The car of tomorrow, always connected

Among the many scenarios made possible through the increased number of connected devices, there is one situation which lot of people dream about – the car. The car isn’t just a way of moving from point A to point B, with it also becoming a place where connected electronic gadgets are allowing the driver to interact with a world of useful real time information, in addition to entertainment options for the passengers.

Over the last few years, automobile manufacturers have been redefining interaction methods between vehicles and humans through the use of impressive onboard systems.

Bidirectional information exchanges
Having said this, an essential piece of the puzzle was still missing which meant that cars couldn’t quite replicate the home environment; access to the internet. With improved 3G coverage and improved mobile speeds, in addition to progress made with the development of electronic devices which allow for the creation of modems compatible with the automobile environment (miniaturisation, low energy use, sensitivity, resistant to certain constraints...), implementation into this setting is now a reality, at least in top of the line vehicles.

A time where we can imagine a vehicle acting as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot is not so far away, providing access to a range of content for all passengers and up to date information for the driver.

The evolution has already begun with connected PND’s (Personal Navigation Devices) and GPS Smartphone’s capable of providing traffic info, weather information or points of interest in proximity thanks to the integration of cellular modems. But these remain devices external to the vehicle for which you have to often create ineffective gateways to the onboard system (use of cables, FM transmitters, etc).

The future will instead have the modem directly integrated into the car, with the interfaces being simple and direct, limiting the number of manipulations required to bring up any option.

Communication to assure safety
At the same time, these technical advances can also take the form of reinforced safety for all drivers, like with the implementation of the European eCall project which allows the car to be geographically located in the event of an accident so that help can be sent quickly while also providing bidirectional communication options between the driver and call centre.

Behind this technological progress are electrical components and companies who are looking to get a foot hold in this market, opening the way for millions of chipsets to be shipped.

The American chipset manufacturer Qualcomm is one of these: they recently won a large contract to provide hardware for the eCall system. Already very present in Smartphone’s though their MSM (Mobile Station Modem) modems and SnapDragon, they are now looking for new uses of their mobile components.

The company is also working on numerous technologies derived from the mobile universe which could be placed in the car. A demonstration of some of these was made during the MWC 2010 show in Barcelona.