(FORTUNE Magazine) – At a time when people are connected at home, in the office, and even on top of Mount Everest, the automobile has remained more or less an isolation chamber. Even drivers who cruise the expressway with one ear on their cell phone and the other on metro traffic don't really have much up-to-date, firsthand information, particularly about where they are or where they are going. When you consider that Americans collectively spend 700 million hours a week going somewhere in a car, that's a lot of lost time.

Now, however, wireless technology is transforming the car from a 3,500-pound, $25,000 transportation appliance into a multimedia data center and productivity tool. Drivers will, of course, have access to e-mail, stock quotes, and ball scores just as they do everywhere else. But they will also get a lot of new information that will greatly enhance their ability to manage time.

By being plugged in, drivers will be able to get where they are going faster. Say you're heading to the airport in a strange city on a Friday afternoon. That's a stress-inducing situation for most people, but not in a connected car. It will come with a real-time navigation system, so that a global-positioning satellite will be able to pinpoint your location while an Internet-based traffic map processes data from roadside sensors to alert you to bottlenecks. Once you reach the airport another map will direct you to an empty parking space, where sensors and bar-code readers will automatically produce a rental-car receipt. A quick check of flight information on your in-car Web browser will reveal that your flight is delayed, allowing you to stroll leisurely through the terminal to your gate.

This scenario is a couple of years down the road (the traffic sensors are the sticky part), but mobile connectivity will soon be generating truckloads of dough for a wide range of providers. A new report by UBS Warburg estimates that global consumers, who will pay about $4 billion this year to connect their cars, could be shelling out $24 billion a year by 2005. Initially, electronics hardware will account for most of the outlays, but eventually the big money will come from subscription fees for cell phones and special features like personal concierge services.

Those are large numbers in the profit-challenged auto business, but until recently manufacturers have been slow to plug in. Even though the underlying electronics technology might already exist, it takes three years for a new car model with the gear installed to travel from the design center to the showroom. Car designers are still trying to figure out how many features they can add to crowded dashboards before drivers become fatally distracted. Manufacturers must also get screens, switches, and other delicate devices to operate with 100% reliability under more rugged conditions than those of a typical home or office.

At the same time, U.S. consumers have been reluctant buyers. GPS navigation devices can be clunky to use and sometimes send you off in the wrong direction. Wireless services like General Motors' OnStar come mainly on luxury vehicles like the Cadillac DeVille and Buick Park Avenue, whose golden-age owners are slow to glom onto new technology. And the features themselves haven't been very sexy. Safety and security protection like automatic 911 accident notification and stolen-car tracking are the main offerings of most services, but they're like life insurance: nice to have but no fun to pay for.

Over the next several months, though, the barriers to consumer resistance should start to fall as better, easier-to-use features become available. GM is set to introduce a new version of OnStar with a service called Virtual Advisor, which will let users access information from a personalized Web page using voice commands. Saying "Start my e-mail" will prompt Virtual Advisor to translate messages into speech and deliver the information using synthesized voice. For $125 a year, Mercedes-Benz is offering a similar service that displays the data on a screen. Meanwhile, Delphi Automotive Systems, a big auto supplier, is due to unveil what it calls a mobile productivity center. A user will be able to dock a Palm V or an Ericsson cell phone in any of three locations in the car. He can then command the units to, say, read his appointment schedule or dial a phone number from his directory.

What the wired car really needs in order to catch on big, though, is buzz. Cell phones didn't become ubiquitous until Manolo Blahnik-wearing shoppers started flaunting them on Madison Avenue. What might give the connected car the push it needs is proximity marketing. Not too long from now, drivers will be able to push a button when they pass a Home Depot or a Burger King to receive a message about the day's specials. The device could even dispense electronic coupons for additional discounts. Possibly annoying, true, but who can resist a bargain?

--Alex Taylor III