“While you’re driving to grandma’s house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles.” –Mark Fields, President of Ford Motor Company of The Americas

That is what is coming our way very soon: Internet access in our cars!

Technology is redefining DUI (Driving Under the Influence). It used to be that the most dangerous person on the road was an intoxicated driver; now there’s more. Texting while driving has received a lot of attention, even as legislators across the country attempt to pass legal bans on it. Now, Ford Motor Company is making a car that is capable of wireless internet access so that the entire family can be online while in the car!

Ford plans to begin providing a USB port in the console of their cars that will accept broadband modems that people use in order to access the Internet on their laptops if they are not near a Wi-Fi hotspot. It would only take one broadband modem for an entire family to be able to access the Internet in these cars.

There is no specific date as to when this technology will be available to the public, but Ford said it would be sometime next year.

The question we cannot help but ask is whether this is a good idea. People are already too distracted while they drive. In addition to the typical on-the-road distractions, cell phones, text messaging, eating, drinking, and managing unruly children could all turn into serious problems while driving.

Can you imagine people checking their email, reading articles, watching YouTube videos, and catching up on the latest episode of The Office or 24 all while in the comfort — and danger — of their own car? It makes me nervous just thinking about what’s coming to our roads.

Of course, some could argue that this is just the natural progression of technological advancements. How often have you been stuck somewhere wishing you had Internet access? It will serve as a very practical, useful tool for those who use it wisely. The challenge, even for the well-intentioned driver, is using such a devise wisely and safely.

I predict that this will only become more controversial as the day of its public appearance draws near. So much has been made of texting and driving because of accidents it has caused. I can only imagine the uproar this will arouse in the same camps.

This technology does remind us, however, that distractions come in all shapes and sizes. There is no way to ban every potential distraction from roads or cars. If successful legislation is to be passed, it is going to have to be based on driver behavior and not any specific device or potentially distracting technology. Quite honestly, if legislation were to be based on banning that which is most distracting on the road, they might have to ban children from their parents’ cars! Clearly they’ll have to find another way!

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(Original photo by eyeliam, used under Creative Commons license.)