IT Management: Alcatel-Lucent, Toyota Drive LTE Connected Car into Concept Spotlight

Toyota, Alcatel-Lucent and other companies banded together to create the LTE Connected Car, a concept vehicle that went on display in New York on Nov. 3. The vehicle combines a Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband radio link with in-car Wi-Fi to bring the power of cloud computing to driver and passengers, giving them access to online content such as music, YouTube and games through four individual touch screens. It's not all about multimedia, however. The concept car also supplies the driver with real-time GPS updates and information on nearby points of interest. The vehicle also offers continuous status updates about the car, using sensors to feed data to the driver about tire pressure and other maintenance issues. Although the concept car's creators were reluctant to name specific automotive companies, apparently they are in talks to extend some of the technology seen here to real-life vehicles at some point in the future.