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.