"The thing about a car is, you've got two big issues. You've got vibration, so when you want to stream video to a car, you've got to deal with vibration. And you have a very tough environmental condition. The car industry, the automobile industry has put a very tough environmental spec out. This is the first drive that meets that environmental spec, which is it has to be able to operate in minus 30 to 80 degrees C. So it's very cold in Minneapolis and very hot in Texas. But this is the first drive designed to do that and also designed to deal with the vibration issues of streaming video."
Watkins says using wireless networks or high speed cell phone networks, consumers will be able to download and store video and music onto hard drives in cars. TV shows that have been recorded onto hard drives in the home…could be transferred to the car for the kids to watch, for instance, while on long trips. And when it comes to music…
"So if you're listening to a song on the radio and I say…who is that? Maybe I want to buy that CD or whatever. If you have a hard drive and you hear a song, you push a button, you download that song, charge you 99 cents, you have it on a hard drive and then you move it to your MP3."
Watkins says the technology is on its way. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.