Chrysler To Offer Wireless Internet In 2009 Models

sunny in Seattle writes "'Have you ever thought rush hour on the 405 Freeway might be more bearable if you could check your e-mail, shop for a book on Amazon, place some bids on EBay and maybe even, if nobody is looking, download a little porn? Then perhaps you should be driving a Chrysler.' LA Times reports that the nation's third-largest automaker is set to announce Thursday that it's making wireless Internet an option on all its 2009 models. The mobile hotspot, called UConnect Web, would be the first such technology from any automaker."

Comments

wardriving

[pwnies]

Kind of defeats the point of wardriving though doesn't it.

Re:wardriving

[clang_jangle]

Not necessarily -- you just change the goal to finding a faster connection.

Re:wardriving

[Constantine XVI]

Nope. From TFA:

Users get download speeds of 600 megabits to 800 megabits per second. Holy shit. I'd love to know how they're getting that over a 3G connection.

Re:wardriving

[FrameRotBlues]

Yeah, they corrected that; it's supposed to be 600-800K, not 600-800M.

Re:wardriving

[deepgrey]

Actually, I would think it would make wardriving interesting - the target network would be moving.

Re:wardriving

[elrous0]

Even harder, you have to find one of the ten people in the U.S. still driving a Chrysler.

Tag

[Anonymous Coward]

If ever there was a time for the "whatcouldpossiblegowrong" tag, this is it.

Re:Tag

[cayenne8]

"and maybe even, if nobody is looking, download a little porn? "

Well, I dunno about other places....but, in New Orleans, maybe LA in general, don't get caught watching porn in the car where it can be seen by others outside your vehicle, or you'll get busted. They put that law into effect a few years back.

Re:Tag

[clem]

Because that was the number one problem plaguing the good people of New Orleans?

Re:Tag

[compro01]

Appearently. Porn is dangerous stuff.~

Re:Tag

[cayenne8]

"No, because it was the number one easiest way to votepander in a city that was trying to lose its reputation as a den of thieves."

No..I think it had to do with things that happened during some of the 'fests' that happen down here...that in traffic coming into the city, that some big SUV's that had lots of screens that were playing some hardcore stuff while in traffic, well other cars that had kids in them were seeing what was going on pretty clear in the cars. I think it blew some parents' minds.

They're pretty lenient what goes on in the Quarter, but, outside of that and the surburbs coming into the city, well there are normal families living normal lives and they don't put up with stuff like they'll allow in the Quarter. I remember driving downtown a few years ago with all the traffic coming in for the Essence festival, and you saw that type of thing happen a LOT. I saw many cars decked out with screens playing porn. Not that it bothers me, but, I saw that this wasn't an isolated incident.

We're a party city, but, there is a place and time for different behaviors...and while a lot goes on ok...not everything goes.

Re:Tag

[cayenne8]

"Yeah, the city with drive through daquiri stands. Let's stop the porn but encourage drinking and driving."

So...what's your point?

:-)

We also sell alcohol (beer, wine and liquor) 7 days a week, we have 'to go cups' at bars and restaurants so you can take your drink to go (I really miss that in other cities, you have to chug your last drink before you leave), and sales of booze aren't only in liquor stores...you can buy all 3 at grocery stores, convenience stores...etc.

It is kind of nice to be treated like an adult to have the choice to drink responsibly...key word there being personal choice. If you get busted driving drunk, it is as bad as anywhere else in the country. I personally feel the new DWI blood alcohol levels are too low at .08....it should have stayed at the old levels...but, that's a different soapbox.

Anyway, I'd dare say down here alcohol is a part of life much like it is in other parts of the world....no big deal. Most of the people that really overbinge and all are the visitors here who go apeshit seeing how liberal it is here with the drinking laws...and they're just not used to not having the govt. tell them how to regulate themselves in a more permissive environment.

Re:Tag

[Awptimus Prime]

Most of the people that really overbinge and all are the visitors here who go apeshit seeing how liberal it is here with the drinking laws...and they're just not used to not having the govt. tell them how to regulate themselves in a more permissive environment.

Considering Marti Gras isn't the only street party in the USA, I'd be willing to suggest the people going apeshit have less to do with the government sheltering them than they are doing it for the same reasons they do in Panama City, used to do in Atlanta during Freaknic, and many other places. They are out of town, young, and are going to "blow it out" regardless of what the local laws are. You can get picked up just as quickly in New Orleans for public intoxication as you can in any college town I've stayed in, as the differences in the laws are minor at best.

