Chambers envisions Internet-enabled cars

Kevin Ferguson

Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2001 | 9:39 a.m.

Cisco Systems Chief Executive John Chambers envisions a world where people drive Internet-enabled cars, which alert motorists when they need repairs and tell where the nearest repair shop is.

This may sound like a vision that would come from a technology executive before the Internet bubble burst last year.

But Chambers, speaking at the Comdex tech trade show in Las Vegas Monday, was confident that the next tech boom is not far away and could push the economy out of its current slump.

"I've never been so optimistic over the (software) applications coming in the next decade," said Chambers, one of the world's most important technology executives whose company makes products routing much of the globe's Internet traffic.

Chambers said companies that will lead the "virtual global corporation" movement will have four things in common: speed to the market, a strong brand name, good culture and talent.

"It's about the fast beats the slow and companies that can retain talent and handle the tough transitions that make it as industries consolidate," Chambers said.

The San Jose, Calif.-based executive said the Internet and related computer applications have enabled him to run his multi-billion corporation from anywhere in the world.

Chambers demonstrated how a coffee shop could incorporate the web, so that motorists could order drinks as they drive to the java pub.

Verner Dixon Jr., a vice president of Las Vegas consulting firm IT Strategies International, said he was intrigued at how Chambers envisions all the networks tying together. But Dixon said the U.S. mass market is perhaps a decade away from that environment.

"We first need the telecom industry to build the infrastructure," Dixon said.

Dixon said the next step would be for companies, like a car repair shop or coffee shop, to invest in the networking technology. He noted that won't happen in the current economic environment.

"Even the tech companies are nervous because they are forced to lay off their key people who would develop the technology," Dixon said. "But (the industry) will bounce back over time."

And when it does, when will the technology spread to Las Vegas?

"Las Vegas has always been behind the curve in terms of new technology," Dixon said.

But that's changing thanks to casino properties realizing that the resorts need high bandwidth to satisfy their net-savvy customers who want to remain connected to their office, he said.

Chambers said the broadband revolution will be key to the new wave of software applications. This is a revolution on which the United States is falling behind, he said.

He said out of the G-7 nations, or Group of Seven major industrial democracies, only the United States and Italy do not have a broadband policy.

That's a problem, he said, because the Internet and education are "the equalizers in life" that will drive the next wave of economic growth.

"Every economic upturn we have had was based on (increased) productivity," Chambers said."Jobs will go where productivity is highest."