Chrysler announced today that in-car Internet hotspots would be available as an option on all new models for around $500. The service, offered through Autonet Mobile, combines a cellular EVDO modem with a WiFi hotspot to offer constant conductivity within a 100 foot radius of the vehicle—making it "convenient to access the Internet at a soccer field or family picnic," according to the announcement.

Chrysler calls the new system UConnect Web and says it will be available in August. The best part seems to be the price, which is $29 a month for apparently unlimited data use (though if you already pay for an EVDO card, you'll have to cough up again to get the service in the car).

Chrysler promises speeds of 400-800Kbps on average when downloading, consistent with our own findings when using EVDO networks. The downside for families on trips is that EVDO service can get spotty between cities, especially out West, so listening to that streaming audio version of This American Life might become a rage-inducing exercise. (The system can also access slower networks.)



He's using the Internet! In a car!

The system offers connectivity to any WiFi device including PSPs, PDAs, smartphones, and more, and encrypts the signal with WEP, which as we all know is highly secure (the technically-inclined may want to use the optional MAC filtering). How long will it be until we see the first court case involving a tailgating vehicle that has hacked into to the WiFi connection of the minivan up ahead? I picture a band of nerds following a Chrysler in their Priuses and Metros, trying to jockey close enough to get a signal, Road Warrior style.

You can see a video of the system in action on Chrysler's official blog, but be warned: it looks a lot like a dude sitting in the back of a car, typing on an Eee keyboard.

When I was a kid, my apparently insane parents used to stuff three kids and a batch of suitcases into a non-air-conditioned Chevy Celebrity and drive from Chicago to Florida for a bit of time on the beach. While the constant connectivity of today's world can sometimes make it hard for families to tear their collective eyes away from laptop screens, iPods, and Nintendo DS handhelds in order to engage in face-to-face communication, the long hours spent in that station wagon have convinced me that a bit of electronic distraction isn't a wholly bad thing. It's certainly preferable to lengthy poking fights with your brother and/or sister, and it definitely beats listening to a Weird Al cassette on repeat or playing the "alphabet game" for the 28th time.

In the future, road trip dialogues might look more like this:

Kid: "Are we almost there yet?"

Dad: "No."

Kid: "Great."

And then Little Timmy's back to Twittering about the New Mexico landscape out his window and uploading photos of it to his Facebook page.

Mom, meanwhile, is hunched over in the passenger seat, unable to stop obsessively editing the Perkins report for work, while Timmy's older brother is in the back seat, a jacket over his head, looking at women in bikinis. Family road trips may never be the same.