|
A Fully Loaded Futuristic Ride |
|
|
Elvis
Presley flew on a tour jet called the Lisa Marie, which was fully loaded
with entertainment amenities including a pool table to occupy his
touring musicians. Football
commentator John Madden travels the country in his Madden Cruiser, a
luxury bus stocked with tailgate-party goodies and a satellite dish to
catch all the NFL action. But neither of them have anything over Scott A. Jones who
makes road trips in his brainchild, Digital Wheels, perhaps the
world’s most high-tech mobile office and entertainment center. When
you are an inventor, community leader, philanthropist and entrepreneur,
every minute of your day is valuable.
Even with a magnificent home full of modern technology and a
state-of-the-art corporate center, Mr. Jones still needs to be plugged
in at all times, even during road trips. Mr.
Jones and his staff devised a plan to make his commuting time as
productive as possible with the creation of Digital Wheels, a
fully loaded Chevrolet Express Extended Van, equipped and wired with
every imaginable high-tech business accoutrement including a conference
table, the latest in multi-media computer equipment, and a cellular
connection to the Internet. The
mobile marvel is the envy of both the road and the information
superhighway. Take
for example Digital Wheels incredible onboard Windows 2000
Server with mobile wireless Internet access. This unprecedented
customized feature allows Mr. Jones to conduct research or surf the web
while traveling between his hi-tech residence and Intech Park, the
business headquarters for Escient Technologies.
And thanks to the ultra shock absorbent suspension and months of
testing, he never loses connectivity, even when hitting the meanest
potholes Indianapolis has to offer. When
he feels like simply relaxing on the ride home after a strenuous day,
Mr. Jones can comfortably kick back in the customized plush leather
seats and call up his favorite tunes from a touch screen where he can
access more than 300 hours of cataloged music, stored on hard discs in
MP3 digital format. The
exterior of this elegant onyx black van with dark tinted windows appears
somewhat stealth-like and non-descript.
Although there is no fancy writing or self-promoting title across
the side of the van, the mind-blowing technology housed inside is like
nothing else on the road. The
head of Escient Technologies and inventor of such indispensable tools as
mass-user voice mail took six months to plan this high-tech vehicle and
have it customized. Now
that it has become part of his daily routine, he calls it “the single
most productive addition to our operations.”
On board, Mr. Jones carries on as though he were in one of his
stationary offices by communicating by e-mail or phone, holding meetings
and conference calls, and viewing presentations with up to eight of his
staff members and/or some of the industry or government movers and
shakers. One
of the initial main reasons for getting the van was to allow these
movers and shakers and Mr. Jones, as chairman of the Indiana Technology
Partnership and related organizations, to stay productive while
traveling Indiana to build coalitions and promote initiatives that will
help establish Indiana as a nationally recognized leader in technology. Aside
from serving as a plush mobile office for one of the world’s most
innovative minds, Digital Wheels does, on occasion, double as a
high-tech family recreational vehicle.
While en route, Mr. Jones and his three sons do, at times, use
this traveling marvel as their personal video game arcade or drive-in
movie theater, without having to even look out the windows. Here
are some of the van’s features:
Lonnie
Ostrow |
|