Personally, I did not like my time there. It seemed like the police trolled visitors for trouble more than any other place I've lived. I've yet to be asked "Where are you from?" by a cop since leaving Louisiana while it was a common occurrence while living there.

Re:Tag

[cayenne8]

"Considering Marti Gras isn't the only street party in the USA, I'd be willing to suggest the people going apeshit have less to do with the government sheltering them than they are doing it for the same reasons they do in Panama City, used to do in Atlanta during Freaknic, and many other places. They are out of town, young, and are going to "blow it out" regardless of what the local laws are. You can get picked up just as quickly in New Orleans for public intoxication as you can in any college town I've stayed in, as the differences in the laws are minor at best.

Personally, I did not like my time there. It seemed like the police trolled visitors for trouble more than any other place I've lived. I've yet to be asked "Where are you from?" by a cop since leaving Louisiana while it was a common occurrence while living there."

Hmm...I don't think you really got the NOLA experience....First, you spell it Mardi Gras, I'd have thought you'd have gotten that down if you'd been here during it. And second, calling it a mere street party, well, you certainly didn't experience what it really is I'd guess....

And it isn't like that is the only time we 'throw down' down here....let's put it this way, I'd heard years ago, that there are roughly 60+ festivals and the like in this area annually. There's only 52 weeks a year, so at some point you have to make some choices. There is a flavor and a completely different lifestyle and attitude down here....I guess you either love it or hate it, but, it is different from anywhere else I've ever lived. If you're a visitor here...and not acting like and ass, in general the locals will welcome you, and if you're lost or just asking where to eat (God help you if you happen to ask me, you'll get at least and hour diatribe on the places to go here plus the menus I have memorized), but, if you come and act an ass....well, just don't be a jerk. And for God's sake...don't smart off to the cops, say yessir, and try to get the hell away from trouble....jail here is not going to be any fun for you.

If you're in the Quarter, and intoxicated....I'd dare say you will get along much better and be tolerated farther than you would most anywhere else in the country....but, again, no excuse for acting a complete ass. As for asking where you're from...if you talk different than us, well, it is a tourist town, we're naturally curious.

Finally...yes..we do have most all of the same laws on behavior, intoxication, nudity..etc...but, if you're in the Quarter and all....a lot of behavior that would get you locked up in a heartbeat in another city will slide here...we like people to have fun, but, if you're out waving your dick in public (ok, even that seems to slide somewhat during Southern Decadence Festival on Labor Day weekend, whew..what a freak show), or starting to get violent, you're gonna get busted. But you really in general have to be really showing your ass (no pun intended) to get that treatment.

streaming music!

[doranb]

I don't know about shopping on Amazon, but oh how I'd love to listen to somaFM, WOXY, or Beyond the Beat Generation while I'm driving. Cuz the music broadcasters in LA choose is the suxors.

Re:streaming music!

[AKAImBatman]

The first thing I thought of wasn't music, though that's a very good point. I was thinking "in-car speakerphone" and "Skype". But maybe I'm just weird that way.

(And apparently quite goofy, considering I barely talk on my cell phone. Especially when in the car.) :-P

2010 news flash:

[Aussenseiter]

"Recent studies show that tailgating has increased over 170% near certain Chrysler vehicles."

Teen drivers will become a nightmare

[pwnies]

...when they all start checking their myspace while attempting to change lanes.

Do they really think this is a good idea?

Re:Teen drivers will become a nightmare

[Gyga]

I know a girl who checks myspace, facebook, email, and various other things and also IMs while driving. She is scary.

Re:Teen drivers will become a nightmare

[NothingMore]

Myspace?? What your really should fear is all the WoW raids that will now take place on the freeway....

Re:Teen drivers will become a nightmare

[Torvaun]

Road raids?

Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[2cute2kill]

Considering the amount of shaving, texting, make-up applying, eating, and calling that already goes on in vehicles during rush hour, I'm not sure this feature should even be legal.

Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[vux984]

Considering the amount of shaving, texting, make-up applying, eating, and calling that already goes on in vehicles during rush hour, I'm not sure this feature should even be legal.

Considering the amount of shaving, texting, make-up applying, eating, and calling that already goes on in vehicles during rush hour, I'm not sure anyone will notice the additional impact of this feature.

Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[mazarin5]

I'm not sure anyone will notice the additional impact of this feature. No pun intended, right?

Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[clarkkent09]

Shaving in the car while commuting? Hmm, great idea, that should save me some time in the morning. Thanks!

Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[cavis]

As a fireman, I responded to a car wreck a few years ago where a young woman was putting on makeup while driving (she did every morning), and she was late for work. She failed to make a turn, flipped the car, and left a husband and two young kids behind.

I agree with 2cute2kill - Do we really need to create yet another distraction in the car? Putting on makeup only takes a certain amount of time, yet you could drive and surf the web at the same time from LA to NYC (assuming coverage) with no restrictions.

A very bad idea.

Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[PopeRatzo]

I also smoke in my car.

Hell, back in the day, I could roll a joint, tune the radio and try to cop a feel from my girlfriend all without spilling a drop from the bottle of beer I was holding between my knees or shifting from my "Detroit lean".

During the winter, I'd do all of the above while doing donuts in the frozen Meigs Field parking lot. Those were the days when a Chicago cop would look the other way as long as you were white, polite and had a folded up twenty next to your drivers license. If you had the bad fortune to not be of European extraction, you could expect to end up in a tank with a bunch of very nasty folks, only after catching a severe beating from the extremely racist cops. And you'd better hope there were no open murder cases, or you could expect to be tortured until you confessed.

Life was so much simpler then. Now, if I so much as go through a yellow light I end up with a snapshot of myself in the mail along with a bill for $100. The cops will still let you slide, but not for anything less than a fifty. And since there is much more diversity in the Chicago halls of power, they have to be a lot more careful of who they beat.

Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[plantman-the-womb-st]

The point folks seem to be missing is that this is just a toy to help sell new cars. Seriously, I drive a 15 year old car that I give regular maintenance (not repairs) and has less than 150,000 miles on it. According to my mechanic, it should go another 100,000 easy. Given that it looks nearly exactly like the newer cars (curvy and bubble like), has side impact beams, air bags, all wheel drive and the like why would I buy something new? Especially when a new care in the same class would cost half a year salary and this one is paid for? No big advancements in safety features, no engineering break throughs in recent years, no real increase in gas milage (hybrids aside, mine gets about 35 per gallon). What would make me upgrade...

ZOMG! WIFI! oooohhh! OnStar! wow..... TOYS!

It's a gimic, no more no less. The fact that's it's a gimic that will get people killed is just icing.

Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need

[intheshelter]

I agree that it is tragic, but before we outlaw this new technology let's look at your example again. If we say that the new technology should be illegal should we also make makeup illegal in cars? I know you probably see lots of unnecessary accidents as a fireman, but the simple fact is we can't protect people from their own stupidity. Our over the top laws designed to protect the dumbest elements of society (no easy way to phrase that so I didn't try) is only breeding us towards extinction (a bit of hyperbole). Dumb people will continue to pee on electric fences, read while driving, try to mimic tv stuntmen by setting themselves on fire, etc. We need to quit limiting the rights of the 90% of responsible people just to protect the 10% of irresponsible/stupid people from themselves.

If mobile internet like this becomes prevalent I'm sure you'll see a tragic accident because of it, but the person would probably have found another way to hurt themselves anyway since they didn't apply any common sense.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

New meaning to "internet crashed"

[pwnies]

This will give new meaning to, "My internet connection crashed"

Re:New meaning to "internet crashed"

[GaryOlson]

Cry "cheetos!" and let slip the car analogies of slashdot.

If magnets were attached to Shakespeare's corpse and his casket was wound with copper wire, he would now be generating enough electricity to light his Globe theater.

synchronicity

[roc97007]

...that this article would appear just after "Children Concerned by Parents' Web Habits"...

Were I a kid in the back seat, I'd be terrified.

I'd rather just get where I'm going.

[pudding7]

That's why I ride a motorcycle. You can sit there in traffic for two hours surfing and shopping and viewing porn all you want. I'll be at home.

Of course, as soon as I get there I'll just be web surfing, shopping, and viewing porn. But at least I'll be at home.

Re:Yeah but it's a Chrysler

[roc97007]

I vote "making your commute even more suicidal" as the phrase of the day.

Too close for comfort, but not for signal...

[SuperKendall]

I know what brand of car I'll be tailgating from now on, laptop in hand! I can just see one now, struggling to get over to its exit with a knot of fifteen or so Priuses clustered too close to let it move.

