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LTE in cars

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dagamer34

Platinum Member
Simple question: why don't we have internet in our cars yet? Considering we've got LTE rolled out to good chunks of the country and it shouldn't cost more than $500 or so to add a good LTE module to a car (and I'm including the insane additional car feature fee in that price), why hasn't it happened yet? We'd be able to monitor traffic in real time by actual car speed instead of indirect methods, we could have in-car hotspots, make car stereos actually useful (man, that needs to be fixed too), parents could track their kids, all sorts of useful stuff even in just kilobytes of data per second.

I want the future now!!!
 
But, you can do all this already without a $500 car module. I suppose it would look nicer to have something built into the dash, but also much more of a pain to upgrade...
 
dagamer34 said:
Simple question: why don't we have internet in our cars yet? Considering we've got LTE rolled out to good chunks of the country and it shouldn't cost more than $500 or so to add a good LTE module to a car (and I'm including the insane additional car feature fee in that price), why hasn't it happened yet? We'd be able to monitor traffic in real time by actual car speed instead of indirect methods, we could have in-car hotspots, make car stereos actually useful (man, that needs to be fixed too), parents could track their kids, all sorts of useful stuff even in just kilobytes of data per second.

I want the future now!!!
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Are you ready to pay an additional $30/month on your car note for it?
People thought the same thing you did which lead to GPS navigation option being installed in cars for an extra $3-5k when one can just buy a $200 portable GPS with more up to date map rather than going back to the car dealer to pay for the latest upgrade disk for your built-in car navigation unit.
 
lothar said:
Are you ready to pay an additional $30/month on your car note for it?
People thought the same thing you did which lead to GPS navigation option being installed in cars for an extra $3-5k when one can just buy a $200 portable GPS with more up to date map rather than going back to the car dealer to pay for the latest upgrade disk for your built-in car navigation unit.
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It's not going to take off if car manufacturers want to gouge people for charging $5000 for something that only costs $50 worth of parts. People aren't that stupid.
 
dagamer34 said:
It's not going to take off if car manufacturers want to gouge people for charging $5000 for something that only costs $50 worth of parts. People aren't that stupid.
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He just gave you an example of that happening recently. That's what happens with cars, everything is crazy expensive. You have to pay thousands to get a dinky little touchscreen unit that isn't even close to as responsive and slick as my $100 phone from two years ago.
 
Basically, since your car is moving, you have to think satellite link - like Sirius/XM radio. You can do it, but it will cost you.

It's bad enough dealing with twitters and texters on the road - I would not want drivers focusing on the Internet. This may be better when cars are auto driven and controlled.
 
I believe there are some cars with built-in cellular that creates a hotspot.

But seriously, just grab a MiFi. If you're on a share plan, you can even just add it to your account and use your data pool if you're only going to use it for casual surfing or GPS.
 
I remember commercials not too long ago advertising an "amazing" 10GB hard drive for your music. That's what told me it's going to be a long long time before car makers give in and offer reasonably priced electronic functions.
 
Cellular hotspots do not work well while moving. They depend on cell towers, and a moving vehicle can go in and out of the coverage footprint.

Someday a Tesla might have satellite access (2-way) that can work - but it's not ready yet. Cerberus or DeLorme In-Reach appear to have closer solutions.
 
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corkyg said:
Cellular hotspots do not work well while moving. They depend on cell towers, and a moving vehicle can go in and out of the coverage footprint.

Someday a Tesla might have satellite access (2-way) that can work - but it's not ready yet. Cerberus or DeLorme In-Reach appear to have closer solutions.
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That would only be an issue if you expected 100% connectivity. I would hope that anyone that realizes that the vehicle is using the same technology as their phone would recognize that if their phone doesn't work, neither will the car.
 
But your gps is not dependent on cell towers. Satellite devices can lose signal, but are much more reliable currently than cell signal. Especially in the more out of the way places where it actually matters.
This sounds like a lot of bother and a monthly bill for something that works less well than current technology. The internet is great, but it isn't the answer to everything.
 
Red Storm said:
I'm confused. My own phone's LTE works just fine in a moving car, so why would having it built in cause problems?
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It all depends on where you live and where you are. Cell phones do work in cars as long as they are in a metro area of sufficient density.

GPS is satellite based, not cellular.

And, if your cell phone has a hot spot function (mine does), sure, you can connect your laptop or whatever, but I would strongly recommend you pull over to do it. 🙂

Cars have to be able to go cross country - different parts of cities, and suburbs. Which provider would you have? You can probably do it right now with an iPad or any device that has Internet access.

My thinking evolves around interstate travel, not travel around the 'hood. 🙂

BTW - I have built in phone service anywhere in the USA - its called On-Star.

BTW - having it built in to the car requires another phone number. I would think portability is a better solution.

As for Internet, do it now with your phone's hotspot. The real problem is, Internet access usually requires visual contact - and that would be a real loser for a driver. So, pull over, use you hotspot and enjoy LTE.
 
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Thinking about it, I'd rather it just have wifi access or something and use the tethering on your PHONE to do what you ask. I want to say this exists in some fashion because I'm pretty sure I've seen car ads that have Pandora apps or something.
 
I want a car with a built-in LTE hotspot so it's not draining battery from my phone and it's really easy to give WiFi access for other devices in the car. Also, I don't want to worry about having to setup a WiFi hotspot by fiddling with my phone every time I get in the car.
 
dagamer34 said:
I want a car with a built-in LTE hotspot so it's not draining battery from my phone and it's really easy to give WiFi access for other devices in the car. Also, I don't want to worry about having to setup a WiFi hotspot by fiddling with my phone every time I get in the car.
Click to expand...

With widgets "fiddling" can be just one tap.
 
Because I'd rather not encourage people to not pay attention to driving any more than they already do.

But in all honesty I see no use for it personally. Maybe if I had a family and we were on a long trip or something, but for my commute or errands? It does me no good.
 
Red Storm said:
With widgets "fiddling" can be just one tap.
Click to expand...

My hotspot toggle is in my notification window. It's quicker to turn my phone into a hotspot then it is to do almost anything else. If you have to "fiddle" to do something on Android then you are not using android to its potential.

If you have NFC on your phone you could get a tag and program it to toggle the hotspot simply when you place your phone somewhere.
 
gorcorps said:
My hotspot toggle is in my notification window. It's quicker to turn my phone into a hotspot then it is to do almost anything else. If you have to "fiddle" to do something on Android then you are not using android to its potential. If you have NFC on your phone you could get a tag and program it to toggle the hotspot simply when you place your phone somewhere.
Click to expand...

Doing that while driving does raise some eyebrows. Assume you the passenger and not the drive? 🙂
 
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