Automakers Getting into Wi-Fi in a Big Way

Automakers are getting around to putting WiFi in their products, but is it too late?

American and German car and truck manufacturers have announced a big push toward making their vehicles "rolling hot spots," the kind of Internet connectivity point that moves along the modern person's increasingly mobile lifestyle. One key concern, though, will be cost. Specifically, if you have a smartphone for which you already pay a data plan fee, would you shell out some extra cash to ensure that you have Wi-Fi in the car as well? Depends, I suppose, on how badly you depended on Internet access 24/7 for your job, family, Facebook needs.

Still, those are details that are sure to be ironed out later, once everybody gets a whiff of a full outlay of MyFordTouch, which sidesteps that thorny extra Wi-Fi issue by simply allow passengers and drivers to plug their Internet-capable devices straight into the car's computer. Ford has offered a few Internet-capable vehicles before, but the push is really getting going now, along with progress from GM, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Nokia has helped in that regard by introducing a Car Connectivity Consortium, the members of which have common technical standards.

Of course, there is the basic, stripped-down model and then there's the other end of the spectrum. Audi has created a car that offers a factory-installed mobile hotspot that allows up to eight devices to be connected at the same time. Talk about draining the battery! Given that the car is an Audi, it's not exactly a people-mover, either. Even in a six-passenger vehicle, that's more than one device per person.

Going a different way, as usual, is Saab, which has gone and come up with their own idea, an operating system based on Google's Android protocols, complete with the flexibility of third-party developers doing the heavy post-installation lifting by designing apps. The Saab system even has a cool name: IQon.

Stay tuned.