The Internet of Cars

Progress, or just a tangle? (photo from Kapsch.net)

In a few years, according to GM CEO Mary Barra, v2x will become a household word:

The next frontier is a wireless technology called v2x, which companies in America, Europe and Japan are developing. It encapsulates vehicle-to-vehicle [v2v] and vehicle-to-infrastructure [v2i] communications. Essentially, special modems allow v2x-equipped cars to talk to each other and the world around them, and warn drivers when there is trouble ahead [snip].

GM has announced plans to put its first v2x-equipped vehicle—the 2017 Cadillac CTS—on the road in about two years. The state of Michigan has committed itself to building 120 miles of v2x-enabled infrastructure in and around Detroit.

Your humble observer is bemused by these predictions of "talking", intelligent automobiles by companies that can't even get the current crop of brakes, airbags, and engines to work right.

Decades ago, I nearly sent my non-GPS-enabled, completely analog (chips had not been invented) VW Beetle to the scrap heap. Today I'm grateful to have a car that will operate without WiFi (or even a radiator or catalytic converter!). Sometimes doing nothing is the best decision of all.

Being restored at the body shop school in Burlingame