Intel's Smart WiMAX Car -- Mobility "Innovision" for Centrino 2

posted by Ken Kaplan on July 12, 2008

Intel baked mobility smarts into a new, eco-friendly Mercedes-Benz Smart car to show the wonders of mobile WiMAX while tooling down the road. It’s the next iteration of an away-from-home and out-of-office moving conduit connecting us to Al Gore’s information superhighway — a.k.a. life on the Internet.

If you’re in San Francisco on Monday, July 14 between 4 and 6:30 p.m., come see the WiMAX car in action at the Mezzanine. That’s where Intel’s celebrating the release of Intel Centrino 2, the second coming of the original Centrino, which brought built-in Wi-Fi and great battery life to laptops, helping ignite the worldwide demand for wireless Internet access in cafes, airports, hotels and other private and public places back in 2003.

If you’re an interested member of the press or blogger in the area, ask for me at the door and I’ll try getting you inside the press event to see the collection of new laptops. Maybe we’ll see something like this CNET story showing the new HP laptop. I’ll keep adding more stories here collection of Centrino 2 stories.

Intel’s Smart car shows the capabilities of driving while connecting to the high speed Internet using a mobile WiMAX connection. It’s rigged with Centrino laptop computing technology and has a daylight viewable touchscreen display integrated into the dash.

There are two Webcams, including one hidden in the rear view mirror pointed at the driver and another directed out the front window. And the 5.1 surround sound system plus GPS navigation system keep you in the groove — it’s not always the destination, but the travel between.

Inside the car, we can make Skype voice and video calls, select music on demand or find episodes of TV shows using services available on the Internet.

Crazy or brilliant? That’s how Time Magazine described an earlier Intel mobility technology demo on NBC’s “Today Show,” where they showed off Intel’s Wi-Fi Surfboard chosen as one of Time’s 2004 Coolest Innovations.

We shot this video on a spectacular day when I pulled the tech demo team out to the beach in Half Moon Bay, California.

It’s fun to look back before turning and taking a leap ahead. Like a twist of the old saying: you know better where you’re going when you know where you’ve been.

If you can’t make out on Monday, we’ll shoot a cruise through the streets of San Francisco’s SOMA district, capture video and share it on this blog. Meantime, please share any mobility lifestyle “innovision” ideas you have.

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tagged: Centrino 2, intelcentrino2, Montevina, Smart car, Wi-Fi, WiMAX