Over-use of in-car mobile devices during traffic jams will cause havoc

Traffic jams of the future may cause dangerous data snarl-ups, as cars packed with entertainment, and safety and navigation features, vie for airwaves with smartphones, tablets and networked features in other vehicles, according to a study.

By 2024, on mobile networks, machine-to-machine (M2M) connections will have jumped ten-fold, to 2.3bn, from 250m in 2014. Half these links will be automotive, said the study by Machina Research.

On the roads, about one in five vehicles worldwide will have a wireless network connection by 2020 (that’s a quarter of a billion connected vehicles), forecasts technology research firm, Gartner.