Forget McDonald's, pretty soon Ford vehicles will keep you connected to the Internet even as you roll past the drive-thru.
Ford has been loading up its cars with geek tech lately, including navigation, music search, vehicle welfare reports and audible text messages, among other things. But the latest advancement, which turns Ford's SYNC-equipped vehicles into rolling Wi-Fi hotspots, is the biggest no-brainer of them all.
The system uses existing USB 3G modems -- the kind you plug into your computer for mobile broadband -- to power the vehicle's Wi-Fi hotspot. Plugging the modem into the vehicle's USB port creates a secure connection that's broadcast throughout the car.
Thing is, you'll still need to sign up with a wireless carrier, such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint, to get coverage and hardware. This makes me wonder whether Ford plans to work with specific carriers and let you sign up for service at the dealership. It'd also be nice to see Ford subsidize some of the subscription cost, but maybe that's asking for too much.
I'm sort of excited for the technology. If you already own a USB mobile broadband modem, turning it into a hotspot could make your car a powerful workstation, or a nice way to entertain the kids on long drives. On the other hand, even with a $60 per month data plan, you'd still have curtail bandwidth-intensive uses such as online video, lest you go over carriers' 5 GB limits.
It also would be nice to see some in-car services that would use the Wi-Fi, such as Internet radio, but there's no mention of that in Ford's press release. As it stands, you don't gain much more from this service than you would from a mobile broadband router, such as Verizon's MiFi. And that way you don't even have to drive a Ford.
