A Wireless Hotspot For Your Car — Why Not?

nk497 writes "UK mobile operator 3 has unveiled a wireless hotspot for cars. It's essentially a repackaged version of their MiFi wireless router, which lets users create their own wireless hotspot using the 3G network. While drivers will hopefully steer away from using the web at the wheel, 3 predicts the mobile hotspot will let passengers entertain themselves as well as offer a hookup to email, music and traffic data."

Comments

Car hotspot?

[YrWrstNtmr]

Not 'Why not?', but rather 'Why?'

Re:Car hotspot?

[eln]

If you've got people at your beach party asking where they can go to check their email, you're doing it wrong.

Re:Car hotspot?

[Monkeedude1212]

Hey, don't knock on us if we want to have a beach lan party.

Re:Car hotspot?

[Monkeedude1212]

Minnesota has that effect on people.

Re:Car hotspot?

[AvitarX]

Yeah, because pandora would be useless in a car only occupied by the driver.

This is not marginal, it is good that a non-manufacturer is working on this, as however much they charge, it's gonna be less than GM would for the same thing. Once internet in car becomes available like that, things will start to take advantage of it. Something like a iPad, or an Android device would be great to have instead of a stereo in a car. Just a flat screen 5-9 inches where my disk changer is. I wouldn't even need to look at it while driving to gain immense value.

GPS navigation, Radio, MP3 Player, Traffic alerts, AND passengers would be able to use internet too.

I hope this catches on, because I would line up as a sucker in no time. Though hopefully less than $60/month, as I won't be hitting it that hard (unless an hour or two of radio is what they consider a lot).

Re:Car hotspot?

[zach_the_lizard]

Then the carrier is probably going to be angry that they went over the unadvertised bandwidth caps, charge them more, and cut them off.

Re:Car hotspot?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why you ask?

Because I'm rarely outside of wifi distance from my or my wife's car.
Because my car has it's own battery and backup generator.
Because I want to access my car's door locks, alarm system, etc.. directly without paying a 3rd party like On-Star.
Because I want to connect my car to my home automation for too many new capabilities to list.

But most importantly.... Because it's cool!

Sign me up

[quantumplacet]

will work great with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Office-WM-01-Laptop-Steering/dp/B000IZGIA8/ref=pd_sim_auto_1

Re:Sign me up

[FooAtWFU]

Which people like to make fun of, but it can be handy to have a desk in your car that you use while parked when you have a few minutes and don't have a coffee shop or something nearby to step into.

Re:Sign me up

[__aasqbs9791]

It can even be more handy while you're driving. I mean, trying to hold the laptop with one hand, while typing with the other and steering with one knee while using the other to shift gears is such a pain in the ass!

Re:Sign me up

[Shakrai]

It's also handy for keeping track of your beer cans and half smoked bowls of weed too ;)

What's the difference between a stoned driver and a drunk driver? A drunk driver blows through the stop sign without even slowing down. The stoned driver stops at the stop sign and waits for it to turn green.

O goody

[DeadDecoy]

Now I can look forward to people driving and twittering and emailing and watching youtube. On second thought, the resulting mayhem might be fun to put on youtube. It has a sort of Escher-esc appeal to you it. Jackass recorded on youtube crashing while watching youtube.

Re:O goody

[Angst Badger]

I foresee people getting rear-ended because the idiot behind them was tailgating to get a better signal off their unsecured AP. It'll give "wardriving" a whole new meaning.

Re:O goody

[EdIII]

Already happened to me... in a way.

Was driving with across the US with a buddy on my laptop with a Verizon Wireless EVDO card. We decided to test it by entering a $150 dollar online poker tournament and we were doing very very well... until the signal went out.

I could have made a u-turn and went back to good signal, but that would have defeated the spirit of the test. So I sped up to about 105 mph. Right when we got back into the tournament (only lost about 10-15 hands) I looked up and noticed the state trooper behind us.

He had been following with his lights on for about 10 minutes.

To add insult to injury, the dipshit next to me went all in with 22's against a bigger stack while I was explaining to the state trooper that I was just tired and concentrating on the road in front of me.

Net Loss: $325

So yeah, there could be some distractions with a 3g/4g network available in the car.

Dodge

[captaindomon]

This has been available for a year and a half or so on Dodge vehicles as an option: http://www.dodge.com/en/2009/ram_1500/innovations/uconnect/

Re:Dodge

[oldspewey]

Yeah, but this means you have to drive a Dodge.

I need a bigger boat

[maxrate]

I've been waiting for the day where I can finally congest a road and a 3G network simultaneously!

Does this mean

[British]

Will people be moving their houses around parking lots to scan for open Wifi spots?

Re:Does this mean

[catbertscousin]

What the - my car battery is dead for the third time this week?? Man, I gotta change my MiFi password again. I guess "cowboynealzcar" just won't do it.