Subject: [NEXTEL-1] GM CTO sees auto industry embracing RFID by 2008

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 11:20:43 -0400

GM CTO sees auto industry embracing RFID by 2008

By Bob Brewin
OCTOBER 23, 2003

LAS VEGAS

The automobile industry will be using radio frequency identification ( RFID)
technology to track parts throughout its supply chain within three to five
years -- and automobiles produced during that same time frame will feature
built-in wireless systems, according to Anthony Scott, chief technology
officer at General Motors Corp.

On a more immediate note, Scott said GM has decided to migrate all of its
desktop computers worldwide -- between 110,000 and 120,000 of them -- to
Office 2003, which Microsoft Corp. introduced this week.

Scott, a speaker here at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet
Association annual Wireless IT and Entertainment conference, said at a lunch
yesterday for reporters that GM decided to move to Office 2003 because of
its built-in XML capabilities. GM, Scott said, has "a lot of XML-enabled
applications."

The automaker, however, will not change its operating system on those
desktops, Scott said. It will stick with Windows 2000 for now, though at
some future date it does plan to move to to Windows XP or an updated version
of that operating system.

As for the RFID technology, which stores supply-chain data on small tags
equipped with antennas, Scott said he expects the entire automobile industry
to eventually embrace it in the same way Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to use
RFID tags in its supply chain. "It will happen," Scott said, adding that the
use of the tags will require backing from the entire automobile industry.
Scott said GM has already worked with the MIT Auto-ID Center on the
development of standards for the tags' use.

He also predicted that GM will deploy some kind of short-range,
high-bandwidth technology such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Ultrawideband
technology in automobiles within three to five years, starting first with
high-end vehicles and then moving the technology throughout its line. These
built-in wireless systems could be used for diagnostics and to help
consumers transfer MP3 audio files between home and car stereo systems.
Consumers, he said, "will demand" this kind of wireless connectivity.

And on a different topics, he said remote GM workers now use a wide range of
devices to access corporate networks -- including BlackBerry pagers from
Research In Motion Ltd., handhelds from Palm Inc. and notebook computers
from Hewlett-Packard Co. As a result, the company has determined the only
way it can support such a variety of access devices is through the use of
middleware, which allows any device to access corporate applications and
e-mail.

GM uses middleware from both Extended Systems Inc. in Boise, Idaho, and
Synchrologic Inc. in Atlanta. These companies provide the automaker with the
software that "connects applications to end devices," Scott sai

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,86402,00.html

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