Gizmodo
The worst part about renting a car, besides the cigarette stink and high cost, is the fact that you can't surf the web while driving around in it. I guess. I mean, I never have an urge to surf the web while driving, but I guess I just don't have a big enough desire to get into an accident.
Anyhow, Avis is sticking WiFi hotspots provided by a company called AutoNet into their rental cars starting in March, allowing porn addicts to get their fix on the go for an extra $11 per day. The hotspots will get their signal from cell towers, providing speeds of 400 kbps to 1 mbps — faster than dial-up but slower than most DSL connections. Nothing you'd want to torrent a season of Battlestar Galactica with, but certainly speedy enough for emailing your buddies to say "Guess where I sent this from?!"
Seems like there are few times when being patient enough to get to your hotel wouldn't be the smarter choice, but who are we to question progress?
Comments
"...certainly speedy enough for emailing your buddies to say "Guess where I sent this from?!"
I used to haul a ton and a half of Amateur radio gear into the woods to have a reason to send messages like that.
These are the days of miracle and wonder...
If you only need to be in North Dakota for the day (and Lord knows something's tragically wrong with your life if you need to be in North Dakota for more than a day) rather than needing a hotel or tracking down a Starbucks, having the ability to use the car as an office for the day then (literally) roll out of Dodge would seem to be helpful.
GPS with wi-fi would be pretty cool in a trafficy area like LA. Not sure I would pay the 11 bucks.. Couldn't really justify it in my head. Especially if only driving around to/from hotel-office.
great, now they'll have a reason to not even get me a hotel room. i can see it now: "your car gets internet, just sleep in there"
Wow, this would have been seriously helpful on a number of out-of-state business trips where I HAD to update a file before going to a meeting and I needed the most recent data. Instead I've driven around for a while trying to find a hot spot at a Starbucks.
Even cooler, I just picked up the MagSafe plane adapter for the MacBook Pro (pretty useless since no domestic flights I'm on have the jacks) but it also comes with a Cig lighter. Getting Things Done from the rental car is a great idea.
What they don't tell you:
No EVDO coverage=no 400Kbps-1Mbps speeds. Even IN EVDO coverage, upstream speeds are 140Kbps at most (unless they're doing Sprint's Rev A EVDO). Most places outside midsize to major metro areas DO NOT have EVDO coverage, in which case you fall back to 1xRTT which is a lovely 144Kbps max. No coverage? No workie. No native coverage? Probably no workie.
IMO if you need something like this more than once a month you have or should have a Sprint/Verizon Aircard already. That's all this thing is, an aircard/wifi router combo.
imagine the family that rents it after the porn freak? and how easy it would be to leave behind traces of what they were looking at in certain on board computers?not to mention the dire need of one of those uv light inspections of every inch of the car *shudders* ... eww happy family outing.
Was this their response to my request for EZPass rentals with their cars? To instead give me a way to spend the hour waiting in line at the cash toll lanes?
L-A-M-E!
I think this will be a half assed dud. They have the option of 'upgrading' your rental with a 'GPS navigation system', my dumb ass thinking they would give me a TomTom or the like, instead its an old ass Nextel i205 with a dinky GPS application all for $9 a day.
Wow! Mass hack attacks on the Web from mobile units that can't be pin pointed. :)
If I can have a decent xbox live session with it im sold.
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