Starlink Direct to Vehicles Announced
In a move that we’ve long anticipated, Elon Musk has said that a limited Starlink internet connection will begin to rollout to Tesla vehicles once SpaceX has deployed their second generation of communications satellites.
On August 24th, SpaceX and T-Mobile made a joint announcement which described an ambitious plan to utilize the new Starlink V2 satellites and T-Mobile’s mid-band PCS spectrum of their 5g network to make Starlink internet service available to mobile phones in remote regions previously unreachable by standard methods.
The two companies warned that the connection bandwidth would be low; only about 2-4 megabits per 25 square meter area created by the cellular antennas, which will now be mounted on every Starlink V2 satellite.
And while this isn’t enough to do more than text and call at low quality, the use of Starlink satellites had Elon hinting that Tesla users will eventually have connectivity in some of the most remote places on the planet through their vehicle. And - more importantly - they’ll be able to make emergency calls and texts in remote areas way more reliably. It’s an incredibly cool use of tech that shows off the versatility and usefulness of the Starlink system.
And that’s great news because SpaceX recently just won a court case which will give FCC approval for Starlink satellites to be placed in a lower orbit.
The case originally brought against SpaceX by competitors Viasat and DISH Network Corp claimed that the lower-than-planned orbit, and the much greater amount of satellites SpaceX intends on launching, would cause “[...] harmful impacts that otherwise may persist for decades or even centuries [...]”
Which, fair enough, the impact of mega-constellations hasn’t been fully looked into yet. But it rings a bit hollow when the lawsuit is being brought about by direct competitors.
Regardless, SpaceX won the suit and now has FCC approval to launch at the lower orbit, which would likely help this new T-Mobile deal achieve more reliable connectivity.
The plan isn’t going to be put into action any time soon - SpaceX still needs Starship operational to launch those V2 satellites - but without any hardware upgrades necessary on the driver’s end, some Tesla owners are sure to be happy for the extra functionality, and T-Mobil users can go camping without losing all their bars.