We've reached a point where, for many consumers, the gadgets in a car are at least as important as the car itself. A car without an iDevice connection will sell about as well as something with an '80s-era cassette deck. No Bluetooth? No navi? No way. Automakers realize this, which is why they're packing new models with ever more technology.
The next big thing headed to your dashboard is Wi-Fi. And you may be surprised to discover it isn't the big-dollar luxury automakers leading the way onto the mobile information superhighway. Sure, most of the big automakers have Wi-Fi in the works. But a few, like Ford, have offered it for a while in North America. But it goes global next year as part of the multimedia SYNC system in European versions of the Ford Focus.
To show the system works, American car fanatic Jay Leno and British car fanatic Jimmy Carr Skyped a live show from a pair of Focuses as part of Ford of Britain's centennial celebration. Leno was parked in his garage in Los Angeles, while Carr was outside the Corn Exchange in King's Lynn, England.
“It’s great to do something that is cutting edge, to chat about cars and gadgets and have a laugh,” said Carr, who hopes to land a TV deal here in the States. “And to perform with Jay, of whose car collection I am in awe, is a kick.”
Leno’s sprawling collection of 200-plus cars and motorcycles provides a historical catalog of in-car tech. He's even got a 1950s-era Chrysler with full-sized record player. Having WiFi in modern cars, Leno says, is part of the never-ending search for an edge in the marketplace.
“Bad cars don’t really exist anymore, so car makers are looking for ways to make their models stand out,” he says. “And the one place we spend more time than anywhere except our house or office is the car. It’s not a surprise people want the same gadgetry on the road.”
Cars have a typical life cycle of five to 10 years. Gadgets are outdated almost the minute they leave the store. Having these two worlds keep pace with each other will be a challenge.
Still, not everything moves quite so fast. We've had television for more than half a century, but only recently have we had the technology to
Not everything moves so fast. It was almost 50 years ago that the first television images bounced via satellite across The Pond. But only recently have we been able to do that from our cars using Wi-Fi.
So how did the Sunday Times do it? The Sync system in the Ford Focus features a USB port into which you can insert a dongle to create a Wi-Fi hotspot. The 3G signals available in L.A. and the U.K. were strong enough to run Skype on a pair of iPad 2s with almost no delay. Then it was a simple matter running an HDMI cable from each iPad to a Blackmagic Design video recorder hooked up to a laptop. The film crew uses an array of six mini-cameras to catch all the action.
Photos: Anthony Cullen and Sandy Huffaker. Video: INCWORD2
Jimmy Carr shoots the breeze with Leno, via Skype in a Ford.
