The Future - MyCommand

[spinaltap]

Have a look at this video from Popular Mechanics (half-way down the page) on an internet-derived Command system for future Mercedes...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/automotive_news/4292633.html

 

[MBManInKen]

Thanks, that was a great clip .

However, they are way too optimistic about the timescales. High bandwidth mobile networks will come, but there is no business case for carriers to put in the capital investment needed to provide the 100% cover and the network capacity to serve a large numbers of cars on the road. The 2012 date is rather wishful thinking.

I'd say that a first generation of such system is more likely to be a hybrid, rather than a full Internet based setup.

 

[timskemp]

Thanks, that was a great clip .

However, they are way too optimistic about the timescales. High bandwidth mobile networks will come, but there is no business case for carriers to put in the capital investment needed to provide the 100% cover and the network capacity to serve a large numbers of cars on the road. The 2012 date is rather wishful thinking.

I'd say that a first generation of such system is more likely to be a hybrid, rather than a full Internet based setup.

It's not that far off the mark. Edge and 3G is pretty much europe wide, only the streaming / VoIP is going to be a real issue.

I would imagine that although it would be an always online system, maps and music would be cached to local storage...

 

[MBManInKen]

It's not that far off the mark. Edge and 3G is pretty much europe wide, only the streaming / VoIP is going to be a real issue.

Tsk, tsk, by no means is 3G Europe wide in terms of geographic cover. We're not talking about % cover of the population, but almost complete geographic cover, which is something completely different.

But even today's 3G networks have nowhere near the capacity to serve a large population concurrently with significant amounts of bandwidth. The operators are struggling to find the compelling business cases that would generate enough revenue to cover the billions of additional CapEx needed to make it financially work.

The situation will gradually improve, but not in the timeframe suggested in the clip.

I would imagine that although it would be an always online system, maps and music would be cached to local storage...

That's what I meant by a hybrid system.