Geek mobility...

A friend of mine installed an old laptop in his car, mounted behind the dashboard. It runs Linux and he mounts a PDA with GPS on his dashboard that communicates with the PC.
It got me thinking about the state of telematics and on the concepts of mobility.

If I was designing a car IT system, what are the computing features I would want to put in it (and why, from a product marketing capacity). Would you classify an in-car system as (a) mobile? What features would it need?

The key features of the system would be as follows:

• Ability to view DVDs
• Ability to store and play MP3
• GPS capability
• USB Connectivity to other devices, e.g. Camera, phone
• Internet access (ideally 3G and Wifi - with Mesh capability)
• In-car WiFi (so I can attach things like wireless speakers and PSPs)
• Access to onboard computers to record driving/engine data

So, here's some of the pieces I would need:

• Docking station for laptop (for upgradeability)
• WiFi router(Fonera?)
• USB hub
• Bluetooth dongle (or built-in)
• 200Gb HDD
• Serious power converter unit
• GPS box
• 3G phone with unlimited plan

All of this stuff is around today. I haven't heard of anyone having a WiFi network in their car, people normally talk about connecting to outside networks, so I'm not sure how well it would work at speed. However, if I understood the basics of relativity, it should work ok.

If I could then sync my car network with my home network (rsync my music directory) when I get into the drive, I would have a pretty powerful system. And it's mobile. You can, of course, argue about what is mobile and what is not (Tomi).

It might get very interesting if I can have an IM account for my car and on my mobile phone. I could just send an IM to my car to unlock it, or to immobilize it.

Having a WiFi camera pointing out the back would make parking easier, and having several pointing in various directions would be invaluable for insurance claims!
My garage would love to see stats on how I'm driving the car, so they can prove beyond all doubt that I'm a crap driver!

If there were others that did the same, and we had WiFi mesh capability (or Fon), then we could build an adhoc network that would span Bangkok, or London during rush hour.
How's that for a public, ubiquitous WiFi network!?