Imagine zooming down the highway at 65 mph, racing from the open spaces of Texas, through the wheat fields of Kansas, to the grasslands of southern Canada, and finishing in Calgary, Alberta. Now imagine enjoying seamless communications -- no dropped calls or dead spots -- while also having access to the Internet, with computer data streaming back and forth between a six-vehicle caravan extending over 20 miles.

For the members of the University of Michigan Solar Car team, this is no fantasy. It is a necessity. "For most of us, we expect cellular dead spots when we go on a road trip but for teams competing in the 2005 North American Solar Challenge, communication is crucial," said Jeff Ferman, a member of the University of Michigan Strategy Race crew.

For 12 days in July, the University of Michigan (UM) team will join more than 40 other solar car teams in the 2005 North American Solar Challenge that begins July 17 in Austin, Texas and ends July 28 in Calgary, Alberta.

To enable the UM team to communicate between its solar car, Momentum, its six support vehicles, and a home base in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Motorola is installing state-of-the-art communications technology in the team's vehicles at Motorola's Schaumburg campus on April 21. Later in April and early May, team engineers will complete communications equipment installation at the team's campus site.

"This team is being outfitted with top-of-the-line communications equipment, some of which is not even commercially available," said Gary Grube, Motorola Corporate vice president, Technology. "Using two-way radios, cellular, broadband satellite and Mesh Networking technologies, the UM team will enjoy true seamless mobility. No matter where they are, even while moving, the team will be able to communicate with each other and home base, using both voice and data. And by using Motorola Multi-Hopping™ Mesh technology they'll form an ad hoc wireless peer-to-peer network among all caravan of vehicles."

"The Motorola equipment will give us reliable and secure communication between all our vehicles, the driver and our home base," said Robert Vogt, Momentum's Strategy director. "Secure communication gives us a competitive advantage by preventing other race teams from accessing our information and using it to their advantage."

"For example, the weather is crucial. Being a solar car we need to follow the sun. Using satellite and Mesh Broadband capabilities we will be able to access the Internet and weather information virtually anywhere, anytime," said Mirai Aki, Momentum's Engineering director. "Knowing the weather before we drive into it enables us to adjust our course or speed so we can maximize the solar power available."

The 2005 North American Solar Challenge is 2,450 miles in total. Each day the team will travel between 200 and 300 miles, using two drivers per day.

The UM Solar team also will compete in the 2005 World Solar Challenge in Australia in September. The UM team has won three national championships and has placed third twice in the World Solar Challenge.

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