At last week’s GigaOm Mobilize AT&T’s Chris Penrose, SVP of Emerging Solutions announced the AT&T deal to be the cell data provider for Tesla.
Tesla turns to AT&T to power its connected car strategy
OCT. 17, 2013 - 11:29 AM PDT3 Comments
SUMMARY:At Mobilize 2013, AT&T announced a crucial partnership with Tesla that brings the mobile company into the driver’s dashboard.
This is the start of having the option to your car being uber connected.
In order to take advantage of AT&T’s offerings, the vehicles must be equipped with a modem and a corresponding SIM card to connect to cell towers. With the connection, the car can take advantage of several maintenance, entertainment and safety features. For example, remote engine diagnostics can keep real-time tabs on how the Tesla is performing, and whether it needs to be taken in for servicing. That same program can also help locate a car if it’s stolen, and even offer Tesla engineers access to data on the performance of vehicles over the long term. The modem provides internet access to provide radio services, live weather and traffic, navigation and even internet search for drivers and passengers.
“We think that you should have the ability to turn your car on as a mobile hotspot for your trip, even if you haven’t subscribed to a data plan,” Penrose added.