A Car with an API

The Chevy Volt's open API and the future of cars.

Ars Technica has a great piece about how the Chevy Volt came to have an open API and what it means for the future of the car. Here's a snippet:

Schwinke said OnStar was already working with a number of other partners to leverage ATOMS' cloud interface—among them electric companies who were looking to extend their "smart grid" services to Volt vehicles. "We've been doing some demonstrations and prototyping with public utility companies for smart grid command and response," he said. "The utility companies can send instructions to the car to control when it charges and when it doesn’t. It can save the car owner money, and flatten electrical demand curves."

On the topic of "internet of things" (aka spimes aka stuff that can communicate with the web), there was also a good piece in the Times last week about GE's efforts in what it's calling the "industrial internet." A snippet from that:

Smarter machines, for example, can alert their human handlers when they will need maintenance, before a breakdown. It is the equivalent of preventive and personalized care for equipment, with less downtime and more output.