Wired ride

By Andy Walker

There are no flying cars here in yesterday's future, but drivers this decade are in for a wired ride as new technologies revolutionize the driving experience.

Today's driver can opt to buy or upgrade a vehicle with intelligent tools that make car travel safer, more informed, and even more productive and fun for both the driver and passengers. My trip into this strange new world started as I drove eastbound in heavy traffic on Toronto's Highway 401 in terrible snowy weather.

A soft chime came from the dashboard. The car's computer reported "low fuel warning". Ignore this alert at your peril: you could be left stranded in the middle of fast traffic.

On this evening, I had technology on my side and several new features built into the 2001 Cadillac DeVille would give me the confidence to complete the trip safely and with peace of mind.

I pushed the OnStar button on the rear-view mirror. OnStar is a cellular-phone-based system that puts the driver in touch with a live operator who provides services similar to a concierge at a hotel.

The operator can give the driver directions. They can book tickets to events and make reservations at restaurants. They can help assist the driver with vehicle problems. For example, if the car breaks down, they can remotely request data from the car and help diagnose problems. In the event of an accident, they determine if airbags have deployed and will dispatch emergency assistance if necessary. In the case of a breakdown, they can also guide a roadside assistance response vehicle to the car's location. OnStar operators can also, on request, unlock a car remotely. "This is OnStar, how can I help you, Mr. Cyberwalker," said the voice on the car's speakers. ("Cyberwalker" is a moniker that I use for one of the columns I write. Unlike the OnStar TV commercials, which address the caped crusader simply as "Batman," OnStar couldn't address me without the "Mr.") "Hi," I said. "I have a bit of a problem. I am running very low on gas." "You're in a white 2001 Cadillac DeVille heading eastbound on Highway 401 in Whitby?" came the voice.

The operator was now tracking me on a map on his screen somewhere in Michigan, thanks to a built-in Global Positioning System, which uses satellites to determine a car's geographical position.

The operator offered directions to a nearby gas station. That was an option, but it occurred to me that the car's computer had all kinds of driver assisting diagnostics. One of the scrolling displays showed an entry that said "88 km range".

It looked like an estimate of the distance I could travel on the remaining gas in the tank. "That's correct," said the operator. "You have approximately 80 km to be safe before you run out of gas."

It was an estimate based on the speed I was at, but now with less than 20 km to go, it was more than enough.

I asked the operator if he could call ahead to tell the person I was meeting that I would be late. Instead, he patched me into her voice mail. As a general rule, OnStar advisors do not patch subscribers through to third parties, but a GM spokesperson said it's done in special circumstances.

Personal calling, however, is now available in Canada, and the gear to make it happen has been installed on vehicles since 2001 models. It is already available to subscribers in parts of the U.S. As of 2002, OnStar was available on 33 GM models that included some Acura and Lexus cars. (2006 update: GM says that, by 2007, it will install OnStar in all new GM vehicles.)

ATX Technologies, an Irving, Texas-based company, provides a similar service. Each car company markets the ATX service using their own brands. For example, Ford calls its system RESCU, while Mercedes Benz's service is called TeleAid. In Jaguar vehicles, it is called Assist. These services are not free to drivers. Subscribers must pay annual fees, ranging in 2002 from about $300 to $600 (by 2006, it was $200-$400 US). These telematics systems are first-generation and often imperfect. On one occasion, when I asked OnStar for directions to a restaurant in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga the operator couldn't find it in her database. She suggested two similarly named restaurants in the area. Then she found a third in Niagara Falls, which was an hour's drive away. The operator asked: "Is that close to where you are?"

GM acknowledges the need for operators that are more familiar with Canadian roads. There is a dedicated OnStar operation for French Quebec, and GM says an English Canadian office is being considered.

When asked for directions to an on-ramp, another operator said she couldn't find Highway 401, a major highway in Toronto, on her map. In another query, the operator said the address in Mississauga I had requested was in an unnavigable area, even though the road had been there for years.

GM recognizes the shortcomings and says that often they have to work with out-of-date maps, but it promises that databases are improving daily. In the next year or so, new services will be integrated to reduce the participation of a live advisor.

The driver will be able to talk directly to a computer, which will marry live traffic information with navigation so that a driver requesting a route will be alerted to and guided around bottlenecks in traffic.

Voice-driven applications will also bring information access services such as stock quotes, weather, and news into the car.

Telematic computers make these features possible. Motorola is one of the companies building the gear. They've developed a system called iRadio. It's an evolving technology, so elements of the system - such as e-mail, news, sports, and weather - have started appearing on 2002 model year vehicles.

Telematics' real utility became apparent when a robust wireless data connection comes to vehicles. Car owners had to wait until 2003 or 2004 for that because network operators had to upgrade their networks to handle the heavy-duty data traffic. For the driver who couldn't wait for advanced telematics, computer-based navigation systems used CD-ROMs as a source of map data.

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