Stuck in a traffic jam and really hoping you could update your Facebook page? You soon may be able to in a Chrysler. The No. 3 of the Big Three U.S. automakers will announce a wireless Internet-access option for all 2009 models on Thursday, according to various media reports. Costs of the option — called UConnect Web — and service subscriptions have not been finalized, according to Wired magazine and the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a notion of always wanting to be connected wherever you are,” Scott Slagle, Chrysler’s senior manager of global marketing strategy, tells the L.A. Times. “There’s a demand for that.”
The cars will receive 3G cellular broadband signals, then route them to any Wi-Fi enabled devices in or around the vehicle. Traffic-safety advocates are less than enthused. “Stop already!” Russ Rader of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety told the Times. “Clearly this is a problem. Our cars are becoming just another place to catch up on calls and now e-mail, and that’s a real safety problem.” It remains to be seen which models will get UConnect and what it will cost. Chrysler says it will be competitive with laptop wireless cards, and customers won’t be tied to long contracts.
1 comment:
Awesome! I've been keenly interested in this new emerging technology since I've first watched it on foxnews channel. I'm seeing a great potential for this technology which can probably drive Chrysler's sales for 2009. Also, I'm predicting this will be the trend and most other car companies will follow suit and would not dare leave themselves behind on this.
I'm carefully watching the developments from here on and I've actually started a blog dedicated to this as well. It is uconnectwebsite.
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