What if your car were a WiFi hotspot and you could use it to access the Internet from any device no matter where you are? Wouldn’t that be super-convenient? That will soon be possible with Tesla’s Model S and Model X electric vehicles.
Tesla already owns the tech – the chip and module set – that will make this possible, but they may not introduce it into the current models right now. The reason is that all of Tesla’s Model S and X cars that are on the road are under the four-year data plan that came with the price of the car. It’s assumed that they’re waiting for that period to be over and for people to move into a paid subscription model for Internet connectivity before introducing the WiFi hotspot option.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk is a big fan of transparency and believes that advanced technologies should be available to the public rather than being sequestered within the think-tanks of governments and large corporations. Ironically, Tesla hasn’t revealed the tech behind the Lithium-ion batteries that give the new Model S its 315-mile range, but he’s still a promoter of open technologies. Case in point is OpenAI, a community of artificial intelligence developers that can share code and make AI capabilities easy to implement even for very small companies.
The module that makes converting a car into a WiFi hotspot was developed with mobile chipmaker Qualcomm’s Atheros QCA6234 chip, but modified so it acts as a powerful WiFi hotspot:
“The Qualcomm Atheros industry leading AP Mode feature allows the QCA6234 device to operate as both a station and an Access Point, enabling seamless station-to-station interconnection with all the benefits of standard infrastructure-level simplicity (no special client software or settings required), security, and power save functionality.”
Why is the WiFi Hotspot Functionality Important to Tesla?
Think about it. One of Tesla cars’ greatest features is the autopilot, which was originally designed to allow the driver to do other things than watch the road all the time. Although that’s far from becoming reality, the autopilot feature does allow the driver to go hands-free on highways.
However, Tesla is right now in the middle of a possible legal fallout with auto insurers over accidents that have happened on autopilot. Over time, once the autopilot becomes truly autonomous, having your car become a WiFi hotspot will mean that you can get busy browsing while the car does all the driving.
The real question here is whether autonomous driving technology is already here. That’s an interesting question because there are those that believe it will take years to become a reality. On the other hand, there’s Uber, which has already started running several self-driving Volvo XC 90s on the roads of Pittsburgh this month. The car is still monitored by a driver and an off-site engineer to make sure it’s absolutely safe, but the reality of it is that autonomous driving technology has finally arrived.
By the time Tesla introduces the WiFi capability upgrade for the Model S and X – and perhaps even the upcoming Model 3 – autopilot is likely to be in a state of advanced evolution, as it were.
Imagine taking the family out for a drive and everyone connecting to the car’s WiFi on their own mobile devices – including Dad!
This is what the future is made of, and Tesla is cementing its position at the forefront of that phenomenon.
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