Or instead of tailgating, perhaps I'll try to anticipate where the driver is going and maintain a short lead with my Pringles Can exhaust mod pointed square at it.

Re:Too close for comfort, but not for signal...

[Jherek Carnelian]

Obligatory XKCD:
http://www.xkcd.com/440/

Wow, it must be a bad idea...

[roc97007]

...if even geeks think it's stupid...

Another way to get yourself killed

[GroeFaZ]

1. Check www.darwinawards.com while driving
2. Drive off a 100m bridge
3. Irony!!

Missing the point

[cryfreedomlove]

Most of the posts I've seen here are short sighted because they only consider drivers doing what would normally be done at home in front of a computer.

Having a reliable internet connection will enable applications that we have not dreamed of yet but someone will. I'd like VOIP, using the car's built in microphone and speaker. How about a GPS system uses the IP connection to warn of upcoming traffic jams on the proposed route? How about setting the thermostat in your house when you are 30 miles away?

Come on people! Dream big!

Re:Missing the point

[ForestGrump]

These have already been implemented.

1. You can buy cars with integrated microphones and bluetooth. Just call through the cell phone. GM offers Onstar, which is like that but instead uses their network (and you get charged extra for the calls)

2. GPS systems can already get realtime traffic from satellite services such as XM and Sirius. There is also traffic information broadcast in FM freqs.

3. Call your kids and have them do it. That's what they are for.

real mobile access points...

[recharged95]

Wireless in a car should be more for infrastructure robustness than end user applications. More applications in a car that require user interaction (i.e. REST apps) is a recipe for disaster.

Then again, VOIP would be a killer app in a car.

Will a drivers surf history be evidence?

[pembo13]

Because if someone crashes into me, I would like to subpoena their cell phone and auto-internet records to see if they were doing something else instead of driving.

Re:Ugh.

[digital_rich]

I Googled Chrysler Z-Frame and found nada. Should I have Googled Chyselr?

depending on what time you drive

[commodoresloat]

KCRW is the answer. And at certain times KPFK has some great music shows as well. And KXLU is hit or miss....

Re:Yeah but it's a Chrysler

[value_added]

It's typical recently of American automakers to offer this kind of gimmicks instead of making decent quality cars.

I'm not sure it's a gimmick, but to the extent it is, I'm sure that Chryser will, in typical American automaker fashion, implement it badly.

That means owners will get probably end up with a square woodgrained plastic panel insert emblazoned with a metal "The Intarweb" logo (in a cursive script and painted to resemble chrome), that contains a few oversized cheap-ass rocker switches, only the one of which can be reached without leaning far out of your seat, and possibly some light indicators that glow too brightly at night. Luxury model owners can opt for a foot pedal switch, an extra steering column lever, or an in-dash touch screen that displays garishly coloured pie charts, columnar graphs that update every second.

In similarly typical fashion, the rest us will have to sit back and wonder why they just didn't buy a Honda.

Drivers are for driving

[glittalogik]

Isn't it obvious? This feature isn't for the driver to distract themselves, it's for your moms to lure you out of their basements and keep you distracted while they drive you to the countryside, boot you out of the car at the edge of the woods, and leave you to your own devices in a cloud of exhaust and smoking rubber. Your final Twitter message will be "Mom? Mom? I fell out, Wh&*(%#@*&($ ###NO CARRIER"

Cars should be hot spots

[geekoid]

I always thought putting wi-fi and repeaters in cars would be a great way to instigate a wi-fi mesh.

You could also use it as an 'Autonet' where cars could communicate information, and someone in car a in Tarzana, could communicate with car b i Huntington beach, and it never hit that internet. . . so to speak.

Dumb, dumber, senator

[Zombie]

Sen. Joe Simitian [...] introduced legislation prohibiting drivers from using any "mobile service device" [...] while driving.

I guess that description would include GPS navigation devices and the car radio ?

Re:On the one hand

[deraj123]

I'm buying/building a jammer, illegal or not. I'd rather not have J. Random Asshat trying to read his email or check his eBay auction at 60mph next to me. Cellphones are already too bad. I'll turn his stuff off. So...you'd rather have J. Random Asshat trying to troubleshoot why his connection isn't working at 60mph next to you?

Heres what i'd do

[anilg]

http://www.xkcd.com/440/