Great idea: BitTorrent for cars

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- UCLA researchers are working on a project called "CarTorrent" -- a kind of BitTorrent for cars. It's not what you think.

The idea is to build peer-to-peer networks into cars, enabling them to receive, then pass along to other cars, emergency and other information. If there's an accident that will affect traffic, for example, a police cruiser could enter that information into the network, then broadcast it to all cars within 300 meters of each other. Those cars would broadcast to cars within range, and so on -- right down the highway.

It's a great idea, assuming that 1) enough cars get the networking equipment; 2) it's faster than mobile broadband -- otherwise, why bother; and 3) it becomes truly peer-to-peer and isn't just a one-to-many system for authorities to broadcast.

The most obvious applications would be providing full Internet access, and also location-specific information, such as restaurant ads or historical, tourist or other information as you pass specific locations.

The researchers are working with car companies (Toyota and BMW), the government's Vehicle Information Infrastructure Consortium and, through them, the IEEE 802.11p Committee.

I'd love to see this become a reality -- especially if they do it right and make it secure, fast and open.

What do you think?