This information comes from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Apparently Sprint is working with at least one car manufacturer (a USA car company) to provide a CarPC as a factory option. Sprint is seeing fierce completion in the traditional cell phone marketplace so the company is looking for ways to expand the product line.

One new product they are considering is a car-based system that includes cellular service, GPS function, Internet, and email; and it’s wrapped into a fully-functional CarPC by the car manufacturer as a factory installed option.

Think of it as OnStar… on steroids.

--Spike

 

Interesting. I cringe at the thought of how many things they could implement into this, though, that imposes on personal privacy. Such as, knowing when you speed, knowing where you are, knowing is you're wearing your seatbelt, etc.


Sad thing is, they're looking into this to get into a new market. Once they do this, other companies will jump on quickly.

 

^ Excellent point. Hmm, then again the Iphone is remarkably close to achieving all this as well, with their GPS and pretty soon with their "My Locator", I believe is called. It would be a natural progression to add a PC to a vehicle, being the a vehicle is a neccesary asset in today's way of life.

 

^^ You guys are correct,

It won’t be heavily “featured,” but the CarPC will have a “flight recorder box” that records everything (average speed, speed before a crash, car maintenance intervals/records, engine abuse, etc.). The idea is that it will be good for the owner and the car company.

The “Goody” Prius market will love this, but I wonder if a sports car owner considers this a good thing.

--Spike

 

Hell no!

 

^^ What if I told you it was free? (That is under consideration, but only for the device/option package and not the monthly contract).

--Spike