With ubiquitous computing becoming the necessity of life and internet a life line, things have started getting connected. Global village termed the connection and communication between people on diversified longi-latitudes of the map, but it’s time for the daily used objects of ours to get connected to the internet.
After cellular phones and tablets, it is cars which are now being caught into the “net”. The development is expected to revolutionize not only the way we drive but economics of the automobile business as well.
Five percent of the cars these days, by which we mean the newly manufactured ones, are already connected to the internet. But the day isn’t too far when all the cars will be connected, we’ll receive call
s in case of accidents and mishaps, traffic reports and entertainment for the passengers at the back and much more.
Recently general motors’ Cadillac unit unveiled Cue, a luxury car model to appear in 2012. In addition to the features already present in some of the models, Cue offers an 8-inch touch screen for displaying maps, climate control, text messaging and a lot more. To facilitate the drivers, a smartphone could be plugged in to have the texts read aloud. Ford along with some of the features stated above is inculcating the one to facilitate drivers to find the nearest charge station.
Along with advancement of utility features, cars business will experience a boom as well. The questions businessmen would be facing will be: shall the consumer be charged more or as done by the cellular phone companies, discounted in exchange of service packages?? The idea of fetching a good price for engine diagnostics which could schedule the service plans for cars to visit the service stations. Can cell phones and cars be integrated to enable drivers to have real time maps of traffic conditions??..
It’s not only the cars being planned about to be inculcated into the network, but AT&T are working with the manufacturers of tractors, cranes and other automobiles. For instance, with tractors, they have enabled wireless monitoring of engines data, with cranes, the connectivity keeps people informed when the goods are loaded and unloaded etc.
Most of these projects are multi million dollars ventures. The challenges now being faced by the computer companies is to repurpose already existing products to work in new environments such as ipads and Tablets.
Apple, Samsung and other innovative companies have a chance here to embellish there already proven mark.
