Code, Networks Are Key To Smarter CarsCode, Networks Are Key To Smarter Cars

What To Do With A Networked Car

Carmakers sense the opportunity in connecting vehicles and people to social networks and cloud-based applications, whether for socializing, navigation, or entertainment. Ford's Sync system provides cell-phone integration (including reading aloud your text messages), navigation, and vehicle health reports, which also can be accessed on a Web site.

But that's all very practical. What would people really love to do online while in their cars? To figure that out, Ford's running a project with the University of Michigan that gives students access to a Ford developmental operating system, so they can test and program new applications that run on Sync. Sync provides cloud connectivity, and turning students loose on those capabilities will help Ford figure out "what's next," says Venkatesh Prasad, group and technical leader of Ford's Infotronics team in research and advanced engineering.

None of this works without connectivity--at broadband speeds, no doubt. Linking to remote diagnostic centers and social networking platforms will require higher levels of connectivity between the vehicle and the Internet, which will make 3G or 4G data networking an integral part of the overall vehicle system.

That's the idea behind the LTE Connected Car, a concept car built using a Toyota Prius, in a collaboration of companies that shows just how broad the interest is in such a vehicle: Alcatel-Lucent, Atlantic Records, QNX Software, Toyota, Wi-Fi device maker Chumby, and the online kids game network Kabillion. The LTE Connected Car concept--it's not for sale, but you can see it at ngconnect.org--highlights the possibilities of a more open vehicle platform that combines a cellular data network with the open capabilities of the Web. What if people could build apps for your car like they do for the iPhone?

GM's Eric Gassenfeit

App developers and service providers would need more than just an open car development platform; they'd need access to data such as subscriber location, preferences, vehicle conditions, and other relevant data. The range of information that could be made available raises acute questions about information security and customer privacy. The industry has already seen conflicts over who can harvest "black box" data generated by air bag systems following accidents. Data ownership will almost certainly become a more highly visible topic as more data is generated, collected, and shared by smart systems in cars.

Privacy issues may well be one of the problems encountered by the next generation of "shade-tree mechanics" who tinker with a vehicle's software, rather than its engine. The Chevrolet Volt, for example, will incorporate certain open-source software. Open source licenses generally require GM to put any software modifications back in the public domain. "That means that we may do regular updates and upgrades, and we have to give the consumer the ability to look at what we did and modify it if they choose," Gassenfeit says. That wouldn't apply, of course, to safety-critical systems, where GM isn't using open source software. But GM will publish a software framework that includes APIs and programming hooks for many display and information systems.

Owning and driving a software-centric, networked vehicle will be different--with software updates included as part of regularly scheduled maintenance, vehicles that tweet when it's time for an oil change, and auto magazines with links to open source code to pimp your dashboard display. The days of isolated drivers locked in sealed capsules are numbered as cloud computing moves to the Interstate through the most valuable systems of the modern automobile.

Curtis Franklin, Jr. is a journalist and technology manager who has tested and written about computers and networks for 25 years.