New cars will be mobile wireless Internet hotspots
California's Legislature is going to have to learn to move a whole lot faster if it ever hopes to keep up with technology. Take the hands-free cell-phone law. By the time this clumsy Godzilla of an organization could actually go through its committees, its testimonies, its studies, its hearings, and on and on, then wheel-and-deal and then actually agree on the language, talking on the cell phone was less problematic than texting on the cell phone.
OK, so the lawmakers had to get something on the books to account for all the time they spent on this or they'd really look like losers. So they passed the law anyway, even with this monster loophole. The lawmakers say they'll fix it later, when they can agree on the texting language.
Well, they might as well just take a nap because an Associated Press story said that Chrysler announced recently that people who buy Chrysler LLC vehicles next year will have the option of turning their cars and trucks into wireless Internet hotspots. OK, probably I'm misunderstanding something that makes sense to everyone else, but it sounds to me like drivers will be able to coordinate a three-day convention for 5,000 lacrosse coaches while flying down Freeway 99 at 70 mph. But making lunch plans with your sister on a hand-held phone? Hey, the cops will nail you for that.
Here's the story on the Chryslers:
The feature will be available as part of its "uconnect" system that will debut in most 2009 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models. The wireless Internet will come as a dealer-installed option and will work over cellular telephone links. It will come with a monthly fee which has not yet been determined, spokesman Todd Goyer said.Goyer said people will be able to use laptop computers in their cars and trucks just as if they were in an office or home. To access the Internet, vehicles will need to have "uconnect" hardware, which Chrysler will unveil to compete with Ford's "Sync" and other in-car electronic systems. The uconnect system will link cellular telephones and personal music players to the car's onboard electronics, with the ability to control an Apple iPod with radio and steering wheel controls. The system also has navigation and real-time traffic features, controlled by voice recognition or a touch screen.
It also includes the company's in-car 30-gigabyte hard drive, with options for three-channel satellite television service and satellite radio.
Goyer said the wireless system will work while vehicles are moving so they can be used by passengers.
Passengers, right. What percentage of the cars you see on the road have passengers?
Comments
I am sure there are stupid people that would try that while driving. I think it would be great for the passengers on a roadtrip but I dion't really care for Chryslers.
Posted by: Jackie Krage | July 3, 2008 9:33 PM
Guess who is coming to dinner. It's the Jetsons, from that kid's sci-fi show of yesteryear. What little I remember of it, those cartoon characters never
had any accidents in that fantastic futuristic world. Besides, TV blood is harmless to life and limb.
Cause and Effect: President Calvin Coolidge, favored the laissez-faire (hands off by government) policy toward business. "After all the chief business of the
American people is business..." (1925 before the American Society of Newspaper Editors.)
It was Coolidge (or Bush? they seem to be interchangeable) who set the stage for economic disaster, not President Herbert Hoover, who is erroneously blamed for
the "Great Depression" which spread across Europe as well. The stock market crash was in 1929, the year Herbert Hoover became President.
Here we have a highly industrialized Nation, population about 300 millions. A form of government whose constitution guarantees the people the power to build a Utopia.
Now, Chrysler corporation seems to embark on the venture of manufacturing
the means for computer age reality highway carnage. For profit!
Look at us...Utopia we ain't! What a waste of voix populi!!!! And around the world people are languishing in prisons, dying, fighting to have a voice.
Posted by: Isabell Lawson | July 4, 2008 11:06 AM
The answer to not using the web while driving should work like our GPS. GPS programming has to be done while the car is in the stand still position. Not texting while driving should require someone with a brain that works behind the wheel. But, I guess there is no law and can be no law against driving while stupid.
Dolores
Posted by: Dolores Armo | July 10, 2008 12:59 PM
Dolores Armo made the astute observation that there can be no law against
driving while stupid.
We, 30 girls drove our math. prof up the wall.
"Ladies" he said "if stupidity were painful you would be screaming all day long.
Posted by: Isabell Lawson | July 10, 2008 5:47 PM