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Chrysler To Offer Wireless Internet In 2009 Models
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Jun 25, 2008 06:11 PM
sunny in Seattle writes "'Have you ever thought rush hour on the 405 Freeway might be more bearable if you could check your e-mail, shop for a book on Amazon, place some bids on EBay and maybe even, if nobody is looking, download a little porn? Then perhaps you should be driving a Chrysler.' LA Times reports that the nation's third-largest automaker is set to announce Thursday that it's making wireless Internet an option on all its 2009 models. The mobile hotspot, called UConnect Web, would be the first such technology from any automaker."
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wardriving (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:wardriving (Score:5, Funny)
Nope. From TFA:
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Re:wardriving (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:wardriving (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Tag (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, I dunno about other places....but, in New Orleans, maybe LA in general, don't get caught watching porn in the car where it can be seen by others outside your vehicle, or you'll get busted. They put that law into effect a few years back.
Re:Tag (Score:5, Funny)
Because that was the number one problem plaguing the good people of New Orleans?
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Re:Tag (Score:4, Funny)
Appearently. Porn is dangerous stuff.~
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Re:Tag (Score:5, Informative)
No..I think it had to do with things that happened during some of the 'fests' that happen down here...that in traffic coming into the city, that some big SUV's that had lots of screens that were playing some hardcore stuff while in traffic, well other cars that had kids in them were seeing what was going on pretty clear in the cars. I think it blew some parents' minds.
They're pretty lenient what goes on in the Quarter, but, outside of that and the surburbs coming into the city, well there are normal families living normal lives and they don't put up with stuff like they'll allow in the Quarter. I remember driving downtown a few years ago with all the traffic coming in for the Essence festival, and you saw that type of thing happen a LOT. I saw many cars decked out with screens playing porn. Not that it bothers me, but, I saw that this wasn't an isolated incident.
We're a party city, but, there is a place and time for different behaviors...and while a lot goes on ok...not everything goes.
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Re:Tag (Score:5, Interesting)
So...what's your point?
We also sell alcohol (beer, wine and liquor) 7 days a week, we have 'to go cups' at bars and restaurants so you can take your drink to go (I really miss that in other cities, you have to chug your last drink before you leave), and sales of booze aren't only in liquor stores...you can buy all 3 at grocery stores, convenience stores...etc.
It is kind of nice to be treated like an adult to have the choice to drink responsibly...key word there being personal choice. If you get busted driving drunk, it is as bad as anywhere else in the country. I personally feel the new DWI blood alcohol levels are too low at .08....it should have stayed at the old levels...but, that's a different soapbox.
Anyway, I'd dare say down here alcohol is a part of life much like it is in other parts of the world....no big deal. Most of the people that really overbinge and all are the visitors here who go apeshit seeing how liberal it is here with the drinking laws...and they're just not used to not having the govt. tell them how to regulate themselves in a more permissive environment.
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Most of the people that really overbinge and all are the visitors here who go apeshit seeing how liberal it is here with the drinking laws...and they're just not used to not having the govt. tell them how to regulate themselves in a more permissive environment.
Considering Marti Gras isn't the only street party in the USA, I'd be willing to suggest the people going apeshit have less to do with the government sheltering them than they are doing it for the same reasons they do in Panama City, used to do in Atlanta during Freaknic, and many other places. They are out of town, young, and are going to "blow it out" regardless of what the local laws are. You can get picked up just as quickly in New Orleans for public intoxication as you can in any college town I've st
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streaming music! (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know about shopping on Amazon, but oh how I'd love to listen to somaFM, WOXY, or Beyond the Beat Generation while I'm driving. Cuz the music broadcasters in LA choose is the suxors.
depending on what time you drive (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The first thing I thought of wasn't music, though that's a very good point. I was thinking "in-car speakerphone" and "Skype". But maybe I'm just weird that way.
(And apparently quite goofy, considering I barely talk on my cell phone. Especially when in the car.) :-P
2010 news flash: (Score:5, Funny)
On the one hand (Score:2)
I've dealt with i-405 and I know I'd prefer to hang out in my car with a Wifi connection and wait two hours until the traffic dies down.
On the other, people who honestly think they can READ E-MAIL on the road are nuts. Even when the average speed is below 15mph, you're just asking for a fender bender.
So my feelings are mixed. I would enjoy a car with his gear onboard rather than a mickeymouse laptop solution, but most of the world are idiots.
Re:On the one hand (Score:5, Funny)
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Teen drivers will become a nightmare (Score:5, Insightful)
Do they really think this is a good idea?
Re:Teen drivers will become a nightmare (Score:4, Funny)
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Actually, this provides a great opportunity in interface design. Computers have had a very little foot print on the inside of a car, outside of GPS. Equipping a car with the ability to access the internet opens up a whole new sector for specialized computer electronics. The real key will be designing an interface that is easy to use from behind the wheel. I wonder if Microsoft Sync will begin to take advantage of this?
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Re:Teen drivers will become a nightmare (Score:4, Funny)
Road raids?
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Web surfing drivers...just what we need (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need (Score:5, Funny)
Considering the amount of shaving, texting, make-up applying, eating, and calling that already goes on in vehicles during rush hour, I'm not sure this feature should even be legal.
