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Among the many April Fools' jokes put out by car manufacturers over the years, one memorable example back in 2004 saw BMW claiming that its cars could turn the oven on at home when they were still 30 minutes away from their destination, allowing for a warm dinner to be ready once the driver returned to his or her domicile. They called this 'technology' Satellite Hypersensitive Electromagnetic Foodration - or SHEF. Oh, how we laughed.
Only... the thing is, Toyota is now claiming it will soon be able to do something pretty similar, but for real. The Japanese car giant has teamed up with Panasonic to work on a cloud-based telematics service that'll allow you to remotely control all manner of gizmos and gadgets in your home while you're out on the road in your Toyota.
So if you've not switched on the washing machine, or you want to record something on telly, or even if you fancy, um, switching the oven on when you're 30 minutes from home, you might be able to do so in the very near future; Toyota reckons the service might even be offered as early as the latter half of this year.
The Toyota-Panasonic tech is being presented at the Smart Community Japan 2014 exhibition in Tokyo this month, with the idea that such cloud-related cleverness will make the car ever more indispensable in busy people's lives.
Of course, you won't be able to use this on any old home appliance - Panasonic is working to create new smart homes that are environmentally efficient and network-connected, and it is these that work with the telematics service. For instance, it's not likely to be compatible with a tatty old 1976 four-hob Electrolux finished in avocado that's still soldiering on today.
However, that 10-year-old BMW idea of 'chicken a la M4' doesn't sound so daft now, does it?
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