Group items tagged

virtual assistants, connected cars

Soundhound integrates within Kia and Hyundai cars (music discovery)

In-car apps; audio advertising

"the brand staged a surprise debut of a new collision avoidance system specially developed to safeguard cyclists, the first of its kind in the world."

Called Smileage, the app syncs with Google+ so others can monitor particular trips, and draw in data, comments on photos from all the phones which are synced with the car during any given journey. Users are awarded Smileage points for completing certain tasks, such as uploading photos. Even passing other VW's count, as the app creates a little 'punch' every one is passed on the road.

Here's a video about Smileage: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/volkswagen-smileage-social-road-trips-powered-by-google/

Amazon's same-day delivery service Prime Now, which is today available in more than a couple of dozen U.S. metros, is experimenting with another type of service that goes beyond traditional purchases: it's offering consumers the ability to test drive cars. Specifically, Amazon has partnered with Hyundai to offer test drives of the 2017 Elantra through a new program called "Prime Now. Drive Now."

"Customers in the US and Canada who purchase a model from Volvo's 2015 lineup (like the new V70 seen above) will gain access to Volvo On Call, which lets you tap into tire and fuel level notifications, roadside assistance and the like, right from Volvo's iOS app."

used in daily 6.30 this is awesome, gets 30 mpg, uses normal gas, front wheel drives and airbags. oh, and wings unfold so it can fly.

Service to help people lend cars to each other in urban settings.

weekly 9.2

But you might be surprised by the second-leading source of the expected surge in traffic. It won't come from people, but from machine-to-machine communications, or "M2M." Think of sensors in cars and in appliances, surveillance cameras, smart electric meters, and devices still to come, monitoring the world and reporting to each other and to centralized computers what they're detecting. The chart below, reprinted from the Cisco report, shows just how extreme the jump in machine-to-machine communications could be. It is expected to grow, on average, 86 percent a year, and by 2016 it is expected to reach 508 petabytes a month, or half a billion gigabytes.

Mogreet launched the AdStitch mobile advertising service Tuesday, combining high-quality video ads with mobile messaging to help brands easily recoup return on investments. Cox Media Group's Oakland, Calif. television station, KTVU, has been testing a morning weather alert to subscribers along with an ad in the MMS message on mobile phones. The ad in the message typically ranges from five to 15 seconds, but more advertisers want to create shorter clips. The best-performing ad units are shorter, according to Mogreet CEO James Citron. "An automaker knows showing a five- or a 15-second video of a car performs better than 20 characters in text, banner or display ad," Citron said. He believes MMS is the only way publishers can reach 95% of Americans with mobile video.