Tag Archive for GM

| December 10, 2010
Comments Off on Wi-Fi Tweets from Outback coming in ’11

Wi-Fi Tweets from Outback coming in ’11

wi-fiThe Subaru Outback is now offering Wi-Fi connectivity with Autonet Mobile in-car Internet service for 2011. CNET’s CarTech blog says that the Outback is the latest vehicle to feature built-in Internet connectivity. A Subaru press release extols the benefits of the new service

Subaru logo“Subaru Mobile Internet easily allows users to check e-mail, surf the Web or listen to Internet radio and even stream video and post to social networking sites.” They further point out that users can do revolutionary things like  “… check weather and traffic, download hiking trails, and even reserve a campsite…” Finally, Subaru reminds the reader that the Wi-Fi service is designed for passengers while the car is in motion.

Subaru Outback

Autonet Mobile logoThe Autonet Mobile service in the 2011 Outback will be a $499 option, plus a $35 activation fee and $29 monthly subscription. CNET reports it’s a 3G connection and can handle up to 10 users in a range of about 150 feet.

Autonet Mobile is also available on General Motors (GM) products like some Cadillac and Chevy vehicles including:

  • Equinox
  • Traverse
  • Silverado
  • Tahoe
  • Suburban
  • Avalanche
  • Express

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In-car Wi-Fi doesn’t seem to have the same appeal it once held. Fast cellular data connections and 3G cards for laptops, have stolen in-car Wi-Fi’s thunder – making the Autonet product seems like a weaker competitor of Ford’s Sync service. Ford’s (F) Sync is a multimedia system in partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) which can hook up to a USB modem.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Cars | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
| August 21, 2010
Comments Off on GM built Robot Works for NASA

GM built Robot Works for NASA

GM built Robot Works for NASANASA recently had a coming-out party at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for one of its newest projects. The party was for a human-like robot called the Robonaut 2 (R2) developed with General Motors (GM). The R2 robot has a human shape, weighs about 300 pounds, runs on a battery. The NASA/GM-robot will join the team of the space shuttle Discovery on  STS-133 mission to the International Space Station. STS-133 is scheduled for takeoff on November 1, 2010. Although it will initially only take part in operational tests, upgrades could eventually allow the robot to realize its true purpose. R2 can help astronauts on spacewalks with tasks outside the space station.

The dexterous humanoid astronaut helper is now tweeting at www.twitter.com/AstroRobonaut.

R2 is now tweeting

With the help of its team, R2  sent its first tweet on July 26, 2010.

Robonaut 2

I liked the big blue GM logo on R2. This is another example of the value of the domestic auto industry for the good of the U.S.  Alan Taub, vice president of GM’s global research and development said in a press release, “Partnerships between organizations such as GM and NASA help ensure space exploration, road travel and manufacturing can become even safer in the future.”

GM LogoGM’s manufacturing engineering team is already working to find potential applications for R2’s array of vision, motion, and sensor technologies that will aid workers in manufacturing operations. According to GM’s Taub, “The work done by GM and NASA engineers also will help us validate manufacturing technologies that will improve the health and safety of our GM team members at our manufacturing plants throughout the world.”

“For GM, this is about safer cars and safer plants,” says the GM VP for global research and development. “When it comes to future vehicles, the advancements in controls, sensors, and vision technology can be used to develop advanced vehicle safety systems. The partnership’s vision is to explore advanced robots working together in harmony with people, building better, higher quality vehicles in a safer, more competitive manufacturing environment.”

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Maybe it will be a reminder to politicians like Dick Shelby of AL who opposed loans to GM to further the interests of the foreign car assemblers in Alabama.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Cars | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
| December 30, 2009
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Wi-Fi on Wheels

ChWi-Fi on Wheelsevrolet has announced that owners of several new models can turn their rides in a mobile hot spot with Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile. This option enables full Internet access inside the vehicle and up to a 150 feet radius around the vehicle. Chevrolet Wi-Fi is designed for use by passengers, or by the driver when the vehicle is parked. The system requires no special software and achieves speeds up to 1.5 Mbps. The Chevrolet Wi-Fi internet connection can support up to 10  devices at once, enabling multiple passengers to use the connection for their separate devices.

“Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile enhances commuting, family vacations and work,” says Chris Rauser, Chevrolet Accessories Manager. “It benefits active families on the go, as well as professionals who need immediate information at remote job sites. Its uses are almost endless.” San Francisco-based Autonet Mobile is the world’s first Internet service provider designed exclusively for vehicles. As a GM Officially Licensed Product, Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile is certified to work with the following new Chevrolet models:

  • Equinox
  • Traverse
  • Silverado
  • Tahoe
  • Suburban
  • Avalanche
  • Express

According to Autonet, the system uses 3G EVDO/2.5g 1xRRT wireless from Novatel Wireless for connectivity and its own patent-pending TRU technology to support Internet connections over the 3G network while the vehicle is in motion. TRU technology maintains the persistent link, even when 3G coverage is sparse. IEEE 802.11b-a-g provides data link protocols along with one built-in Ethernet LAN port that provides wired connectivity.

Its transport protocols include  PPTP, L2TP, IPSec, and PPPoE along with SNMP for remote management.  Security and access control are provided via  WEP/WPA/WPA2 encryption. Additional docking stations are available, enabling customers to easily move the Chevrolet Wi-Fi by Autonet Mobile router from vehicle to vehicle.

Through Dec. 31, Chevrolet Wi-Fi is available for $199 ($399 retail price, less $200 mail-in rebate with a two-year service agreement). Go to GMextras.com for more information.

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Now a soccer mom in her mini-van picking up Happy Meals will have more connectivity options than some of my clients.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Cars | Tags: , , , , , , ,
| August 11, 2009
Comments Off on No Job Growth for 10 Years

No Job Growth for 10 Years

The New York Times is reporting that for the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no job growth in the private sector over a 10-year period. The total number of jobs has grown a bit, but that is only because of government hiring.

The NYT charts show the job performance from July 1999, through July of this year. For the decade, there was a net gain of 121,000 private-sector jobs, according to the survey of employers conducted each month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In an economy with 109 million such jobs, that indicated an annual growth rate for the 10 years of 0.01 percent.

According to the NYT, until the current downturn, the long-term annual growth rate for private-sector jobs had not dipped below 1 percent since the early 1960s. Most often, the rate was well above that.

NYT chart

Fortunately for me, the NYT says the field of management and technical consulting leaped at an annual rate of 5 percent. But while designing computers and related equipment was a growth field, building them was a very different story, as the manufacturing shifted largely to Asia. The number of jobs making computer and electronic equipment in the United States fell at an annual rate of 4.4 percent, substantially more than the overall decline in manufacturing jobs, of 3.7 percent.

That was a better showing than that of the automakers, which shed jobs at a rate of 6.7 percent a year. By contrast, auto dealers cut jobs at a much slower rate of 1.3 percent a year, although that rate may accelerate later this year as General Motors and Chrysler dealerships are closed.

The total picture is of an economy that has changed in substantial ways over the decade. After the recession ends, job growth is likely to resume. But there is no indication that the secular trend toward a more service-oriented economy will reverse. and few expect that manufacturing will reverse its long decline as a major employer in the United States.

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Enough said –

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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