Quote:
Originally Posted by Hack&Lube
Yeah, it's silly. It's no different than turning on the mobile hotspot feature of your phone while you are in the car. Hey look, WiFi is now in my car! You are still using the data on your phone!
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Well not sure if silly is the right word; it is marketing for those who don't know how to chance their ringtone, nevermind setting up a wifi hotspot on their phone for others in the car to use. It's also a revenue source, that's bundled with OnStar (in GM's case).
Though, I think they do have different carriers, and can handoff, so when out of the range of one network (Rogers, if in Alberta), can pick up Bell/Telus etc.
Speaking in GM terms, where most of the lineup has wifi, it's just now having that hotspot capability, as the data/connected function has been part of Onstar for 10+ years. I've had a handful of GM cars with Onstar, all of them had their own phone number, and had to buy minutes to use them. Now of course, the data connection is added on top of that, for a monthly fee....again, for those who don't want/unable to fool around with phone connectivity, or, draining their phone battery etc etc.
Having that network capability allows things such as remote functionality (through an app and otherwise) to be connected to the car to do basic functions (start, unlock doors etc) and diagnose issues remotely.