Cloud Computing On Wheels

If you were to ask a bunch of average citizens to tell you what they thought were the three things that they couldn't do without in their day-to-day life, the words: car, internet and smartphone would be thrown around a lot more than any others. The time we live in right now, as the first century of the second millennium of the Christian Era slowly begins to pick up pace, dictates that the bare necessities for comfortable human life are no longer such banal things as food and shelter. We are in need of things more suitable to a higher level of civilization, and yes transportation, mental stimulation and information are the highest priority. Well, I am glad to say that we are slowly taking it a step further - we are integrating our machines and optimizing performance.

We spend a lot of our time in cars and because we have portable devices with great capabilities such as smartphones and tablets we can afford to stay connected. Although we are taking the steps towards improving the functionality of these devices inside the car by developing new services and user-friendly platforms that can help us stay on top of things, these are still first steps and there is a lot of room for improvement and further development. So this new direction technology is taking is something to get excited about.

What exactly is cloud computing and why do I need it in my car?

The “Cloud” is a bit of imaginative geek-talk referring to something we do all the time in our lives, namely accessing the internet to utilize online services that don’t use up your computers storage space when active. Watching clips is a good example - all the content and none of the hassle just click play and then move on when you’re done. I guess calling it “The Cloud” does sound a bit more poetic, and it paints a pretty accurate picture - we've all had content vanish like cloud of smoke when there was something wrong with the connection. Why you would need access to internet content in your car is pretty apparent and you’ll find a bunch of reasons on your own, but there are some generally useful features that companies are banking on:

• Access to Google Maps - we all hate the traditional sat nav to some extent, and we all look things up on Google Maps all the time so this function is very useful one. You can easily find burger joints or fancy restaurants in your vicinity, locate clothing stores and electronics shops you never even knew were there and now you have this functionality integrated in your vehicle, pretty sweet, isn't it?
  
  
• Access to internet radio - hey, it’s a classic, the radio is a staple of long car journeys and us humans all tend to generally agree on at least one point, and that is that fact that we love music. Well with this feature up and running you no longer have to be at the mercy of local radio stations when traveling, you can stick with what you like throughout the trip.
  
  
• Development of new apps for the users - as more car companies jump on the cloud bandwagon, new and improved software will get developed that will enable you to merge with your car more efficiently and provide you with both entertainment and more serious functions like getting details on the car’s performance so you’ll know when to schedule some maintenance work.
  
  
• Integration with other systems - the idea here is to have software developers create highly functional platforms that will allow you to connect to the devices in your house; things like your computer, cameras and security systems and give you the ability to manipulate said equipment.
  
  

These are just some basic functions that are sparking people’s imaginations already. Once a few companies get the ball rolling we can expect to see a big step towards those futuristic cars movies and TV shows have been promising us for years (I’m looking at you Knight Rider).

A few last words

People are seriously excited about the new possibilities offered by cloud based services in cars, and what is more important there is some serious market potential for both car companies and software developers, and when the corporate higher-ups smell blood in the water you can be sure that things will be moving along. It really is the time to get excited about all the new possibilities this integration of our most necessary day-to-day machines brings to the table.