General Motor’s OnStar is pushing WiFi in the car so aggressively, it seems to be treating WiFi as its answer to Ford’s Sync, says The Wall Street Journal in not so many words.
GM is rolling out 4G LTE with a WiFi hot spot in even its low budget cars, including the $17,000 Chevy Spark. Already, 4G and WiFi is available in the new Malibu and Impala now hitting dealerships, and it will be in 30 vehicles by the end of the year, at a fee starting at $5/month.
In addition to WiFi, 4G gives you a more powerful connection, so OnStar itself is more robust, as it goes from 2G to 4G.
That same capability applies to GM’s remote start from a phone offering, which also now moves to 4G speeds for newer cars (older cars still have the 2G service).
GM is backing up its 4G rollout with a big promotional campaign on Facebook, and in movie theaters as well as the in-flight Gogo service. The campaign began during this holiday weekend.
Almost 40 percent of people buying new cars say the newest technology is what motivated their purchase, according to J.D. Power & Associates, said the WSJ.
At a breakfast during CE Week last month, General Motors was very intent on explaining that WiFi in the car, is not the only benefit for its switch to 4G. It is hoping that new apps will be developed that will create new uses. “It’s just the beginning,” said Chief Technology Officer for General Motors Tim Nixon.
“We hope this technology will endear people as we starting wrapping APIs around the car. The next frontier is how do we use that data around the vehicle,” he said.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
I am lucky to have my store in a relatively high income area. I don’t see a big number of people using wifi or lte based file sharing through the smart phone. even the kids in the back use lte for data on ipads. wifi is just hype in the car. it is also good for buying a few more years at the car company until retirement.
gar