Cars

Do We Need 4G In Our Cars?

Audi and Alcatel recently demoed a 2011 Audi A8 with 4G. Seriously. They drove around and video conferenced with people in other cars to show off their crisp and mobile LTE connection (they got 30Mbps, real users can expect 5Mbps) that undoubtedly delivered clean video. Cool, I guess, but it begs the question: What the heck is 4G doing in our cars anyway?

Would you guys want a car with 4G? My thinking is that though it’d be nice to fall back on internet in your car (and its ability to hotspot other devices), car interfaces aren’t exactly known for friendly user experiences. Shoddy UI is shoddy UI even if you add four gees. But! If the 4G came with no monthly fees, than I could probably be talked into it. Smartphones are our everything device, having other internet connected devices at our disposal lessens their load. But but! What would we use the 4G for? Facebook status updates? Google Earth? Would we really video conference?

So what do you guys think? Do we need 4G in our cars? Or is it a far and off luxury that would just clog up the pipes and wouldn’t really be used?

Discuss

(5 Comments)
  • [–]

    The Flash

    Friday, February 18, 2011 at 1:22 PM

    Streaming music from (dare I say…) “the Cloud” to your car would be a cool way to use it. I’m sure there’s lots of other uses… grabbing a file here or there and then copying onto a USB key in the car… etc…

    Reply
  • [–]

    hugh

    Friday, February 18, 2011 at 1:29 PM

    I think it could really come into its own with the GenIVI project with people like BMW and GM adapting MeeGo for in car systems. i can see it taking off with cloud music servers streaming your playlists to the stereo sans iPod. The other thing would be to get you emails and if there was an address in the email Google maps could read it and point you in the right direction avoiding the traffic with crowd sourced information. But i think 4G could be a bit of over kill 3G would probable be good enough, but petrol head like computer geeks like everything to be faster.

    Reply
  • [–]

    Jables

    Friday, February 18, 2011 at 2:51 PM

    Surely it’s a foregone conclusion.
    A logical progression if you will.
    It’s the next step for mobile internet and cloud storage.
    Or am I living in Jetson world?

    Reply
  • [–]

    Cam

    Friday, February 18, 2011 at 3:08 PM

    I can see it being useful. Whether you need a separate device in the car to do it (rather than just piggy-backing on to your smartphones connection) is another question:
    - Realtime GPS (no more map updates!). This would be the biggest thing for me.
    - Diagnostics of the car back to service (cue big brother conspiracies) and customer assistance from the dealership
    - Hotspot for kids entertainment

    Just look at a lot of other inclusions in cars these days and a lot of it is for comfort more than any other need.

    Reply
  • [–]

    Corteks

    Friday, February 18, 2011 at 4:41 PM

    Video conferencing would be perfect for traveling in convoys.

    Reply

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