Bloomberg reports GM Enables Drivers to Order Espressos, Pancakes From the Road.
GM’s service — which is made for use while driving — is initially limited to about a dozen vendors but the automaker wants to add other brands and capabilities as it expands the service. Current offerings include reserving tables at TGI Friday’s, ordering take-out from restaurants including Applebee’s and IHOP, and pre-ordering coffees. Drivers can also use Priceline to find hotel rooms, but they still have to use their phone to complete the reservation. GM has gotten a jump on other automakers when it comes to offering shopping services in the dashboard, said Mike Ramsey, a research director at Gartner Inc.“In North American and Europe, this is definitely advanced,” Ramsey said in an interview. “GM is definitely ahead of everybody.”
I am wondering how many accidents there will be when people try to order food from their dashboard. Can you really do this while the car is moving? Of course if you restrict that, you also restrict a passenger from doing so.
Voice activation such as “Marketplace, take me to IHOP” is a possibility.
Of course, when cars are self-driving, all of these features make more sense.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
So what happens when certain corporations pay more to get their brand on the limited space of the dashboard? What if certain companies are discriminated against? I can see libtards programming the dash so when you ask the dash for what food outlets are nearby they don’t show Chick a Fil or they minimise its size in comparison to say Starbucks.
Why not… we have been getting cheese from GM’s marketing department for years.
ok in some parts of the country. Second, if they will really carry a logo like you show will gm get a royalty?
yeah great… let’s max. distractions for drivers… paving the way for auto-drive!! the dashboard was always destined to be an entertainment center… homer simpson would be proud.
@PodUK – Apple started selling phone and laptops with sealed batteries, having recognized the fact that people were keeping phones less than a lifecycle of a typical lithium cell. Now the carmakers are going after the dream of a disposable car. The hybrid revolution was sort-of it. The intent was to let the drivers use up their pack, be faced with 4K-8K replacement bill and going for a newer car instead. What instead happened is people kept driving their hybrids pass the battery cycle and then simply forgetting about it – hauling dead weight around and completely defeating the purpose of having a hybrid in first place. By now all those “saved” miles have already burned through themselves.
What happens if you spill maple syrup on the screen?
GM OnStar failed because a location and contact number should be attached to the person, not the car, and because the hardware lifecycle for cars is much longer than for telecommunications. GM “Marketplace” will fail for the same reasons.
Just what we need. Another thing to distract drivers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been behind an erratic driver only to discover that they’re not watching the road when I get close enough to see what they’re doing. Ever get behind a driver going 50 mph on the highway who suddenly speeds up and then slows down again? Almost certainly they were messing with something going 50 and stopped for a few seconds, only to resume again. Drivers slow down when they’re not watching the road.
It’s about maintaining the image of “cutting edge” technology, like all of the do-dads they keep adding to phones to obscure the fact that they still fail to make calls any better than they did twenty five years ago.
Incremental revenue. Once they get you on the monthly fee plan they’ll try to monetize your attention. Or worse, they’ll repeat the same mistakes the cell phone companies do and sell your home screen to the highest bidders. Either way, instead of a nice ride in the country enjoying the scenery we’ll be constantly blasted with ads. Thanks to the ad sales whores at GM.
GM should really spend its money on improving quality and design. Jacking up obesity is not what our industrial titans need to be focused on. America has the poorest quality management on the planet.