Imagine the scene. You’re stuck on the motorway. Work, the office, the Cloud Computing Solutions and Virtual IT department seem a lifetime away. Suddenly, that  Crowdsourced to-do list you’ve left behind on your desk looks just a tad more enticing.

This is the big summer road trip. There are three others in your convoy but who knows where they’ve got to- and frankly, who cares? The radio plays the same old songs you heard yesterday and the day before, and the month before that. Your partner is moaning in the seat next to you and as for the kids on the backseat…The holiday isn’t starting out too well.

At least the clouds might offer a form of escapism. And I’m not talking about the puffy, floating ones either.

Forget the fancy new iPhone, the new form of inter-car road trip communication could be revolutionised thanks, in part, to the students of a 12-week course in ‘Cloud Computing in the Commute’ at the University of Michigan.

A Ford car sponsored competition allowed the students to create their own dream Cloud based application, of which the winning entry would be used on Ford Fiesta research cars on a genuine road trip to the Silicon Valley, California.

The apps from the winning project (titled ‘Caravan Track’) allow users to track the details of their travel convoy while they continue their journey towards the collective destination. Information about road conditions and hazards can be sent via a multiple-choice interface that eliminates the need to type. This technology could be especially useful for international truck drivers or for the bus drivers on school trips involving the use of more than one vehicle.

Caravan Track and three other apps were used in the Californian road trip, which included:

Virtual Road Rally- The app allows users to define points-of-interest (POIs) or physical landmarks, similar to those found in a road rally. The app can take the form of a “treasure hunt,” revealing information about various POIs as drivers reach them.

Auto”matic Blog- The blog attempts to elevate the car to its rightful standing as an equal member of the team, providing it with a personality and way to communicate its mood. The car itself, dubbed @AJtheFiesta, will automatically blog or tweet statements about the journey based on information it gathers from various vehicle data sensors or engine computer codes.

Local Search- The search uses a built-in social media component via the social networking app Foursquare. Each time the vehicle makes a stop, it will check in with Foursquare to identify the location, and it can also search for nearby restaurants, gas stations and parks.

It’s a new-age satellite navigation system. Just better!

So how might this have remedied the hypothetical holiday predicament? Well for starters, fellow road tripper Bob, (who fortunately negotiated his party away from the traffic congestion on the motorway) could have provided some traffic alerts which may have prevented your involvement in the jam in the first place. The telemetry and geographical data from his car would have also offered you a path to try and follow.

The local search app would have provided ready access to the nearest service and petrol stations, as your fellow passengers begin their inevitable complaints about their desperate need for the bathroom. The app could also be used for arranging rendezvous points. After all, you have access to your fellow vehicle’s fuel level and speed stats- and the data is live- so as either of you move, the other tracks exactly where you are and where you’re going.

The virtual road rally app might offer light-relief to passengers in both cars, as they pass by sights or points of interest- and record them for the others observation. Hey, anything to shut them up for a few minutes right? And while the blog app probably wouldn’t help this particular scenario, it might amuse your friends to hear of your travel frustrations.

Unfortunately, this form of cutting-edge cloud computing technology continues to be developed. For now, you’ll just have to switch off, while the moaning, arguing and the infuriating cries of: “Are we nearly there yet?” echo around you…