Satellite Internet key for mobile connectivity, affordable autonomy?

Nothing affects your Internet experience as powerfully as your connection's bandwidth and any transmission delay.

As the differences between a connected car and a smartphone evaporate, a robust data connection can greatly enhance a vehicle's entertainment, weather, traffic, communication and navigation options.

It can also ease the path to autonomy. That's one reason some automakers are exploring the use of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide the reliable, high-speed connectivity automated vehicles need for everything from over-the-air software updates to vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

For two automakers, Tesla and Geely, it's not a matter of debate. They are creating their own "constellations" of satellites to eventually provide fast, global connectivity for their vehicles and to cut costs.

Literally rocketing ahead of others, Tesla's Elon Musk is using his reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicles to lift 60 satellites at a time into low-Earth orbit — 200 to 900 miles above the Earth's surface.

So far, his $10 billion Starlink system consists of approximately 1,400 satellites, on its way to 42,000. Starlink already claims to have 10,000 beta subscribers, or homeowners who have satellite dishes for receiving Musk's satellite Internet connection.

They pay a roughly $500 initial hardware fee for a 19-inch antenna, terminal and router and a $99 monthly fee for the high-speed, low-latency connection.

Musk plans to expand Starlink service beyond homes and has asked the Federal Communications Commission to widen its connectivity authorization to moving vehicles.

Tesla is not the only company with an eye on the sky. Early last year, Chinese auto and tech giant Zhejiang Geely Holding Group announced it was investing in a $326 million satellite manufacturing plant that will build about 500 units a year by 2025.

Like Starlink, Geespace satellites are destined for low-Earth orbit to enable software updates and transmit diagnostic, navigation, weather and user data from the vehicle back to the company.

Although it is easy to appreciate the advantages of a bigger, more secure global Internet pipe for streaming video or remote navigation and communication, the endgame play may be to significantly lower the cost and complexity of enabling a vehicle to operate autonomously.

There are two approaches. One is the current, very costly model in which all the sensing and computing power is on board with only intermittent Internet connections. A far lower-cost and lower-power-consuming model uses off-board artificial intelligence, cloud computing, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications that are almost constant.

But it would be critical for that vehicle to be securely connected to safely maintain its position within the traffic grid. It would generate and consume enormous amounts of data connected to its maker via satellite-provided AI in the sky.

Another area in which a satellite network's reduced latency could help is in emergency remote-driving scenarios. Starlink says its beta users can expect to see data speeds between 50 and 150 megabytes per second and latency of just 20 to 40 milliseconds (20 milliseconds is the time it takes for a pain signal to travel from your fingertip to your brain).

Occasionally, robot-driving software is overwhelmed by problematic "edge" driving situations such as toll booths, construction zones or loading docks. Lag time between on-board cameras and sensing systems can compromise remote-driver views and responses. Reducing latency would make it closer to operating a vehicle in real time and enhance safety.

How to elegantly connect a moving vehicle with a satellite is another issue companies are tackling.

In Detroit in January 2016, Toyota displayed a Mirai-based concept car with a satellite connection. Partnering with Kymeta, a Redmond, Wash., company, Toyota cleverly replaced the traditional, bulky dish antenna with special software and a sleek, flat-panel roof antenna.

Today, Kymeta claims it has the world's only commercially available el"ectronically steered" satellite antenna.

With no moving parts, it can track the satellite and receive and send Internet data while a vehicle travels at more than 100 mph.

David Fotheringham, Kymeta's director of product management, says he's working with an undisclosed automaker partner. The company's current technology is upgradable to be a key enabler for vehicle-Internet connection and more affordable autonomy.

"In my opinion, the problem everyone is trying to solve for, and no one has a clean answer for yet, is connected autonomy," said Fotheringham.

But like others in the electronics industry, he has confidence that there is a priced-right answer hovering in the wings — and just above the horizon. And he holds a key to possibly unlock autonomy's cost problem.

"I like to draw parallels to the electric car. So, it will not be cheap or free in the beginning. Just like electric vehicles, you're going to see it start in the premium segment and work its way down. So as they put up better satellites, we can scale down our antenna. And the cost can scale down."

Are there any downsides, besides the cost and complication, to these satellite fleets rapidly popping up in low-Earth orbit? Well, the sky is getting crowded as Earth-bound entrepreneurs loft their fleets of satellites, and that could create orbital traffic jams with inevitable high-speed collisions and even more space junk.