The Sucky Future Is Now: In-Car WiFi

by Matt Hickey on January 2, 2007

Wi-Fi Is Hitting the Road in Cars From Avis, but Technical and Legal Bumps Lie Ahead [NY Times]

achinda99 - January 2nd, 2007 at 4:36 pm PST

With all the reference to porn today, all I can conclude is someone is extra horny today…

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Sascha - January 2nd, 2007 at 7:49 pm PST

Haha achinda99 I was just thinking the same, reading Matt’s last 5 postings in a row leaves a very clear sign of someone thinking about horizontal activities a lot.. which is fine with me, but if I have to laugh out loud several times while “working hard” at my desk it makes me look unprofessional ;-)

That being said, I have another question, since it’s only January 2nd and I’m not sure right now whether “starting next year” means 2007 (this year) or 2008?

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Jon - January 2nd, 2007 at 8:10 pm PST

One hand on the wheel, the other holding up the laptop… eyes looking at the road and one foot on the gas… mmm… where is the free hand Matt or do you manage to do things with your free foot?

Jon

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John Handelaar - January 2nd, 2007 at 8:30 pm PST

Internet radio. Duh.

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drdrew - January 2nd, 2007 at 10:02 pm PST

man, we just need a programmable-gps-autopilot-mobile so we can ~~get drunk as hell~~ do all our tech stuff without having to worry about driving…oh wait, it’s called the bus, or taxi, or subway…

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Paul Thompson - January 3rd, 2007 at 12:57 am PST

I’ve used my cellphone to surf the web @ high speed (Sprint, EVDO) @ high speed (while riding in a car on the highway / interstate…

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Gal - January 3rd, 2007 at 8:22 am PST

It is great idea.
next thing is to make the car go slower so you surf faster…

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Joseph - January 3rd, 2007 at 11:16 am PST

I have to say for all of us in Kansas. We don’t have wifi spots when driving around in rural Kansas nor do we have many places we can go to check our email. This will be great for all of us who travel to our clients and need to email the home office with changes.

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Peter - January 4th, 2007 at 11:23 am PST

I think it’s a pretty damn good idea. I love my verizon card, but before that, when traveling for business, how often did anyone pull up to their meeting spot and realize they needed that document emailed to them to present, etc. You can land, get in the car, sync up emails, and your passengers can work on the way to the hotel.

$11 though? I think it’s more of a $5 service.

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NW Guy - January 4th, 2007 at 11:42 am PST

Another low expectation/high cost service.

Like there is the need for another discussion of add-on services at the rental car counter?? Give me a car and let me go; if I don’t provide my own technology than it’s my fault.

BTW; this sounds like it will just be a relay point between the cellular (which one???) 3G network, with local wifi output. Sounds like Sprint or Cingular under the covers (Sacha?). If you travel a lot just get the 3G service; $60/mo is better than $11/day and you will not have config issues every time you get a new vehicle.

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Kalon Reeves - April 8th, 2007 at 5:22 pm PDT

This article is so way off base I find my self debate whether or not to bother hitting the submit button.

It just demonstrates what the orignator of this article spends his time doing on the web. It also shows the authors lack of awareness of the many devices that utilize the internet in a non-browsing form such as traffic alerts, and location tracking via a GPS device.

This article also fails to mention that the device manufacturer is developing these devices for the general public as well, and not just to rental car agencies. So, why slam the rental car industry?

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Kalon Reeves - April 8th, 2007 at 5:23 pm PDT

This article is so way off base I find my self debating (for lack of a better choice of word) whether or not to waste my energy hitting the submit button in response.

It just demonstrates what the originator of this article spends his or her time doing on the web. It also shows the authors lack of awareness of the many devices that utilize the internet in a non-browsing form such as traffic alerts, and location tracking via a GPS device.

This article also fails to mention that the device manufacturer is developing these devices for the general public as well, and not just to rental agencies. So, why slam the rental car industry?

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