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Transportation The Internet

A Third Of New Cellular Customers Last Quarter Were Cars (recode.net) 65

Posted by msmash from the connected-things dept.
Ina Fried, reporting for Recode: With the U.S. smartphone market saturated, most of the growth in the cellular industry is actually coming from other kinds of devices including tablets, machine-to-machine connections and lots and lots of cars. In the first quarter, for example, the major carriers actually added more connected cars (Editor's note: amounting to a 32 percent capture) as new accounts than they did phones.
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A Third Of New Cellular Customers Last Quarter Were Cars More

A Third Of New Cellular Customers Last Quarter Were Cars

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  • Don't use a cellphone while driving (Score:4, Funny)

    by penguinoid ( 724646 ) on Thursday May 26, 2016 @02:35PM (#52189923) Homepage Journal

    Don't those engineers know anything?

    • This is something I wanted for a while... a dedicated device number that maps to my car and not something I carry with me. If people want to reach me and think I'm driving, the car can ring and I don't have to set up Bluetooth. If somebody wants me to do something on the way home without bothering me during the workday, my car can carry the message when I get there.

      • This is something I wanted for a while... a dedicated device number that maps to my car and not something I carry with me. If people want to reach me and think I'm driving, the car can ring and I don't have to set up Bluetooth.

        That is not what these phones are for. You don't talk over them. They are for transmitting map info, traffic info, and software updates.

        • That's not a phone, that's a data connection. I've had a FM-connected traffic-displaying GPS for years now. It could change my route to avoid blockage, then I could tell the boss about who got stuck in the morning commute.

          • That's not a phone, that's a data connection.

            It is a device that connects to the cellular network, and transmits and receives data. This is also what a cell phone is.

    • Cell phone is safe when moved to the car radio position... you can't hand dial while driving, but you can voice dial without taking your hands of the wheel. Ideally, most of the car's controls should now be at the steering wheel, and the remainder within reach of your girlfriend.

      • Re:Don't use a cellphone while driving (Score:4, Funny)

        by cashman73 ( 855518 ) on Thursday May 26, 2016 @02:46PM (#52190059) Journal
        and the remainder within reach of your girlfriend.

        I think you are forgetting that this is Slashdot you're posting at.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        That's not supported by any studies. To the contrary, studies have found that cells phone reduce driving ability, hands free or not. Just like a couple/few beers. Mythbusters did a show on this. Cell phone cause thousands of deaths per year. Recognize that if you are on a cell phone you are putting your own and other lives in danger.

  • At least the article was short.
  • Unless the cars themselves are sapient, the headline should read "A Third Of New Cellular Connections Last Quarter Were Cars".

  • Every Parents' Worse Nightmare (Score:5, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Thursday May 26, 2016 @02:43PM (#52190027)
    They were allowed to drive themselves. Now they have cellphones. Won't be long before they're at the drive in, making out and having babies.

  • Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cashman73 ( 855518 ) on Thursday May 26, 2016 @02:43PM (#52190031) Journal
    My car automatically connects to my phone via Bluetooth every time I get in. I can listen to mp3 music over the car stereo, talk to someone via hands free, or even listen to pandora over the phone's LTE connection (though I have enough mp3s that I don't have to). I can even use the phone's GPS to tell me where I am and give me instructions through the car stereo on where I need to go. I don't need an extra monthly bill so that the car has its own connection. But capitalists love connected cars because the auto manufacturers can advertise the next generation "connected automobile" and the wireless companies get another monthly revenue stream. They're also hopeful on marketing this to parents so that they can have an internet connection available for their kids to watch Netflix or play games on long family trips instead of actually having to ***gasp*** socialize and interact with them.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 26, 2016 @02:52PM (#52190105)

      So the car can send telemetry data back to the manufacturers to let them know what you're doing to the car so they can reject warranty claims. (See the story about the Tesla that auto-drove into a truck.)

      I mean, to enable exciting new features like live updated maps and traffic in the in-car navigation system and things like in-car wifi! Totally not to constantly spy on you and everything you do!

      • That still doesn't make that much sense. They can send telemetry back through your Bluetooth-connected phone. Of course, if you never bother to connect a phone by Bluetooth, that would stymie their spying, so I guess building the cellular modem into the car helps prevent that, but then how do they keep people from refusing to pay the monthly cellular bill for it and just getting it disconnected by the carrier?

    • If I had a Tesla that could update itself (ludicrous speed!) over its data connection, I'd think that's awesome.

      • Many things are awesome in concept and suck in implementation. Many "update" systems for electronics, which now even includes cars, used to honor the concept of ownership, where the manufacturer listed changelogs and information about the updates and then the owner made the decision to update. Sometimes updates break things by accident, sometimes updates cripple things that used to work on purpose. Sometimes updates bring along unwanted "features". The owner should get to choose and also to control what the

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      They're also hopeful on marketing this to parents so that they can have an internet connection available for their kids to watch Netflix or play games on long family trips instead of actually having to ***gasp*** socialize and interact with them.

