Car To Become Next Internet

Mesh networks are a simple concept: use the devices in the network as nodes, similar to becoming your own cell tower. It's useful in situations where the regular networks are unavaiable or damaged. But what if you could make use of a ubiquitous device to build an always-on, always-avaialble source of real-time data?

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Ford demonstrated the system this past May in Germany, and continues to do research to see how many cars would need to be in a network in order for it to work -- so far the estimates are about one in 10 cars on the road would have to participate in order for the network to work. Given that there are 250 million vehicles on the roads, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statitstics, that would still leave a pretty large number of network nodes. That's a lot of capacity for streaming a Netflix video.

Cars fit the bill, and Ford is evidently working on a way as part of their Intelligent Vehicles project to make each car into a node for just such a network. The potential uses are mostly in monitoring traffic and preventing accidents. For example, a car several miles ahead could transmit a signal if it is in an accident, so that drivers behind it slow down or avoid the area altogether. Or, a car braking ahead suddenly could announce to other vehicles in the area what is happening and warn the other drivers, maybe even slowing the other cars to compensate and prevent collisions.

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The other side of this kind of technology is obvious to anyone who has thought about issues of privacy. Like Wi-Fi networks, a mesh network is vulnerable to intruders, and while encryption can solve part of the problem, it doesn't completely address just what people want other entities -- government or private -- to know about their driving habits.