Yep that’s right, Ford, one of the major vehicle manufacturers is the latest company to blast their vehicles into the 21st century by equipping them with Wi-Fi.
Starting from next year, which is now only a matter of days away, some Ford cars and trucks will be equipped with Ford’s “Sync” which was developed by Microsoft.
This means you will be able to make hands free calls and listen to music, enjoy audible text messaging, get real time traffic and weather info or news, or anything else for that matter and all whilst on the road.
With Wi-Fi installed, the Ford vehicles will basically be operating as “rolling Wi-Fi hotspots”. No longer will you need to be enticed into some restaurant, roadside café or bar with the lure of a “Wi-Fi hotspot”, you’ll have one of your own.
You don’t even have to be overly worried about anyone else piggybacking and stealing your connection either as the Wi-Fi system includes WPA2 security so that only the car’s passengers can access it.
Now what about road safety some of you are bound to think? Agreed, that is an issue, but for now let’s just concentrate on what it offers the passengers.
Passengers will be able to check and send emails on the way to work, catch up on last minute homework assignments on the way to school, complete their weekly online shopping purchases, and check their bank accountants or anything else that takes their fancy.
It allows the kids or anyone else in the car to be able to access the Internet from their laptop, netbook or SmartPhone simply by plugging a USB modem into the vehicle’s onboard Wi-Fi putting an end to the boredom on long car journeys.
You won’t need any other equipment and nor will you have to pay a separate hefty monthly subscription – all you need is a Ford Sync equipped car and an existing broadband modem.
Why did Ford decide to do it this way instead of bundling a package together?
“The speeds with which technology is evolving, particularly on the wireless front, makes obsolescence a real problem. We’ve solved that problem by making SYNC work with just about any technology you plug into it” said Ford in a statement.
“By leveraging a user’s existing hardware, which can be upgraded independent of SYNC, we’ve helped ensure ‘forward compatibility’ with whatever connectivity technology comes next”.
What’s next I wonder, Wi-Fi on a watch perhaps?
