(Image source: The Verge )

 

BY LOGAN TITTLE

 

Most of us have heard the no-no’s about using your phone and driving — but what if your phone was your car?

 

Verizon announced it’s teaming up with BMW, Honda and three other automakers to create something called the “4G Venture Forum for Connected Cars.” The goal? To get the fast and furious 4G LTE into your ride.

 

The chief marketing officer for the company said in a press release …

 

“As an innovator in the technology industry, Verizon is a natural impetus for this collaboration, which we all expect will include other companies and spur results that will benefit not only the industry, but millions of consumers around the world.”

 

And Verizon’s not alone. Other companies have also been working to make the dashboard more digital.

 

With Samsung launching its Galaxy S3 featuring MirrorLink, the phone’s screen appears on the dashboard and drivers can still use their phone with approved apps.

 

There’s already a variety of ways to hook up your phone to your car, but Verizon is looking to work use the whole car and GigaOM says that’s not such a bad idea.

 

“Consumer vehicles have long replacement cycles. Meanwhile consumers trade in their smartphones for more-sophisticated models every 18 months. Any radio, processor or platform technology an automaker embeds in a car could become obsolete within a few years. As a new technology, LTE will have a long overall shelf life...”

 

But a writer for Fierce Broadband Wireless cautions: don’t let the fancy technology distract you from the potential fees.

 

“...just because one can send terabits of data zapping around between trucks, cars, motorcycles...and more doesn't mean that...will...justify the expense of setting up the telematics systems or that anyone will profit from the efforts...It could be that piping movies and videoconferencing into a moving vehicle is an iffy, not to mention expensive, proposition.”

 

Wireless Week reports the Cadillac already comes equipped with an in-vehicle LTE modem through Verizon Wireless and ABI research estimate the connected car system could grow from 45 million to 210 million by 2016.