With tablet sales continuing to rise, househunters checking out broadband speeds before moving in to a property and new apps being created left, right and centre, the internet's pace of expansion is far from dwindling. Yet there is still one everyday device for the web to breach: the car.
Indeed, motor vehicles across the world are no strangers to advances in technology, including improved safety features, radio control and parking sensors, while the potential for driverless cars is quickly being turned into reality. But now it would appear that internet connectivity is to become a regular feature of new vehicles with some experts suggesting every car will have connectivity by 2014.
BBC News quotes Jack Bergquist, from information company IHS, as saying that car manufacturers are already seeing a sales boost because of the introduction of internet connectivity. Indeed, while access to the world wide web is largely easy in developed nations, it is still proving to be an attraction when purchasing a new motor.
But how will it benefit drivers? According to IHS, dashboards could feature apps that help people find parking spaces, local restaurants or directions. Furthermore, Intel believes that internet-connected cars are now one of the fastest growing technological devices behind tablets and phones.
Mr Bergquist told the news provider that vehicles featuring internet are becoming a sales hit. "Ford has categorically stated that this is selling more cars for them," he noted. "Over 50 percent of consumers would be swayed by the presence of an internet-capable device.
"By the end of 2014, for some of the bigger brands, every vehicle they sell will offer some sort of connectivity. If you look at a cost to design a completely new car model, some companies are spending around a third of the budget just on the in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and the in-car technology around the system."
Technology is not restricted to directions, either, with many experiments showing a countdown clock with the time before a traffic light changes coming up on the dashboard.
Yet while the world is, perhaps, some way away from seeing self-driving cars become widespread on highways and other roads over the next few years, internet connectivity could bridge the gap between this and what we see in a vehicle today.
Will it catch on around the world? And is it safe for drivers to have huge amounts of information placed in front of their eyes?
