Cars in Japan will soon become moving multimedia centers. Pampered passengers can listen to music, watch videos, surf the internet access and navigate by satellite systems. Toshiba, Toyota and Fujitsu have formed the Nihon Mobile Broadcasting Corporation that plans to start transmitting by 2001, according to the Financial Times. Until now, onboard systems in Japan – like the rest of the world – has been dominated by navigation and other information useful to those drivers who spend a long time on the road. But they pay scant regard to the needs of bored passengers – especially children – who need to be entertained on long journeys. The new Japanese venture anticipates a rapid take-up of its services with two million subscribers by 2003 and ten million by 2010. Toyota, the largest car manufacturer in Japan, sees the new venture as a way of compensating for the slow-down in the market for cars. Passengers will certainly have plenty of choice as the system will offer up to 80 channels of video and audio entertainment. In Europe, with the market still in its infancy, most motor manufacturers have still to commit themselves to an online system. Vauxhall Motors Limited, a subsidiary of General Motors Corporation, has said it will announce plans later this year for a system based on Motorola hardware. Without the lower costs that a commitment from big manufacturers will bring, the market is currently limited. Global Telematics, a joint venture between Racal Electronics Plc and mobile phone distributor European Telecom Plc, offers a vehicle tracking and navigation service called Orchid. So far, customers tend to be fleet operators though long-term the company sees a bigger future with more products in a mass market. For the moment, the market goes under the dull name of telematics. Only when it adds the fun that multimedia brings, will the profits really start to roll in.
