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The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgamesEARTHDATE: November 7, 2010
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REAL LIFE NEWS: CONTROL YOUR CAR WITH YOUR PHONEby HazedRemember the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies where our hero drove his car by remote control using his mobile phone? Well that idea might be coming closer to reality. General Motors has a remote system in their vehicles called OnStar which was originally intended to automatically report accidents, but the company has realized that once you have a mobile phone hooked up to the car, you can use it for all kinds of fun stuff. So soon, owners will be able to unlock their cars, activate the horn, check the fuel, oil levels and tire pressure, and even start the engine, all from the comfort of their home (or even from their beds) by using their smartphone. Indeed, you could do it from anywhere in the world. One benefit would be for those who habitually forget where they have parked the car. You can phone the car up and tell it to flash its lights and beep its horn, and you won't have to spend hours wandering around the car park looking for it. As yet, there are no plans to actually let you drive the car by remote. Shame! Wouldn't it be great to be able to get the car to come to you. Not all iPhones can communicate with cars in this way, so if you like this idea you'll need to check the OnStar website for details of which models are supported. Now, I can see huge benefits in all this. But I wonder how secure the system is. Imagine some malicious prankster communicating with your car to unlock the doors - or perhaps to lock them so you can't get into them! Or setting the horn off at 3 in the morning to disturb your sleep, not to mention that of the whole neighbourhood. |
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