2007 will be the year cars and tech really mesh, thanks in part to Ford's Sync, a hands-free cell phone gizmo running on Microsoft's Auto operating system. It also lets you control your MP3 player using voice commands. Sync will be available on about a dozen 2007 car models in the fall, and, yes, it even works with iPods.
But this is only the beginning, says Velle Kolde, product manager for Microsoft's in-vehicle systems. Future versions of Sync could incorporate Wi-Fi, so you could download your e-mail while driving through a Net cloud and then have the system read it to you.
Autonet Mobile, meanwhile, wants to turn your car into a rolling hotspot. Autonet's book-size router plugs into your cigarette lighter and connects to the same kind of high-speed cell networks used by wireless PC Cards, while broadcasting a secure 802.11g network in your car (and a little beyond).
Autonet has two big advantages over wireless cards, according to the company's CEO, Sterling Prantz. It is better at managing handoffs when you move from fast networks to slower ones, allowing for seamless data streaming. And everyone can share one connection, so Mom can watch YouTube on her laptop while Sis IMs her posse and Junior plays multiplayer games on his PSP--assuming, of course, that you're hooked into a fast EvDO Rev A network. By the time you read this, cars with Autonet inside should be available at select Avis Rent A Car locations; late this spring you'll be able to buy the router for $399, plus $50 a month for access to Autonet's network.
Moving Targets
If you want broadband built into your car, you'll have to wait a bit longer, says Bob Schoenfield, senior vice president for Aeris, a company that runs a communications network for telematic services. Aeris is working with a "non-U.S. car company" on a 2008-model automobile that can download data at up to 2 megabits per second. As today's fastest cellular networks get even faster, we will see a tsunami of mobile content, from movies and music to live broadcasts.
Moreover, as Internet Protocol version 6 becomes more common, cars could be used to gather data about the weather, traffic patterns, and more, says Tom Patterson, CEO of Command Information, a consultancy that specializes in IPv6. The firm has built the "Veesix," a 1970s-era Porsche designed to show off IPv6's automotive potential.
Because IPv6 allows for trillions of new IP addresses, your speedometer and windshield wipers could have their own addresses, enabling them to broadcast data to a server that aggregates the information and feeds back real-time weather and traffic reports.
IPv6 also lets devices communicate automatically. So if another car were approaching a blind intersection at high speed, your car could detect it and sound an alarm.
IPv6 is being built into cars in Europe and Japan, and car area networks that connect all of the devices inside your ride should start appearing in 2009. Important questions remain, of course--like whether you'll have to share your driving data with the police or your insurance company, or what happens when you send an angry text message to the Hummer driver who just cut you off.
But the potential is awesome. I'd take the Veesix in a heartbeat--and a designated driver when I just have to surf.