Slashdot Mirror
MegaCar: Wireless Linux and Internet on the Road
peter royal writes
"MegaCar is a high-class Brabus 5.8 outfitted with a 153kbit/s wireless internet connection. It is 16 9.6kbit/s GSM modems in parallel, with a Linux box acting at the router."
Just when you thought you'd seen everything.
Second isn't so bad....
Ten minutes after post and it is not responding?
:-)
You don't suppose the web server is in the car?
I hope it does not crash
Great EFNet channels to use OfferCheck with and point-and-click download the latest software (usually for Windows).
The site mentioned in the article, MegaCar.com, has a notice that it requires Flash...and Java seems to be overly busy without visible results when I tried to enter the site. Tsk.
At last, a product for those people with more money than they know what to do with, who really feel the need to download online pornograpy while driving down the road...
Actually, the only use I can think of for this is to SEND a real-time video image of the scene passing by the front windshield to a server which would multicast it as streaming video. This would make for a really great webcam... but only when the car was actually being driven! Other possible use: videoconferencing. Any "pull" data could more easily be downloaded beforehand over an ethernet, and 9.6Kbits should be enough to keep it updated.
surfin www.cumgobblingsluts.com at 90mph ???
Hmmm... if the guy in the car alongside at the lights also had one, you could exchange low-resolution insults
without winding the window down.
...that's gonna take a bite out of the wallet.
On a technical note, I wonder if they have 16 antennas or if all the phones share a single antenna and if 16 cell phones can operate simultaneously packed that close together (Their xmitters might start overloading the other's receivers, esp if the antenna [aerial to you Brits] is shared).
www.tomshardware.com is running Apache/1.3.3 on FreeBSD
Some time ago, this article would fall under toys I can't afford dept., but now it's from the sign-me-up dept.. Isn't that a sign that free software ( and some Star Wars news ) might be a sucessfull investment? ;-)
Does the actual server really need to be in the car itself? Why not just have the car send whatever fresh info it wants to post to a land based server. Much cheaper solution. No hosting bandwidth to worry about. I can see no advantage of hosting from the car itself.
Can I buy a banner ad on the site. Will the ad appear on the side of the car in lights?
Now you can break the law in many jurisdictions!
So, according to the article, it sounds like the fellas at DataProtect did some kernel tweaking to make this work.
Since it's going to have to be covered under the GPL, where's the code?
I must have missed it. When I checked the MegaCar site, their PC specs said NT Server. They made no mention of Linux there. Where are they using Linux?
Check out this story (English) or this page (German) and think again...
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) will be offered as a commercial service probably within a year. GPRS will offer packet switched TCP/IP service via the GSM network, and will not be veery expensive to use as the solution used in this car, since you pay mainly for data traffic and not for keeping up 16 GSM connections as used here..
GPRS will be able to utilize free GSM channels and give up to 128 kbit/s performance via GSM. (And it will not congest the network, since the network provider can set policies/priorities on network traffic.)
Nils Ulltveit-Moe
The guy who paid for all this, Kim Schmitz, used to operate a warez BBS under the name of Kimble. He was notorious for selling the names and addresses of his users to a lawyer by the name of Gravenreuth, who worked for several game companies.
That bastard got DM 1000 for every successful bust, even though _he_ was the guy offering the warez in the first place!
Stay way clear of dataprotect, folks. This guy is an asshole and a poser.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
It's already happened.
Most phone manufacturers have their own GSM modems, for example, Ericsson have the DC29. I'm sure Nokia have their own too.
Matt. Want XML + Apache + Stylesheets? Get AxKit.
Definitely not cheap. The site quoted $300K for the total cost of the car. $90K for just the computer equipment. I guess the people who can afford the car don't need to worry about their online costs.
"For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and Long Words Bother Me"
Damn, beaten to the punch. Oh well I won't be the first, but I'll be one of the few with full-time internet in my car. Wish I had that kinda $$$. :)
http://www.bangsplat.org/autolinux
Been there, done that. C'mon. Using several channels to compound the network bandwidth has been available for Linux for several years now. I'd be surprised if it's not part of the standard kernel. The name of this technology escapes me presently, but should be documented in one of the net-howto's.
Serious security problems, potentially, a real can of worms.
Suddenly, the phrases "crash the server" and "Ping O' Death" rise to a grim new level of literal reality.
I bet your head still hurts from where your mother dropped you years ago.
Is it slashdotted already? I couldn't get in....
I can't get onto the site, so I can't confirm, but DAMN that has to be expensive. I priced GSM modems about a year ago, and they're 35 cents a minute BEYOND your normal cellular charge. x16, that's $8.00 a minute during prime time! An hour of internet access costs $240! Nutbag.
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
I've been trying to find an affordable GSM modem to no avail. I'm currious as to what kind of unit these guys are using. I wonder if it is one of these or this.
If anybody knows of some other GSM modems out there I'd love to hear about them. Any body ever get a Linux box to talk to a Nokia 2190?
Here in Auckland, NZ an ISP of sorts, KCBBS , supports a Wavelan connection locally up to a maximum of 15km. These cards apprently give you around 2mbps with the correct antennae. ;-)
This would be a far cheaper option if you didn't need it outside of the central business district.
