously. I'm using a set-up similar to Jeremy's budget solution -- a cheap mount holds the iPhone in place, an audio cable connects it to my stereo's audio in port and a Belkin charger keeps the battery going.

Of course, I've still got to pick the thing up and disconnect the audio cable to place or receive a call (still legal where I live). I know that a Bluetooth headset would eliminate that issue, but I don't want to have to buy one more thing to accessorize my iPhone.

Jeremy's "Optimal Solution" eliminates a lot of the stuff with a Contour Design / Bluetrek SurfaceSound Compact, which is a nifty hands-free solution for mobile phones (though quite pricey). If price is not a concern, check it out. As for the rest of us, have you got your iPhone set up in your car? Share your solutions below.

We just mentioned the rumors about Apple being in talks with VW and now comes word from CAR magazine that Apple has already been working with Jaguar on control interfaces. According to Ian Callum, Jaguar's design director, the interior of the new Jaguar XF has design cues that are a direct result of work with Apple. Apparently, the start button pulses and buttons are in general kept to a minimum. It increasingly sounds like Apple is almost becoming an industrial design consultant. Though it would be interesting to know if Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are involved in any of this stuff, because it is their direction that gives actual Apple products so much of their characteristic elan.

Thanks John!

[via Autoblog]

You've got to love a story that starts: "It has been reported..." Nonetheless, leftlanenews has a report that Uncle Steve and Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn "met earlier this month in California to discuss the possible joint-venture." Apparently there's been some market research that shows a market for an Apple upgraded automobile (no, really, people like Apple's electronic gadgets?). Nonetheless, I think this one is still in la-la rumor land, though maybe this lends some credence to that Apple GPS rumor we posted about in June. In any case this makes me feel even better about a white Apple sticker on my Jetta! So what do you think, are you ready to run out and buy a VW/Apple iCar?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

We don't know how wide-spread this problem is, but I figured if this frustrating complicatioin happened to one user, he probably isn't the only one: SecurityMonkey at the ITtoolbox Blogs posted a tragic story with a happy ending involving Apple's latest iPod software update and factory car interfaces. This dramatic tale of heart-wrenching loss and emotional reuniting with his iPod + car integration kit begins with the software update for is 5G iPod that iTunes 7 requires. Upon connecting his recently updated iPod to the factory Nissan adapter in his car, the display presented the 'No iPod' error message pictured above.

Ultimately, SecurityMonkey was able to recover his factory iPod connectivity with the daring attempt of using the Restore function now built into iTunes 7. Granted it's a time-consuming process since it requires re-syncing all the music back onto an iPod (it also erases any data/files on the iPod, so back those up), but upon reuniting his refreshed iPod with his Nissan - their techno-sexy love was once again in full bloom.

Again, this is the first report we've seen of issues like this, so we have no idea which iPod models this affects, or which decks and interfaces are experiencing these quirks. If any of y'all run into similar problems, give us the details in this post's comments, or submit a tip via our tips form.

I thought I was cool with the one Apple sticker I have on my car's rear window, but now I've been shamed. The owner of this vehicle (I'm guessing by the door handles that it's a Saturn?) really, really likes his/her Apple stickers. Just don't drive that thing in Redmond.

No, you haven't missed a joint announcement from Apple and Griffin. However, you might have missed this post on Make which links to ZapWizard's Flickr set detailing how he put a Mac mini, with accompanying LCD screen and mouse/keyboard, into his car.

I know, there have been tons of stories like this, but this is the first one that includes a little product cross mating. Since he didn't have enough money to get a new car stereo the Wiz decided that he would just integrate an iTrip directly into the Mac mini.

That's talent.

[Via Make.]

In keeping with our poll theme today, a Nielsen/NetRatings survey found that users of iTunes and the iTMS are more likely to buy VW's or Audi's. Maybe this shouldn't be much of a shock seeing as both of those brands are set up for iPod integration. My favorite quotable from the post about this poll on edmunds.com is:

While it may seem like a small market to corner, iTunes users are seen by many ad firms as one of the most desirable segments as they tend to be young, educated and flush with disposable income.

Why thank you! *blush* Oh wait a minute, that means they're going to market to me. I guess I'll just avoid those pesky commercials by getting my TV from the iTMS.

[also at the BBC NEWS thanks iFelix!]

If there was ever a doubt about Eastern European Mac fans, let that shred of uncertainty be squelched. Today on MacMod one of the most amazing car installs of a Mac I have ever witnessed was posted after being translated [from Czech?].

Jiri Jirout first created a custom housing with waterproof-yet-breathable Gore-Tex ports for his 450MHz G4 (codename Sawtooth). The Sawtooth model is near and dear to my heart, I am writing this post off my 400MHz Sawtooth which was upgraded to 2GHz with a Powerlogix CPU. Next, he modded his Eastern European Tatra brand car to include:

• An ethernet network
• Wifi for hotspots
• GPRS to internet for the car in cases where one is too far from Wifi
• GPS with a Garmin module and Route 66 mapping software
• Custom front end software written in Cocoa for car data
• Custom movie player software
• Scripts for iTunes so that back seat passengers can listen to different music than in the front
• And much more...

The fact that the original article from which this is translated dates from the winter of 2003/2004 makes this mod all the more amazing. Huge props to Jiri Jirout and his crew of microcontroller designing and software writing friends.

This is great if you don't smoke and you drive a car (Yes on both counts here. w00t!). You no longer have to use the ashtray as a coin recepticle. You can now actually use the little coin roll recepticle in your car! Now, you can dock your iPod in your ashtray!

Ah, humanity! Is there any place you won't try to dock your iPod? I guess not...