Onstar Navigation System to Deliver In-Car Spam

pneuma_66 writes: "According to the New York Times (Free reg, don't cha know) navigation systems, like OnStar, are planning to deliver ads based on the car's location. For example, the system will 'notify' the driver of sales in nearby stores. The vp of OnStar says "The privacy and the confidentiality of our subscribers are of the utmost importance", well lets see how the big companies play with this new wealth of information."

Comments

This will last right up until the first accident

[Dredd13]

Picture the scenario, you're concentrating on where you're going, because you've never been there before, its hectic traffic, somewhere in the city, where the ordeal of keeping track of pedestrians and cars is enough to deal with. Suddenly, your attention is jolted elsewhere by a voice in your car (you're alone), you take your eyes off the road to find the source of voice which says "Up ahead on the right is Foobar's. Foobar's is having a sale on diapers right now!"... by the time you realize its a crummy OnStar ad, and return your attention to the road, it's too late to notice the bicyclist chewing on your grill.

So when the bicyclist sues you, and you in turn pin it on OnStar, that's when this shit will be nipped in the bud.

A Database to Snoop With?

[Ieshan]

Yeah, but here's the real question.

Supposing OnStar can track where your car is, can't it also track acceleration and velocity and all that? I mean, supposing there's a sale at a Bob's Stores. It flashes the Ad.

Now, supposing you slow down and turn into the Bob's Stores parking lot. OnStar, technically, could save this information as specific to your vehicle. An entry in their big database that says "Customer 84392 will respond to advertising in this catagory."

What it all seems like is one big cyber-snoop service, tracking where you really are and advertising towards your patterns. A waste of car battery just like the new limewire ads are a waste of processing power.

Now, OnStar could say they won't do this, but you know it'll happen. It's a perfect advertising scheme. They'd know exactly what kind of driver and shopper you were dependant on what stores and advertisements you listened to and responded to.

Ieshan
Predictor at Large

Driving By Spam...

[Cylix]

Lost again! Drat!

Oh please OnStar gods help me!

"Hello, OnStar BOFH here"

Yeah, I'm lost, I'm trying to find 1234 Bovine...

"No Problem Sir..."
""
"Up on your right there is a WalMart, do you see it?"

Uh, yeah, sure... but what...

"Pull into the parking lot so I might give you some indepth instructional proceedures."

OK...

"WalMart is having a special on Remington Pump Shotguns, they normally retail for..."

Wait, I need to get to...

"Sure, proceed north for 3 miles and I'll alert you when you reach THAT destination."

"On your right is a StarBucks giving a special discount to OnStar Customers!"

I really really need to get to 1234 bovine...
There is a really important meeting that I must attend, if I don't make it, it could mean the end of my career and all dreams!

"Oh that sounds important..."
""
""

Um, sir, this looks like the same walmart I was at an hour ago. My god, the meeting is over... I'm ruined! What is your problem!

"You've reached WalMart, home of the Wally arsenal collection! Your profile suggests this would be perfect"

AAAAARGG!

How much were those shotguns?

Information you can use!

[Junior J. Junior III]

Judging on the areas I have to drive through to get to work, I'll be receiving lots and lots of ads for where I can buy the purest heroin and the cheapest automatic weapons...

Re:First reaction

[aozilla]

My second reaction, upon seeing it is opt-in, is who's stupid enough to sign up for this?

The yellow pages is opt-in advertising, but people still use it every day to find out the locations of certain types of stores. All they have to do is get a large enough number of stores to participate so that I can say "Onstar, where is the nearest pizza place. Place an order for a large pepperoni pie.", and there will be plent of people signing up for it. Hell, I'd probably consider signing up for it, if it was free like the yellow pages.

Very misleading write-up

[CaptainSuperBoy]

No, OnStar is NOT going to deliver in-car spam. If you read the article, you'd read that 'OnStar, by far the biggest service with 1.5 million users, says it makes note of a car's location only in an emergency or when a driver makes contact with the service.' 'OnStar seems more interested in advertising that is tied to content.' The title of this story is blatantly incorrect, and the write-up is very misleading.

Onstar is considering putting ads that are related to their content, such as ads for a brokerage if you're getting stock quotes. That's pretty far from 'in-car spam' based on tracking your location.

The only thing in the article that resembles this is the 'gas station locator' by Wingcast, a service which hasn't even been launched yet. It would notify you when your car runs low on gas, and give you directions to gas stations. It's a useful feature, and I'm sure you'll have to sign up for it before they send you gas station ads.

Personally I'd object to ads mixed in with a service that I paid good money for, even if they're not based on your location. For a few hundred dollars a year, I expect a service that's free of annoyances. A gas station locator isn't an annoyance, it's a feature.