The Grid, Our Cars, and the Net

Wired is running a piece on the big idea of Robin Chase — the founder of Zipcar — that we need to build our smart power grid on open standards and include cars as nodes in a mesh network. "'Today in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and tanks and airplanes are running around using mesh networks,' said Chase. 'It works, it's secure, it's robust. If a node or device disappears, the network just reroutes the data.' And, perhaps most important, it's in motion. ... Build a smart electrical grid that uses Internet protocols and puts a mesh network device in every structure that has an electric meter. Sweep out the half dozen networks in our cars and replace them with an open, Internet-based platform. Add a mesh router. A nationwide mesh cloud will form, linking vehicles that can connect with one another and with the rest of the network. It's cooperative gain gone national, gone mobile, gone open."

Comments

Re:One thing of note

[Anonymous Coward]

And why you'd mount it on a car, I'm not sure: the car itself doesn't have too much data to transmit

Some ideas:

• car in front to the car behind: I hit the breaks, and am coming to a sudden halt. Break now, or you'll hit me;
• car behind to car in front: I'm accelerating and taking you over. Don't change lanes;
• car to other cars on the road: my tires lost grip at [GPS coordinates]. Forward to other cars that road is slippery there;
• car to the police: I've been in an accident at [GPS coordinates]. My driver's vital signs are fluctuating.

And for some privacy nightmare:

• I think my driver is drunk. I'd better call the cops