Oracle, Ford plan to launch ‘talking’ cars

Siobhan Kennedy

NEW YORK: If you thought Kitt the talking car in the famous 1980's TV show

Knight Rider was a marvel of science fiction, think again. Oracle Corp., the

world's No. 2 software company on Thursday signed a partnership with Wingcast, a

joint venture between auto maker Ford Motor Co. and wireless software developer

Qualcomm Inc., to help bring ‘talking cars’ to the masses.

In the hit TV series Knight Rider, future Baywatch star David Hasselhoff

plays the crimefighter, Michael Knight, whose partner, Kitt is a futuristic

talking car that constantly updates Knight with information about the quickest

route to their destination or the whereabouts of criminals.

Now Oracle, Ford and Qualcomm plan to mimic that technology in modern cars

using telematics. Telematics is the fusion of computers and wireless

communications technology inside cars to enable, for example, motor vehicles to

‘speak’ instructions to drivers about such things as traffic and weather

conditions.

"The cars will not only be giving you advice as to the right freeway to

go on but they'll tell you which freeway has the most traffic on it," Larry

Ellison, Oracle's chairman and Chief Executive said on a conference call on

Thursday. Ellison said cars using the service would be equipped with global

satellite positioning technology (GPS), which beams the location and speed of

the car to a central computer at Wingcast's headquarters.

The computer then uses that information to send back relevant data to the

driver's whereabouts. Using speech recognition technology, that Wingcast said it

is developing in conjunction with an as yet unnamed partner, that data is then

"spoken" back to the driver minutes later.

In addition to traffic information, the service also enables drivers to

connect wirelessly to the Internet and check their corporate e-mail and have the

messages read back to them in the car. "For instance, a salesperson will

not only be able to pick up their mail while driving, but they will also be able

to receive new leads and directly link up with a perspective customer,"

Ellison said.

The idea is to enable all of Oracle's software so that they can be delivered

wirelessly to automobiles via Wingcast's service, Ellison said.

Telematics set to boom



Industry research firm International Data Corp. has estimated that the
telematics market will grow to $42 billion by 2010 from $1 billion in 1998. For

that reason, automakers around the globe are racing to develop such futuristic

services.

San Diego-based Wingcast was founded in October 2000. Although Ford and

Qualcomm have a majority holding in the venture, Harel Kodesh, chief executive

of Wingcast, said car maker Nissan Motor Co Ltd. has agreed to include

Wingcast's telematics technology in its vehicles next year.

Wingcast said it will also sign deals with telecommunications service

providers, although Kodesh said it was too early to name partners. Kodesh added

that the deal with Oracle was not exclusive and that Wingcast would offer

connections to corporate data, like e-mail, stored in other software firms'

applications, as well as information on the Internet.

Having initially said the service would be available later this year Wingcast

in May delayed the launch of its in-vehicle communications service until

mid-2002. The delay sets Wingcast further behind rival General Motors Corp.

OnStar telecommunications service, which since its launch in 1996 has grown to

over 1 million subscribers. OnStar is available on 32 GM vehicles, or about half

of its fleet.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.