Honda sees the way ahead through a Webcam

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Honda is looking at another creative application of navigation 2.0--our phrase for Internet-connected driving. According to the New Scientist, Honda has filed an application for a patent for a system that affixes numerous Webcams to a car's rear-view mirrors. These cameras would then use a cellular connection to relay images--as well as their respective speeds and GPS coordinates--in real time to a central server, which could then be accessed via the Internet by other motorists interested in the current traffic situation. The patent application says that the service would enable drivers "to take virtual trips along predetermined routes". To respect the anonymity of the data being uploaded, Honda says that the cameras could be set to cut out when the car came within a preset distance of any area selected by the driver. (If Honda is planning to affix this technology to the Remix concept car that we saw at the LA Auto Show last week, however, it will need to beef up the car's rear-view mirrors.)

We have already seen that Honda is thinking hard about the age of internet connected cars with its Japan-only Internavi Premium Club, which enables members to tag points of interest (such as restaurants) on navigation-system maps that are then updated via a central server, and through its $5M investment in Canesta, a company specializing in 3D camera technology.

Via Engadget

[kirkbob]

Let's give up more privacy

Just what I want, my car helping track me down wherever I am. Bad enough that all new cell phones come with GPS, I don't need my car spying on me too.

[jmorris9999]

The major result..

will be a thousand fold increase in the number of "Ah crap" pictures floating around the net. "Hey [insert email addresses of 1300 people], look at the expression on this guys face right before the Escalade t-bones his Yugo!"