Price of in-car telematics set to decrease thanks to corporate sponsors
05/28/2008, 4:02 PM
By Drew Johnson
In-car telematics have increased at an incredible rate over the past few years, but their high costs have made them prohibitive to some buyers. However, all that could change in the coming years as more and more companies are signing up to sponsor new technologies.
For example, McDonald’s could subsidize the price of an in-car navigation system, but in return would have its stores prominent on the system’s list of restaurants. “Nobody wants another bill,” Hakan Kostepen, group manager for product planning and strategy at Panasonic, told the Detroit Free Press, and that mentality will likely speed up the rate at which companies sponsor new technologies.
And the possibilities are endless. Need a movie for the kids to watch on that weekend road trip? Netflix will be happy to take care of that for you. Car due for an oil change? Setup an appointment right from your car with the nearest Valvoline location.
The newest telematics will also help companies streamline their advertising campaigns. In the near future, multiple companies will be able to sponsor a single component, such as a navigation system. Therefore, three or four competing companies will be bombarding occupants with in car advertising. If a driver choses Best Buy over Circuit City, the car’s GPS system will relay which store the driver chose, and companies will be able to revamp their ad campaigns.
But the future of in-car telematics will have plenty of upside to go along with the in-car billboards — soon drivers will be able to completely customize their car’s electronics. You will be able to program into your car what kind of restaurant you like, what stocks you own so you can get in-car updates and even what song you want to hear when you get into your car first thing in the morning. The car of the future will also be a notification machine — from when you are close to your favorite coffee house to texting a loved one when your airbags deploy. The possibilities are virtually endless.
And unlike the flying car, the high-tech car of the future is right around the corner. Telematics Research Group predicts that by the year 2013, there will be more than 50 million cars equipped with advanced telematics on the road.
05/28, 4:10 PM
posted by:
NoNameDenton1
Great, advertisments to distract people even more while they drive
05/28, 4:15 PM
posted by:
HemiRoadRunner
Sounds like people are getting too lazy and just need to drive. If the kids are a pain in the @$$, smack the $H!T out of them and tell them to shut up. Oil changes? Isn’t that what the stickers are for in your windshield, or can people not add 3000 to their current mileage? Lazy pricks.
05/28, 4:20 PM
posted by:
jonstew
Great; it will be just like the internet, unless you are looking for what top advertisers are selling you won’t be a able to find a thing….more useless technology to distract the already distracted morons behind the wheel now who can’t stay off their cell phones.
05/28, 5:11 PM
posted by:
RaineMan
Just what I needed. The McChevy. I don’t want a personal computer or the internet in my car… thank you very much.
05/28, 6:17 PM
posted by:
e36m
And after your car is completely corporate, you think big brother wont be watching you and telling you where to go either.
05/28, 6:23 PM
posted by:
F3INT))AP3X
Ya this is garbage, the car is a private place without advertising and basically without anything you don’t want to be in there. If we have this we might as well have machines on every street corner that beam advertising and propaganda directly into your head from a distance.
05/28, 6:33 PM
posted by:
Sabon
NOTE: I will NOT buy a car that has Microsoft systems built into them. Meaning, I don’t care if Ford’s quality were to ever get better than someone else, I will not buy their vehicles as long as Sync (sunk!!!) or any other Microsoft product is in their vehicles. The same goes for any other company.
05/28, 7:11 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
I want f*cking porn while I drive, lots of f*cking filthy porn. Can’t watch it at home with the wife and kids around. Can’t watch it at work without Corporate Security finding out. The only place left is that bastion of isolation, the automobile. I want to select my fetish by voice command. I want links to European and Asian porn- lots of Asian porn. Little Japanese girls in those white panties sucking **** and moaning like they’re being torn apart. Now that’s what this technology can do for me. F*cking McDonalds. The only thing McDonalds is good for is free napkins because I’m going to need plenty of those.
05/28, 10:19 PM
posted by:
sharpie
So the freaking gecko will start selling life insurance when the car goes above speed limit? Are we going to get zip code for our cars then so they can receive junk mails?
05/29, 1:44 AM
posted by:
Got Handling?
And we thought Canada was a bastion of good clean fun. Napkins had me in stitches. Imagine an in-car porn system that could detect the race of the girl you’re checking out in the car behind you and then show you porn featuring “actresses” who resembled her.
They could even engineer a gay version for TugJob.
05/29, 3:58 AM
posted by:
Stinky007
Just another reason to not buy satnav and learn to drive to work without it!
What’s next, heads up displays with ads? Maybe paintjobs with ads?
Subsidized car prices?
I’ll exagerate and say cars will be self-driven in the future, and all occupants will be forced to view commercials while travelling…
05/29, 10:51 AM
posted by:
Jazz
roflmao johnnycanuck, hemiroadrunner.
I don;t think putting your personal info like stock and investment portfolios into a cars electronics is a good thing.
Around here they steal airbags. Imagine people stealing radios to get investment info to steal your nest eggs.
05/29, 11:05 PM
posted by:
DialM4Speed
I love it!!! Tie it all in with high speed net access and holy jesus the future has arrived!!!!!