Networking :: Data Acquisition System For Vehicle - Access Points

A friend of mine is building a data acquisition system for a vehicle that will wander through city streets and roads and perhaps even off-road places. At the end of the day, back at the garage, the data must be downloaded and, if needed, upload an update of the data acquisition program. The network is wpa_supplicant, and it was chosen an USB device, because the original computer did not had any wireless interface and do not have any other possibility. The problem is that, when the vehicle comes back, very often there is no access to the on-board computer, or the connection lasts just a few minutes.

The computer must be reinitialized so the connection is back and the scripts run completely. Sometimes the connection is made, but the guys are so used to restart the computer that they do it anyhow, and then the connection does not come up, they have to restart it again.I have being thinking, as the vehicle drives all around, perhaps finding some access points along the day, if this connection trials - and failures - are messing up something. Or, the connection instability as the vehicle approaches the garage, could be driving his scripts mad?