Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy makes a point during Monday's keynote address at Convergence 2000.

Coming as it does from someone whose fundamental business premise is that "anything with a digital heartbeat should be connected," the assertion by Detroit native Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems that the automobile is "nothing more than a Java browser with tires" is not surprising.

For some executives in the automotive sector, it may be alarming. Which is precisely the effect the Sun Chairman and CEO was shooting for in his keynote address Monday at Convergence 2000, the biennial conference dedicated to automotive electronics that is electrifying Cobo Center in Detroit this week.

McNealy sees the Internet -- with Sun servers -- as the vehicle by which cars and drivers are connected to myriad service providers. In McNealy's connected world, a car would be able to deal with a low-fuel situation in a businesslike manner by using the Internet to notify all nearby refueling stations that "I have an empty tank of gas here for sale. Start bidding now, because in 60 seconds I'm going to the dashboard with a recommendation to my driver." Then the vehicle -- again enabled by Java-based Internet technology -- would talk the driver to the winning refueling station."

Internet connectivity also would allow for real-time monitoring and recording of vehicle functional parameters -- similar to the purpose of aircraft black boxes, but with the data stored off-board. In addition to helping reconstructionists piece together accident puzzles, the information (McNealy would keep two minutes' worth) would allow parents to track the whereabouts of their behind-the-wheel teenagers. "Some people call this big brother; I call it 'dad,'" McNealy said. "It could be a very positive thing if done in a conditional-access way." Insurance companies, for example, could offer lower rates to customers who allow this type of telemetry information to be recorded.

"How much telemetry are we getting from your vehicle today? Zero," he said, qualifying the answer to his own question by adding that OnStar does provide some information, but not of the type that can be used for marketing purposes. The name of the game today for OEMs, suppliers, financial institutions, and everyone else is to get customers to register with a company online, according to McNealy.

"There's going to be a very interesting battle for driver's registration," which translates into "dashboard hours," he said. McNealy calls registration the "killer app... the leading economic indicator of long-term revenues for your company."

"If I were Jack Nasser or Rick Wagoner, I'd be asking my team how many of our automobiles do we now have in our vehicle-service-provider directory? How many VINs are we getting telemetry from? The two major relationships that automobile manufacturers need to start having are with their cars, and with every driver of those cars."

McNealy isn't sure who will be the winner in the shakeout, but "I do know that he or she with the largest directory wins in the online world."

He's also sure that an open-architecture, Internet-based approach is the best way for OEMs to turn the vehicle's electronics system into a money-maker in terms of providing services to customers. The Sun way, McNealy noted, allows any electronic device brand to be used, allowing for updated electronics throughout the vehicle's life.

"You know you've got the right in-vehicle electronics when the...ongoing service revenue from that product is so great and so compelling that you can give the car away for free and get a subscription rate on the in-vehicle electronics that represents a better net present value than the one-time sales price, whether it's a component to an OEM or the actual car from the vehicle manufacturer," he said.

McNealy's final piece of advice related to -- you guessed it -- the Internet. Only by becoming familiar with it in conducting business will a company be able to capitalize on it in the vehicle. Online auctions is not a bad place to begin (Why do we have price lists? That's so last millennium," he said). "The point I'm trying to make is you've got to dotcom your business and start operating on the Internet so you can understand how your car ought to be operating on the Internet."