      Basically this. Look at any ad that shows a car having WiFi - it's all about your passengers updating their facebook or playing games while on the move, and kinds playing games or other entertainment/distraction for the family road trip.

    • Requiring their own SIMs is the least of the reasons not to buy a brand new car.

      Until the car makers get their act together and build firmware to aviation standards, I will stick with brake peddle attached to master cylinder, throttle cable, stick shift, thanks. Comes from growing up in 'car cancer' country and now living in CA. The old cars are great here, hack a cradle into the dash and I'm good to go.

      Those aviation standards will also likely set back 'automatic cars' a little. But so be it. It will

  • it ain't free, so (Score:3)

    by jabberw0k ( 62554 ) on Thursday May 26, 2016 @02:44PM (#52190041) Homepage Journal
    How much of that new car will be broken if I do not agree to pay maybe a thousand bucks a year extra for the privilege of being spied on by the friendsy overlords?

    • I know... here, buy this car for thousands of dollars... and, oh hey, bonus, you also get to pay $80/month to keep your car connected to the Internet... lucky you!

    • Re:it ain't free, so (Score:4, Informative)

      by HumanWiki ( 4493803 ) on Thursday May 26, 2016 @03:44PM (#52190579)

      For my car, a 2016 Camaro SS, there's little that will be broken. The only things you would lose are the ability to make/take call on the car's phone number, you can still pair your BT phone just fine as with most modern cars. If you bought the Nav system, that is independent and will function just fine, but you don't get Directions and Connections from OnStar anymore.

      Your XM channels and traffic are a fully separate thing you can choose to continue or not.

      Honestly outside of the remote diagnostics and the OnStar App functions, you don't lose much. (for me, anways).

    • I bought a used car in which the original cell subscription ran out. The only way to continue service was through the car company (which provides the service through T-Mobile) for, I think it was $30 per month or a lump sum of $450 for 3 years. It takes a T-Mobile sim card.

      I tried getting the $10 per month T-Mobile sim card, but it didn't function in the car.

      Since I am not up for paying that kind of money for the services, I didn't subscribe. If I ordered the service it provides:

      Google maps in the naviga

      • Or you could just use Ting, a T-Mobile reseller, and pay them $6/month (and your actual usage just adds to the rest of your Ting account, which works with both T-Mobile and Sprint devices).

        Of course, if the $10/month T-mo card doesn't work with it, Ting probably won't either. Just pointing out that there's a cheaper option available for T-mo devices.

  • I don't get it, why do they advertise "wow our car now has wifi onboard!!! Better than competition!!!" in TV and all?!? I mean, I have a 3G MiFi for something like 6 years now that I can take with me in the car for the family to have internet access, and I can even take it while we walk everywhere, and still have our tablet/phones connected to WiFi, all using only one data plan.

    Why having a $49 hotpot in a car became a sale point, is beyond me...

    • People are stupid. The key to success in life is separating stupid people from their money. Hopefully without breaking any laws, but at least, without getting caught.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sims 2 ( 994794 )

        Have you seen the ads for TV free-way?

        It's like some weird parallel universe where no one's ever seen a tv antenna before and somehow they were able to do the whole commercial without ever using the word "antenna".

  • My guess is that the connections are primarily for OnStar and other such services. I can't say I've looked, but don't most cars that come equipped with that have the service for free for the first year and then needs to be paid for after that? If so, I'd guess that the majority of these will be canceled after the first year. Or do those stay connected even if the owner does not renew the service?

    • I bought a 2016 Camaro SS earlier in the year, OnStar comes will Cellular minutes as a freebie (intro). I don't use the cell in my car, nor do I really like OnStar all that much. The OnStar module and related data channel may use the same signal back, but you don't have to have cell minutes for it to work. You do have to subscribe to the OnStar packages though for them to continue past your initial trail time.

      I just have my cell phone BT paired to my MyLink and it handles incoming and outgoing calls for me.

      • It's going to cost you a buck or two to get that all removed, but it can be done.

        • It's going to cost you a buck or two to get that all removed, but it can be done.

          I'm not going to remove any of it as it's all tightly integrated in to the control systems of the car. You can easily have it fully disabled by telling OnStar to kill it. The blue light will even turn red and they're very clear that it means 0 crash response and assistance, no remote diagnostics, no auto generated monthly vehicle status emails, etc.

          I've turned it off on my prior Corvettes and Camaros because I simply don't use or need it. I also Road Course and Drag Race, so I don't need it keeping track of

  • Doesn't this make the flatlining mobile sales look even worse?

  • So now even cars have better phones than I do? Flip, flip, flip...

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