Wi-fi hotspot for a car?!

esuhl

I've just seen a TV advert for a car. The main selling point is that it comes with a wi-fi hotspot. Is it just me, or is that a pointless feature? It seems strange to focus on it as the main advantage of that particular model of vehicle.

The vehicle's wi-fi connects using a mobile SIM card. So... that's no better than just using the SIM in your phone for network access.

And you can use your phone as a wifi hotspot to provide access to other devices. If you want better reception, all you need is an external aerial for the car.

As well as seeming completely redundant, you'd have to pay for a mobile SIM subscription for the car, in addition to any existing mobile contracts.

Am I missing something, or is it such a terrible car that essentially having a mobile phone built-in was the best thing the marketing people could find to say about it?

jshm2

You're confused.

In-car wifi advances the car's entertainment system. Not to mention the Sat Nav and other features will most likely be more online focused too. This means you've basically got a "car theatre system"

Would need to see what is being offered though. But a car is just a car to most people and connectivity is a big factor in the buying decision these days.

Some people won't even buy a house in a region that has crap wifi.

NiftyDigits

https://www.carwow.co.uk/best/best-cars-with-wifi-0167

onomatopoeia99

jshm2 wrote: »

Some people won't even buy a house in a region that has crap wifi.

Do you mean wifi? Or do you mean broadband? I certainly wouldn't buy a house where the fixed line broadband provision was poor, but don't care about wifi.

I_have_spoken

Am I missing something

I had a mid-range TomTom unit that relied on using my mobi to get live traffic info. etc.

TBH it was a total pain day-to-day and I quickly bought a TomTom with it's own SIM and lifetime data plan so it 'just worked'

For a family, it could be more cost effective to have a SIM in the car with a chunky data-only tariff, then 4 or 5 individual phones with just a few 100Mb each.

Mr.Generous

I wonder if it will be handy for all those drivers who update social media on the drive to work too. Sound dreadful to me, focus on the journey when driving. I'm not thinking about the passengers as 90%+ of journeys made have a solo occupant.

I also believe little darlings need to learn that a screen in front of them is not quite as essential as oxygen.

flashg67

Think that will be the Mokka? It's not cheap after the first 3Gb/ 3 months use but I 'think' it includes other Onstar services. From the website -

Vodafone offers you the data plan which suits your needs best

• Vodafone’s “Daily plan”1: Best for a single journey. 24 hours or 1 GB3 of high speed surfing and streaming for £5.
• Vodafone’s “Monthly plan (28 days)”1: Ideal for frequent use. 28 days or 1GB3 of data for £10 or10 GB of data3 for £20.

esuhl

jshm2 wrote: »

You're confused.

Confused? Erm... no; not at all. Why would you think that?

jshm2 wrote: »

In-car wifi advances the car's entertainment system. Not to mention the Sat Nav and other features will most likely be more online focused too. This means you've basically got a "car theatre system"

I hadn't thought about sat-nav. Is wifi really needed, though? Surely you just need GPS and the ability to sideload new maps every couple of years? Or do all sat-navs use the internet for things like traffic updates?

Do many people even have a video screen in their car? Can you really stream video over a mobile network in a fast-moving vehicle? Aren't mobile data charges really expensive?

I would have thought it much more reliable to watch video files rather than streaming, although I can see that changing as mobile networks improve and data charges come down.

jshm2 wrote: »

Some people won't even buy a house in a region that has crap wifi.

Really? Why would anyone avoid a house with crap wifi, rather than fixing the wifi so it isn't crap?! That's just crazy!

DoaM

esuhl wrote: »

I hadn't thought about sat-nav. Is wifi really needed, though?

WiFi per se is not needed, but live traffic updates will require a data connection.

esuhl

DoaM wrote: »

WiFi per se is not needed, but live traffic updates will require a data connection.

Fair enough.

But if you needed wifi access in your car, you could just turn on the wireless access point on your phone, couldn't you? Then, anything in the vehicle needing internet access (like the sat-nav) could connect to that.

Essentially, the car's wireless access point is just a phone built-in to the car, isn't it...?

boliston

Perhaps the car has those annoying windows with a metallic coating like you find on cross country voyager trains, meaning that you cannot get 3g reception and need to rely on the train's built in (and very expensive) wifi hotspot?