General Motors is working to make sure that your most expensive “device” is also your most connected by giving a new wireless look to its brands. The company has now put WiFi into dozens of new Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC models, thanks to a new AT&T 4G radio module that provides the same kind of high-speed link you’d expect to get out of the latest 4G iPad or Samsung Galaxy.
The service is by no means free (you’ll have to attach the car to AT&T data plan), but it’s a nifty feature to have in this age hyper-connectivity.
There’s a lot more that GM can do with a multi-megabit link piped directly into the car. GM OnStar chief technology officer Tim Nixon says that WiFi hotspots were just the beginning. As wireless technologies in GM cars evolve, those vehicles will become nodes on the larger Internet, sending vast amounts of information to the cloud where it can be shared with your mechanic, your smartphone, apps and other cars.
GM has offered some version of wireless connectivity in its vehicles since 1996, when OnStar was born.
But there’s more potential uses for that kind of data:
• By connecting to GM’s cloud database or communicating directly with a car’s onboard computer over WiFi, mechanics could diagnose problems from a tablet right as a car rolls into the garage.
• By amassing data from all its vehicles, GM could detect potentially faulty parts in its vehicles, triggering a recall before any accident occurred.
• By crowdsourcing data from all of its cars on the road, GM can connect its vehicles to larger transportation networks, gathering information on traffic, weather and road conditions in real time.
• Transit planners could even use GM data to guide their future infrastructure investments. For example, by tracking where electric and plug-in vehicles go in any given city, planners could determine the optimal locations for car-charging stations.
• GM wants to eventually open up not just its databases, but also direct communications channels into the car to outside developers. It’s created a set of APIs that would provide the Internet hooks for everyone from Google to Pizza Hut to trade information with your dashboard.
Navigation APIs could let any app developer embed a “drive me” button. For example, you could beam driving directions from a Google Maps search to your OnStar navigation system, or an integration with OpenTable might automatically load your chosen restaurant’s address into the dash 30 minutes before your reservation time. Social location apps like Foursquare’s Swarm could share your car’s precise coordinates with your friends.
That kind of collaboration work could produce new revenue streams for GM as developers pay to access those APIs, but Nixon said the company’s ultimate goal is to use its connectivity and data to differentiate GM cars and trucks from the competition.
“We’re going to be a little bit careful,” Nixon said. “We’ve developed a close relationship with our customers. We take that trust very seriously.”
To see the original article by Keith Fitchard go to Fortune.
