Wi-fi in Cars? I’m Not Seeing It Yet
ABI, a tech marketing research outfit out of New York just published a new study, “Automotive Wireless Networks: Opportunities for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RFID, Satellite, and Other Emerging Wireless Technologies.” Long story short. Cars are going to get even more techy — and pretty fast.
The data shows that next year about 25 million vehicles will be tooling around with Bluetooth onboard and a goodly number of those will also have wi-fi gear. Of course the need (which to my way of thinking is as much about safety as convenience) for handsfree calling has been the driving force (no pun intended) behind the Bluetooth push.
At least from the stuff I’m reading the wi-fi apps are considerably less nailed down to specific purposes. I don’t get all that psyched about being able to download music from my home network directly to my car. Whatever. Sitting at Sonic clogging my arteries and surfing on a dashboard screen, better.
Obviously there are many security, navigation, and commerce-based applications that could be accessed via a wi-fi enabled car. Right now, however, I’m just not seeing anything that catches my eye or makes as much sense as Bluetooth onboard interfacing with my cellphone to keep me from wrapping myself around a tree trying to dial a number.
But if the data is right, we ought to see some pretty entertaining stabs at justifying wi-fi onboard in the coming months and let’s face it, there’s always vast entertainment value in the prototypes that bomb. Can you say Betamax?