m u s e |.m u s e ~~~~~~~~~ The Gallery of Muses ~~~~~~~~~

The Internet Car Case Study/Vision

Written in January 1999

 

Special Report: Carcar.net's Internet Car Virtual Carmaker Shows Unprecedented Convergence Between Automotive and E-Commerce  Turns Detroit on its ear (Las Vegas, NV, February 14, 1999)  Today, in a major announcement at Comdex Winter 99, carcar.net unveiled another breath-taking example of the "Internet phenomenon": an automobile that enables drivers to send emails and browse the web while they're driving, without putting anyone's life in danger ;-).  Featuring a wireless ISDN connection and a laptop-like touch screen mounted into the dash, the Internet Car enables an on the fly connection to the Internet for real-time navigation, traffic updates and travel planning, but it doesn't stop there: "I can't believe how cool this is," exclaimed Mark Anderssen, who received a test car two weeks ago.  "I have a lot of the functionality in the Internet Car that I have in my office: I hold teleconferences and videoconferences, receive and reply to email and browse the web at will, all while zipping around the city or barreling down the highway." Wait a minute.  Did I get that right?  This, in 1999? Is it a car? The Internet Car is truly a pacesetter.  Assembled by Homta in its Van Nuys plant of components from a consortium of automotive companies, the Internet Car is not branded by any carmaker.  Sporting a zippy engine and drive train by Suharu and a unique body by Vohlchsvagan, complete with its owner's URL boldly stencilled on each door, the Internet Car definitely gets you places, especially with the four-on-the-floor gearbox option.  Carcar.net projects 1999 sales of 300,000 units, all ordered through the Internet, of course.  Carcar.net has no dealer network, nor does it plan to create one.  The Internet Car will be jointly serviced nationally by Computing Discount Wherehaus and Seersz Auto Servicing. A new meaning to "service" As one might suspect, the heart of the relationship between carcar.net and the drivers of the Internet Car is an industry-strength knowledge management system and website.  Drivers are rewarded for providing continuous usage and satisfaction information to carcar.net, which actually subscribes to the driver's "information service."  For example, if a driver selects biweekly reporting, carcar.net offers to cut the Internet and phone service cost by a prescribed amount; likewise, the driver can select a reduction in "car" payments or some other option.  Less frequent reporting affords the driver different choices.  "We aim to transform the experience of owning a car by using the continuous, asynchronous communication that the web allows to forge a partnership with our customers," said Tom F. Buckley, Chief Service Officer.  "We see our customers as partners in this venture to create more productive time in the car.  They provide us real-time intelligence about how useful the Internet Car is in their lives, and we use the information to offer them new options in service and product features." Because there is no dealer network and each car is ordered specifically, every car owner gets exactly what he wants, as long as the feature is offered.  In a somewhat unique "distribution" model, carcar.net gives new owners several options on picking up their new cars.  If you want it in Internet time, you've got it.  Customers who order any combination of features available can pick it up the next day by picking it up at the factory (incentives given).  For those who don't mind waiting a couple of weeks, they can have the cars delivered to them in 50 urban centers at specified Pudget Rent-A-Car locations nationally.  In another program, the cars are delivered direct from the factory to the owner's door by company chauffeur. Is it a computer?  "At the heart of its Internet functionality is a robust voice recognition software," remarked Bill Johie, carcar.net's Chief Technology Officer.  "Once a driver completes the profile, which takes about fifteen minutes, he or she can dictate emails, instruct the browser to call up URLs and a host of other things.  It's really simple, yet revolutionary.  I love to see the reactions of people once they go for their first drive." Likewise, the "car" reads email and web pages on demand (synthesized voice is quite reasonable), and it comes with a international Internet access, cellular service, a website, and software that automatically mirrors the car's hard drive on the driver's website.  In fact, carcar.net, with its partners American N Line and Emcee I Worldwide, is an ISP par excellence.  The Internet Car is being supported by a special channel on American N Line and Nezkabe portals. Also on board is a full-fledged PC by Modemola.  It comes with a wide range of configurations that run Windows, Macintosh, Linux or UNIX OSs.  The customer also configures all software per his or her needs. "The question is, is it a car or an office?" said Anne Stuart, technology reporter of CxO Magazine, who took one for a spin recently. Indeed, with its attachable keyboard, touchpad and auxiliary fuel cells, the Internet Car is designed to parked and worked in for up to ten hours at a time, without running the engine.  Completing the picture are:  A unique seat in front that mimicks some of the functionality of an office chair.  A compact printer/scanner/fax that pulls out of passenger's side of the dash, by Hemlett-Prackford.  Solid sound and lighting systems.  An innovative, real-time security system, whose job is made easier by the fact that the PC is removable only by a special electronic key.  And, yes, the default setting is that the ignition turns on the car and boots up the computer at the same time ;-) . CxO ***Note: This "CxO article" is entirely fictitious, for example only.

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