Your car may soon be a WiFi hotspot

Thanx to Chris De Herrera for locating this article:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/26/wired.ford.wi.fi/index.html

Built-in WiFi is close to reality for many new vehicles. The next question is, will it also soon be possible to retrofit older cars for broadband reception?

The monthly charges quoted sound a bit steep, though. Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just use the old-fashioned method, with your own cell phone as a Bluetooth modem?

I think it's hard to use this new technique right now. And also it's expensive also as it s new. But as time passes and the utility increases, then for sure it will be more usable with more benefits and reliable rates. But we have to wait till that time.

As if we didn't have enough problems with drivers talking on their cell phones...

As far as the driver purposefuly accessing the web, why pay for a separate access, when you could use a sprint 4G hotspot that you can use in your house too and anywhere?
(or, like the post above, using your already paid cellphone data services)?
What is more worrisome, is the creepy feeling that you may not be able to control what data the so-called car htospot will actually feed out from your car, and to whom..?
Will it be stealthier and much more far-reaching, than the Onstar system?

Sounds quite ambitious, but until the technology becomes mainstream you can still use your ancient mobile phone as a wireless dial-up modem (provided it and the HPC/Laptop has an IR port).

By the way, for Handheld PC's it would be useless if it doesn't support 802.11b.