Information superhighway hits the road

The information superhighway is coming to the interstate.

Surfing the Web, real-time traffic updates, downloading movies or music, even remote game-playing are now possible from the road thanks to new Internet devices that can turn a car into a moving high-tech hub.

The car will be home to "the fourth screen," said Paul Lego , chief executive of Dash Navigation Inc. "First screen is the TV; second, the PC; third, the phone; and the fourth logical place for a screen is the car."

Lego's California-based company is trying to claim a spot on your dashboard with a computer console that combines on board navigation with limited Web access. WAAV Inc. of Cambridge makes a mobile wireless router that transforms a car into a WiFi hotspot. And Autonet Mobile Inc. of San Francisco will begin shipping a wireless router that plugs into the cigarette lighter this spring.

All the devices use the data networks that wireless carriers have spent billions to build, but with slightly different goals.

WAAV's and Autonet Mobile's boxes create in-car WiFi, allowing driver and passengers to connect to the Internet with all kinds of devices, from laptops to Sony's PlayStation Portable to the new generation of Skype phones.

That means kids in the back seat can watch YouTube videos or log on to social-networking websites such as MySpace.com, while adults in the front can search for the nearest furniture store or kid-friendly restaurant.

Already, people can use their cell phones to surf the Web, but many of those services have been slow to gain widespread adoption because the small screen and keyboard are not an ideal way to access information. "We're a seated environment -- a car is more a cross between cellphone and the home, and with that come different devices you want to power," said Sterling Pratz, chief executive of Autonet Mobile.

Both Autonet and WAAV say they can deliver a high-speed broadband connection similar to DSL service, although speeds vary depending on cell coverage.

The Dash Express brings Internet to the car, but on a single screen that has limited offerings. For example, drivers or passengers can use Yahoo's local search engine to find businesses, look up movie times, or browse gas prices. But they are locked into Dash's offerings, and won't have unfettered access to the entire Web while weaving through traffic.

Both approaches represent the obvious next step in the evolution of "car convergence," according to Rory Altman , a director at Altman Vilandrie & Co., a Boston-based consulting firm.

"People spend a lot of time in their cars, and there's a real gap in the availability of information in your car," Altman said. "We are increasingly, as individuals, being trained to use the Internet to find information of commercial significance, and when we're in the car, we're completely lacking the tools."

Such connectivity doesn't come cheap. WAAV's AirBox CM3 sells for $499. WAAV's mobile Internet connection is from Sprint Nextel Corp., and costs $59.99 a month to customers with a qualifying voice plan from the wireless provider, and $79.99 for those without one. Autonet Mobile will sell its box for $399 and is working to become the first vehicle-based Internet service provider by selling a high-speed Internet connection for $49.95 a month. Both services claim to work pretty much anywhere that cellphones work.

The Dash Express, which will cost between $600 and $800, with a $10 to $15 monthly fee, sits on the dashboard and looks like a GPS navigation system with a touch screen. But maps are updated automatically and real-time traffic information can be overlaid on commuting routes through an Internet connection. Each driver also becomes part of Dash's traffic information network; every unit shares its commuting speeds with the network, which uses that information to recalculate travel times over particular routes.

"You're driving, you're commuting. You want a device that gives you the information you need that's relevant," Lego said.

All the companies are working on services that blur the line between the cubicle, the car, and the home to give drivers more control.

And one other thing, too.

"You can never," Altman said, "underestimate the value of keeping the kids quiet on a long car trip."

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.