Also, I can’t remember the last time I listened to commercial radio. Here in the Philly area, we are blessed with XPN and a great NPR station as well, so there is no need in my home or car for commerical radio. So count me as a big vote no for commercials on satellite radio. Commercials I do not need.

I think economics and logistics are more important concerns than technology. You seem to take for granted the reality of “once wifi is everywhere and all cars have receivers.” In its present form, I can’t foresee the day when wifi is “everywhere.” In particular, the U.S. interstate system runs through some of the country’s greatest vast nothingness. If wifi infrastructure is installed along these routes, I don’t expect that it will be free. I’m sure that it will be a subscription service and might even be more expensive than a satellite radio subscription is currently. I don’t work in this field so I don’t have cost estimates, but I’d estimate that covering the entire country with wifi is vastly more expensive than launching a satellite. I expect that if internet access does become standard in cars, it will at least initially be satellite-based.

Also, most “internet radio” is essentially websites with audio streams. Given that we’re currently considering banning cell phone use by drivers, I find it hard to envision a time when a computer console sits on the dash and drivers are free to surf the web. For use in automobiles, I’d think that internet radio would have to be assembled into discrete channels that could be navigated like a satellite or AM/FM radio, and this would require a service that would at least structurally, if not technologically, resemble satellite radio and probably would not be free.

very clever sir.

Can you go a little more into why Satellite and Internet are essentially the same. Once Wi-Fi is everywhere and all cars have receivers, wont they be super different in the sense that satellite radio has had to pay for their own infrastructure while the internet stations will get to piggyback on existing infrastructure, i.e satellite radio has to actually put up satellites? I could be totally wrong and I freely admit that I have very little idea of how any sound is sent through the air and comes out of speakers in my car.