Michael,
As long as Allen continues to visit those backward locales that don't allow him to communicate with us(NYC?)we'll have to endure these long delays between posts--- or will we?
Perhaps when we're all as wealthy as WIND will make us we can chip in and get Allen one of these:
Internet car enters
superhighway
Published: May 2, 1997
BY MATT NAUMAN
Mercury News Auto Editor
Three times in recent days, I've been in ''the car of the future.'' A few
weeks back, it was a Buick LeSabre that steered itself around a parking
lot where magnets had been buried every few inches to create
something of a test track. That was, to say the least, an experience that
felt surreal, unnatural.
Before that, I was in a Cadillac Deville with General Motors' Onstar
system. Using computers, a cellular phone and a global positioning
satellite, Onstar enabled an operator in Michigan to lock and unlock the
car's door, honk the horn and flash the lights. For good measure, the
operator told me where the nearest ATM was, how far I was from the
hospital and even that I was parked in front of a tiny mom-and-pop
Japanese restaurant.
Big Brother? Oh, brother.
This week, as I sat in a silver Mercedes-Benz E420 in a Palo Alto
parking lot, I realized that driving as we know it is coming to an end.
Rather than start, stop or steer itself, or have its horn honked from afar,
this car offered a far scarier proposition: the ability to be in total contact
with the world, right here, right now and forever more.
A work in progress of the Daimler-Benz Research and Technology
Center, the car offers ``real-time'' Internet access. You might think that
means a chance to grab a stock quote or a sports score while you waste
time in traffic.
That's right but hardly grasps the big picture.
You can run a meeting, type a memo, finish a multimedia presentation.
You can send and get e-mail. With help from increasingly sophisticated
traffic sensors in the Bay Area, you can avoid construction, accidents
and other every day traffic snarls.
The system, which has one flat screen in front for the driver and front-seat
passenger, and two more in back, includes video games, a navigation
system, wireless headphones and a keyboard.
Electronic organizers or personal digital assistants are easily attached,
so you can bring work into the car and easily access phone numbers or
bookmarked Web addresses.
As demonstrated by Daimler-Benz engineers Akhtar Jameel and Axel
Fuchs, the car becomes another device, an appliance that enables you
to stay in contact in a seamless manner from office to car to home.
This Web-friendly car takes the concept of an office on wheels to its
ultimate conclusion.
Fuchs also demonstrated another Daimler-Benz project, a handheld
computer, called a personal travel companion, that includes a wireless
phone line. It allows someone to get up-to-the-minute traffic information,
train and plane schedules and even assists in route planning. Awaiting
the appropriate handheld PC, the system currently uses Sony's Magic
Link box. Traffic information comes from TravInfo, the Bay Area's new
traffic information system. All these things also will be accessible in the
car of the future.
Of course, tons of issues remain unsettled.
Cost: Will enough people ``need'' this technology to make it
cost-effective? And, sure, this might be affordable to the owner of a
$50,000 Mercedes, but what about someone in a $12,000 Ford Escort?
Paul Mehring, president and chief executive office of the research center,
wouldn't even guess what the system would cost. He did say that
Mercedes is giving serious study as to when and what car will be the first
to go online.
Technology: Daimler-Benz's demonstration car has all sorts of
off-the-shelf components, with a trunk and a rear shelf filled with
computers, modems and wires. The promise is that smaller, more
durable equipment is coming -- soon. Will it?
Safety: If cell phones and Big Macs constitute a road hazard, what are
the consequences of being able to call up a photo of the ``Baywatch''
guys and gals, or watching your high-tech portfolio fall 30 percent as you
drive?
Privacy. If another computer can unlock your doors, know your precise
location and see how fast you're going, wouldn't cyber-crooks or the
cops like this information, too?
Sanity. How much is enough? If 80-hour work weeks take their toll,
what about a world where there is absolutely no downtime? Zero?
Although many of these applications are five to 10 years from actually
appearing in a production car, the Daimler-Benz Webmobile shows the
company made a smart decision when it opened an office in the Silicon
Valley 18 months ago. This car reflects coordination with area firms such
as Fastline and Trimble.
Write Matt Nauman at the Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San
Jose, Calif. 95190. Or you can phone him at (408) 920-5701; fax him at
(408) 920-5917; or e-mail him at mnauman@sjmercury.com .
Mitch
PS: It's small wonder there are 30 chips in the Mercedes!! |
