Car PCs Hit The Road

Remember your father's old car? The one where the only complicated accessories inside were the radio and the cigarette lighter?

How times have changed. Just think, perhaps, about your commute to work—about the array of tools within arms' reach of the driver's seat: DVD players, satellite radios, GPS mapping systems, monitoring devices, backup video cameras, forward-facing security cameras, MP3 players, airbags, temperature gauges, tire pressure monitors—that a car isn't just a car. It's a supernetwork in motion.

The problem, though, is that unlike most computer networks, the auto network has been one largely without computing standards, easy building blocks for systems builders or solution providers, and a channel that is largely controlled by the auto industry, which has a different business model.

The absence of standards means that PC controls and management of multiple devices and telematics can be a from-the-ground-up solution in one deployment after another. So, a fleet of trucks that integrates GPS mapping and point-of-sale devices with a data warehouse might be deployed differently than another fleet with the same devices. A van can integrate management of a DVD console and cellphone address book several different ways.

Therefore, it's possible for a solution provider to literally reinvent a set of wheels each time an automobile is outfitted with PC technology. While that can be an integration nightmare, some see a tremendous opportunity for the computer reseller channel.

"There are no standards—and that is why the market can grow," said Ted Hunter, general manager of Champion Networks, a Brunswick, Maine-based solution provider who is also the driver and tuner of a successful drag racing car. (Hunter has been sponsored by, among others, Premio Computer and Lexmark on the pro circuit.)

"[For example,] if you could come out with a $99 instant mileage verification, showing your gasoline mileage and the miles you've traveled per tank of gas, you'd sell it to probably two-thirds of the people in the state of Maine immediately," Hunter said.

"Why a company like an HP or a Dell doesn't want to go into this space is beyond me," he wonders. "Maybe they have to try three different things before they get it right, but they will make money. It would also establish them as a company that cares about the environment, which will bring them more business."

Next: Muscling Into The Car