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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."
Kind of defeats the point of wardriving though doesn't it.
If ever there was a time for the "whatcouldpossiblegowrong" tag, this is it.
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.
"Recent studies show that tailgating has increased over 170% near certain Chrysler vehicles."
...when they all start checking their myspace while attempting to change lanes.
Do they really think this is a good idea?
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.
This will give new meaning to, "My internet connection crashed"
Were I a kid in the back seat, I'd be terrified.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
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.
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.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
1. Check www.darwinawards.com while driving
2. Drive off a 100m bridge
3. Irony!!
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
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!
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.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
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.
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"
I guess that description would include GPS navigation devices and the car radio ?