Wifi sending and receiving

[filiep]

How about wifi. Imagine you can upload files to your car while it is parked in the garage. Auto download podcasts, ... updates for your gps, firmware... And as most city's now offer free internet why not connect while driving to find a free parkingspace, hotel, restaurant with live updates

But also download your driving data from the car, consumption, miles, ...

[omnimoeish]

This is what we'd have if Steve Jobs were CEO of an auto maker, or anyone younger than 50.

I remember in high school, about 9 years ago, a guy converted his car stereo into an mp3 which at the time usually held about 32MB worth of music, and he installed a 40 gig hard drive, and he could take it out and put music on it to play in the car. We saw the demand for a high capacity mp3 player that could hold your entire music library, Steve Jobs was about the only one to jump onboard with the massively popular iPod that originally held 5 gigabytes.

About 7 years later I was finally able to buy a stereo with a built in 1 gigabyte hard drive that played mp3s. I don't even think you can buy them anymore.

http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/s...car_audio.html

Amazingly, I have an 800 watt power inverter in my car made by Cobra, it cost me $32 including shipping. It has 2 AC outlets and a USB power outlet. I use the thing all the time for my laptop, cell phone, mini TV, I even bring the old Gamecube along on vacations and play it while someone else is driving. Amazingly no auto maker has made this a factory option either. Even though nobody smokes anymore, they still only install cigarette lighters, sometimes 2 or 3 cigarette lighters.

[misslexi]

Yeah Omni, but Steve Jobs would NEVER have come up with something like OnStar

[omnimoeish]

I think it would be nice if the Volt had a built in WiFi transmitter. Obviously it would be nice to be able to do diagnostics if your Volt came with a CD that had a program that allowed you to interact with the Volt wirelessly (or even via USB or something for that matter).

There's so much potential if an auto maker made a Volt like vehicle that was non proprietary or whatever the vehicle equivalent would be. For instance, being able to adjust the ECU for power/efficiency. It would be cool for people who want to do what you're saying filiep, keep track of miles, gasoline consumption etc., you could keep track of the brand of fuel you used, the price you paid for your personal information if you so chose. It would be cool for bragging rights because I'm sure there would be website where people could post their stats (or have the vehicle automatically post them), kind of like high scores. It would be nice if the vehicle could tell you the remaining available battery capacity, both percent of original and absolute because then you could show that to a potential second hand buyer so they know the battery is still good. It would facilitate scheduling charge times. It would just be nice to have the vehicle alert you if there are problems. Check engine light comes on could be just a warning that you need to open up your Chevy Volt program on your computer and find out what's wrong instead of taking it to the mechanic and having them make up a bunch of stuff that's wrong. I think I heard someone say that the current Volt OnStar system has the option where your Volt is going to tell GM when there's a failure, and then they'll automatically order the part for you to be sent to your local Chevy dealer. That could still be an option, but it would just wait until its connected to the internet. This would also facilitate smart grid functionality if people so chose, they could have their utility company connect through the internet and shut off all Volts that are charging if they're in a high demand situation. Also you could easily wirelessly send mp3s and listen to them in the car. A 20 gigabyte hard would cost next to nothing and hold thousands of songs. These are just a few things I thought of in 10 minutes.

A vehicle that can do all that would be revolutionary and really not require much extra hardware or software. The system they have employed with OnStar and the Volts onboard computer would be pretty much unchanged and a wireless transmitter would probably cost GM $20 or less when ordered in bulk (hundreds of thousands per year).

The main nice thing is that it would take the need for paying monthly OnStar away since the vehicle would connect automatically to your wireless network at home and install firmware updates, communicate with GM or whatever they want. If you wanted OnStar so that you will be connected wherever you go, or if you don't have WiFi, regular OnStar could still be an option, but I think a lot of people would like these options without paying monthly payments and are willing to make the compromise of just having the connection when at home.

I have a sneaking suspicion that if Tesla will in the very near future either in the Model S or soon there after begin to implement these types of integrated functions. They are already integrating a 17" monitor. I think Elon Musk views a car like a computer with wheels and will design features as such.

[Texas]

All electric cars will eventually be iPhones with wheels. Adding that functionality is now very simple and the cost can be kept very low while the technical possibilities are endless.

[filiep]

I'm from Belgium and in Bruges there is free internet for everyone so imagine driving with your volt and the gps knows where you have to be. It askes you if you want to look for a parking space. If you say yes it checks online the available underground parkings for a space and guides you to that parkingspace. It could even reserve a space and why not pay for it...

[omnimoeish]

Originally Posted by filiep

and why not pay for it...

I just don't like the idea of buying a vehicle and then paying a monthly fee for something I'll rarely use when I could get a very similar service for free through wifi.

[filiep]

Sorry for the misunderstanding I didn't mean pay for the wifi connection because it should be free to use with your own connection but pay for the parking space.