Philippe Gaches, Director of Telematics and Multimedia Perspectives, Citron

The list of notable premieres at this year's Cannes Film Festival wasn't restricted to the usual spate of Hollywood blockbusters and critical darlings — in fact, it wasn't exclusive to movies. French automaker Citroën selected Cannes 2003 as the launching pad for its new C3 Pluriel, the first mass-produced car equipped with Wi-Fi technology.

The Pluriel isn't Citroën's first detour into Internet-enabled vehicles — the Xsara includes voice-activated Web and e-mail access — but the high call costs and slow download speeds of its GSM-based system effectively relegated the service solely to business users. Wi-Fi, on the other hand, boasts the access speeds and minimal costs that make in-car Internet possible for all vehicles, Porsche and Pinto alike.

“We now have the possibility to send to the auto PC information,” said Philippe Gaches, an electronics veteran who two years ago was named Citroën's Director of Telematics and Multimedia Perspectives. “It's communications between the world and the car.”

Wi-Fi is the linchpin of what Gaches and Citroën call vehicle relations management, or VRM. They imagine the wireless Internet as a means to keep in close contact with the automobiles that roll off their assembly lines, enabling the transmission of safety messages and diagnostic information to and from each vehicle. With the addition of a 3G mobile device, a car could even become its own hot spot.

According to Gaches, Citroën plans to accelerate its Wi-Fi plans slowly — the Pluriel C3 isn't even yet commercially available, and when it does appear, the first application available to drivers will be video and multimedia downloads. From there, the company plans to install special hot spots at petrol stations and other similar locations as outposts for drivers to send and receive critical data. But Citroën has big plans for the technology, Gaches said: “We like to think about what can be.”