Considering the amount of shaving, texting, make-up applying, eating, and calling that already goes on in vehicles during rush hour, I'm not sure anyone will notice the additional impact of this feature.
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Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need (Score:5, Funny)
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Hell, back in the day, I could roll a joint, tune the radio and try to cop a feel from my girlfriend all without spilling a drop from the bottle of beer I was holding between my knees or shifting from my "Detroit lean".
During the winter, I'd do all of the above while doing donuts in the frozen Meigs Field parking lot. Those were the days when a Chicago cop would look the other way as long as you were white, polite and had a folded up twenty next to your drivers license. If you had t
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Re:Web surfing drivers...just what we need (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with 2cute2kill - Do we really need to create yet another distraction in the car? Putting on makeup only takes a certain amount of time, yet you could drive and surf the web at the same time from LA to NYC (assuming coverage) with no restrictions.
A very bad idea.
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Great, one more distraction... (Score:2, Funny)
Why have an accident while talking on your your cellphone at the wheel, when you could be enjoying an accident while watching porn on the web?
Oh, the advances in vehicle technology will never cease to amaze me...!
That being said, I'm still waiting for my affordable, highway-ready electric car.
New meaning to "internet crashed" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:New meaning to "internet crashed" (Score:5, Funny)
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synchronicity (Score:4, Insightful)
Were I a kid in the back seat, I'd be terrified.
I'd rather just get where I'm going. (Score:5, Funny)
That's why I ride a motorcycle. You can sit there in traffic for two hours surfing and shopping and viewing porn all you want. I'll be at home.
Of course, as soon as I get there I'll just be web surfing, shopping, and viewing porn. But at least I'll be at home.
Too close for comfort, but not for signal... (Score:5, Interesting)
I know what brand of car I'll be tailgating from now on, laptop in hand! I can just see one now, struggling to get over to its exit with a knot of fifteen or so Priuses clustered too close to let it move.
Or instead of tailgating, perhaps I'll try to anticipate where the driver is going and maintain a short lead with my Pringles Can exhaust mod pointed square at it.
Re:Too close for comfort, but not for signal... (Score:4, Funny)
Obligatory XKCD:
http://www.xkcd.com/440/ [xkcd.com]
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Wow, it must be a bad idea... (Score:5, Insightful)
Another way to get yourself killed (Score:5, Funny)
2. Drive off a 100m bridge
3. Irony!!
Missing the point (Score:5, Insightful)
Having a reliable internet connection will enable applications that we have not dreamed of yet but someone will. I'd like VOIP, using the car's built in microphone and speaker. How about a GPS system uses the IP connection to warn of upcoming traffic jams on the proposed route? How about setting the thermostat in your house when you are 30 miles away?
Come on people! Dream big!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
These have already been implemented.
1. You can buy cars with integrated microphones and bluetooth. Just call through the cell phone. GM offers Onstar, which is like that but instead uses their network (and you get charged extra for the calls)
2. GPS systems can already get realtime traffic from satellite services such as XM and Sirius. There is also traffic information broadcast in FM freqs.
3. Call your kids and have them do it. That's what they are for.
real mobile access points... (Score:4, Insightful)
Wireless in a car should be more for infrastructure robustness than end user applications. More applications in a car that require user interaction (i.e. REST apps) is a recipe for disaster.
Then again, VOIP would be a killer app in a car.
Will a drivers surf history be evidence? (Score:5, Insightful)
Drivers are for driving (Score:5, Funny)
Isn't it obvious? This feature isn't for the driver to distract themselves, it's for your moms to lure you out of their basements and keep you distracted while they drive you to the countryside, boot you out of the car at the edge of the woods, and leave you to your own devices in a cloud of exhaust and smoking rubber. Your final Twitter message will be "Mom? Mom? I fell out, Wh&*(%#@*&($ ###NO CARRIER"
Cars should be hot spots (Score:3, Interesting)
I always thought putting wi-fi and repeaters in cars would be a great way to instigate a wi-fi mesh.
You could also use it as an 'Autonet' where cars could communicate information, and someone in car a in Tarzana, could communicate with car b i Huntington beach, and it never hit that internet. . . so to speak.
Dumb, dumber, senator (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess that description would include GPS navigation devices and the car radio ?
Re:Yeah but it's a Chrysler (Score:5, Informative)
It's typical recently of American automakers to offer this kind of gimmicks instead of making decent quality cars.
I'm not sure it's a gimmick, but to the extent it is, I'm sure that Chryser will, in typical American automaker fashion, implement it badly.
That means owners will get probably end up with a square woodgrained plastic panel insert emblazoned with a metal "The Intarweb" logo (in a cursive script and painted to resemble chrome), that contains a few oversized cheap-ass rocker switches, only the one of which can be reached without leaning far out of your seat, and possibly some light indicators that glow too brightly at night. Luxury model owners can opt for a foot pedal switch, an extra steering column lever, or an in-dash touch screen that displays garishly coloured pie charts, columnar graphs that update every second.
In similarly typical fashion, the rest us will have to sit back and wonder why they just didn't buy a Honda.
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