Wi-Fi wireless Net connectivity has become nearly ubiquitous. Whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, or even on some commercial airliners, you can get online with a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop, smart phone or portable game machine.

Now, Wi-Fi is making its way into your car. A small California company, Autonet Mobile, has teamed up with Chrysler and others to sell a service that floods any make or model of car or truck with Wi-Fi Net connectivity that can be used by multiple passengers and devices simultaneously. It’s a dealer-installed option on Chrysler vehicles, but Chrysler dealers, and some independent auto electronic shops, will install it on any sort of car for a fee.

The system works via a special wireless router, mounted in the trunk or rear cargo area, that draws Web connectivity from cell phone towers and thereupon converts it into an in-car Wi-Fi signal with a range of 100 feet. that router

looks like a military device, considering it is rugged sufficient to survive jolts and vibrations and is shielded to avoid interference with the car’s electronics or with cell phone calls.

As enlarged as they have built-in Wi-Fi, laptops and smart phones used in the car don’t need any add-on hardware or software to use Autonet. To them, it looks like any other Wi-Fi signal. And no special car antenna is needed; the router uses its own large antennas.

I’ve been analyzing Autonet Mobile in a rented Saturn Vue SUV in Washington and its suburbs, and found it worked well for most basic Net tasks such as e-mail and Web surfing. The router turns on when the car does, and the Wi-Fi signal shows up about 30 seconds later. However, Autonet is relatively pokey. It’s too slow to be dependable for streaming video longer than brief YouTube clips, or for…

Original post by dhiram