Maybe they'll lend me a card to test this theory.
Imagine what the cost would be like using the Iridium connection. Yikes. Have to wait a couple of years
When shit hits the fan get some of these https://youtu.be/pY-GncsZ-UE
A stock S500 is $ 77,500 if my memory serves, so you're actually paying $ 132,500 to the engine/handling tuning folks. You could always do this on the "cheap" by getting the car for $ 77,500 and the hardware for $ 90,000, making a $ 167,500 vehicle. That's not nearly as bad as 295,000/300,000 (note how Tom and MegaCar have a rather petty $ 5 price difference).
If you wait, you'll probably get a discount on the car. I wouldn't count on that now, because the new S500 is looking to be a pretty hot car, but in six months to a year you should be able to find a Mercedes dealer willing to dicker.
You'll also have to wait for the traffic sensing cruise control, which automatically activates the brakes when it sees you coming too close to the car in front of you. With features like that, the S500 seems like an appropriate car to fit out.
I have pictures of the new S-Class (on which Megacar is based) at http://www.amazing.com/portfolio/auto-show/ .
D
----
The catch is the other end has to support your setup - either with a Linux box with 16 inputs, or with something like Livingston Portmaster 2e (as taken from the kernel help file for the driver). Read drivers/net/README.eql under the source tree for more details.
-- ultra1
yeah, they had to increase the engine capacity to 5.8l (stroker crank or rebore?) to provide enough power for the Pentiums ;-) I wonder if the 170mph top speed is with the damn peecees turned off?
-t.
one word:
Beowulf
*duck*
arvind rulez
Mega Weapon! Mega Weapon! Mega Weapon!
He the greatest!
. . . What?!? This whole thing isn't about Mega Weapon? Well, Mega Weapon is still cool! You can't take that away from him! He was the best character in "Warrior of the Lost World".
"Luncheon meats make the sawdust in your stomach explode."
Looks like you got the URL wrong. I found it at:
http://www.amazing.com/david/portfolio/auto-show/
~PanIc~
The PII System is running Linux as the router for the net connection. The main workstation (PIII 500) is running WinNT from what i've read.
~PanIc~
I wonder if they have any good anti-theft devices planned for this car. I'd hate to shell out the dough for this car then never see it again.
~PanIc~
There is Flash for Linux, isn't it?
You really should visit the site
http://www.megacar.com/
It's really cool.
Hey! Cool idea! With a little more ingenuity, you could come up with a way to actually control the car's major functions through a telnet session, look out the windshield with the streamed video connection, and drive your car from your desktop!
It's the wave of the future - you can drive anywhere you want, and never leave your desk!
*vroom*
Me:"Hey, this works pretty well!"
Realplayer: Net Congestion Detected, dropping framerate by 75.3 percent
Me:"Dang it!"
telnet> echo stop>/dev/engine
telnet> echo stomp>/dev/brakes
telnet> echo pull>/dev/emergencybrake
*SKREEEEEECH*
Connection lost.
--jwriney
John Riney
jwriney@awod.com
Well, look at it this way: a human driver would cost less per hour than using the GSM system itself (estimated at $240/hour by another /. reader) *grin*
Methinks someone who can afford this has a driver, no doubt about it. Besides, regulations would never allow the driver to be distracted this way. For example, the article mentions that the video screens can only be viewed from the backseats.
Actually, some people here (NL) got a ticket for 'reckless driving' because they were talking on their mobile phones without a handsfree set; instead they squeezing the phone between their shoulder and their head, which doesn't steer very well...
"Fix it? It has been disintegrated, by definition it cannot be fixed!" - Gru in Despicable Me.
Yet another development that's going to cause people to crash into trees.
--
Beef
"Raging Moderate" of the
Sweet
--
InstantCool
My thoughts exactly. He would eat up almost all the resources on a 3 radio site if there was no other traffic, let alone try to start the thing up during rush hour. Sounds like a nice little denial of service attack to me.
what's next a dog with an sco unix server around
neck ?
a cat with a RAID server at his 19" industrial
server/food rack ?
;)
--hacketti
- http://www.penguin.nl - if you can't beat them,
Wow. 16 modems?
;)
I work for a GSM provider. If we had one of these suckers driving around, he'd congest our network as soon as he fliped it on.
The only way he'd be able to get all 16 up and running all at the same time is at night in the down town area.
Not to say that this isn't really cool.
Although I think only two of them are used by the GSM modems. There's some sort of GSM booster box thingie replacing the spare tire that makes this possible.
Here's one impementation which has cruise control, infra-red remote control for central locking,
smart burglar alarm and air conditioner control done with one Motorola 68HC11 Microcontroller with internal EEPROM. Although MP3-player is missing..
Ville
Hi Linux Folx,
i developed MEGACAR with my "dataprotect.com" team.
Megacar was the MEGA-CEBIT-SUCCESS for us with over 20 sold cars. Now we are searching for good programmers and linux (unix) experts to help us making megacar even better.
My Company is going public next year and we have nice jobs and a stockoptionplan to offer. Please mail me at kim@dataprotect.com if interested.
by the way, who is "gravenreuth" ???
thx for the interest for megacar on this forum.
ciao
kim