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You are your car
Up-to-the-minute news, analysis and observation.By Tim Greene Networking your car seems peripheral to SuperComm, but nevertheless was the topic of a talk this morning. Anthony Scott, the CTO of Information Systems and Services at General Motors, says so much information technology gear will be in your car soon that it may require everyone to authenticate to whatever vehicle you travel in. The advent of OnStar service linking your car to an operations center that monitors your location and the condition of the vehicle means the service will want to know who is in the car, too, in case of emergency. For instance, whenever an airbag deploys in an OnStar car, OnStar reports the deployment and the vehicle location to the local 911 agency. They'd also like to be able to tell the emergency personnel who is in the car and to describe their particular medical histories. Scott says that because these cars have global positioning equipment aboard, spouses have been calling up to find out where their husbands or wives are. So far, that is not a service OnStar offers, he says, but the same capability has enabled police to nab car thieves more quickly. Internet access is coming to cars soon, Scott says, and the automotive industry is trying to figure out how that can be done safely so drivers aren't distracted by browsing or live chat. The goal is to make the Internet available to passengers without creating a safety problem.
SuperComm 2002 Weblog Archives Contact Edge Managing Editor Jim Duffy Contact Senior Editor Tim Greene Apply for your free subscription to Network World. Click here. Send this article to a colleague
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