"Ultimately, [these technologies] may lead us to an autonomous vehicle, but there are a lot of things that have to happen. Society in general has to approve of all this. A trust has to be built with customers."
Eight cars will be employed in a test at a McDonald's store in Ibaraki Prefecture on March 5-16. When vehicles enter a region covered by an ITS -- which offers real-time traffic data and other information -- a McDonald's menu will be transmitted to car navigation systems, allowing users to order items via the touch screen. Users can pay with their credit cards through ITS-compatible devices in their cars.
Chevrolet is making a radical departure from its approach to turn-by-turn navigation services. After using parent company's General Motors' OnStar service since its inception, Chevy is offering a competing alternative in its Sonic and Spark automobile lines. Called BringGo, it's an integrated smartphone-dashboard system - Chevy's first attempt at a bring-your-own-maps nav service to any of its vehicles.
And the talk is more than just about launching a Web show. Rather, Twitter is said to be aiming towards changing the way people consume and discover media. "We're talking about building content on top of Twitter," said another industry insider. "That's a big deal." Twitter wouldn't be developing the content, but would instead serve as a distribution vehicle and advertising middleman.
Besides looking to shake up the media space, Twitter has a more obvious motivation for getting into the series game. It regularly sells out of inventory for its core ad units like Promoted Tweets. "Right now, they are leaving money on the table," said one source.
The number of consumers using telematics smartphone apps with connected cars is about to increase over 40 times in the next five years. ABI Research today estimates that by 2016, 129 million people will use smartphone software that works with a vehicle, up from only 3.2 million consumers this year. Such forecasts could fuel new and innovative mobile apps specific to vehicles and travel-related activities.