Most of us know the name West Coast Customs thanks to a man called Xzibit and a little show called Pimp My Ride. However, West Coast now stars in its own show on the Discovery Channel's Velocity network. It's called Inside West Coast Customs and the show follows the crew at the garage as they create wild and whacky creations for the likes of Justin Bieber and Will.i.am.
This week, Microsoft's Channel 9 revealed that it recently paid it's own visit to the West Coast Customs garage. The company teamed up with West Coast for a project codenamed Project Detroit. It saw them create a 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback outfitted with the latest in Microsoft technology.
"Against the odds, and perhaps against our better judgment in terms of sleeping hours, we set out to see what was possible when you combine some of the world's most innovative technology, the latest in cloud connectivity and raw American auto muscle," said Microsoft's Jeff Sandquist. "What would it look like if you could take Windows, Windows Phone, Windows Azure, Xbox, Kinect, Bing - you name it - and put it all together into one iconic car?"
It would look like this:
The crew started with a 2012 Mustang and then retrofitted it with Dynacorn's 1967 Mustang fastback replica body. They added heads-up displays with augmented reality in the windshield, two Kinects (one on the front and one in the rear) for skeletal tracking and live streaming video feeds, built-in 4G,an Xbox 360 (for gaming, obviously), swipe-able touchscreen dashboard displays, and a rear windshield that serves as a customizable display that can play video, show images, and display messages (such as, "Stop tailgating me!"). All of this is pulled together with Windows Azure in the cloud and Windows Phone applications to control things.
Microsoft won't go into full details about the motor because the episode this Mustang stars in is set to air this Sunday, March 25 at 9:00 p.m. PT/ET on Discovery's Velocity Network. However, the company will be making source code for the major components of the project available on CodePlex in the coming weeks.
"We are so incredibly proud of this car, but we're even more proud of what it represents – ingenuity, creativity and some great demonstrations of Microsoft technologies in cool applied scenarios," said Sandquist. "Get excited, download the code and create your own device powered by hardware and software."
Check out more pictures and details regarding Project Detroit here.
