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"Austin, Texas-based rental car service Silvercar will offer streamlined operations, a seamless smartphone user interface, and only one type of vehicle: silver 2013 Audi A4s. Customers can book reservations through a smartphone app, which will also let them manage personalized vehicle settings and preferences. They will be able to choose and unlock their rental car by scanning it with their phone."

Automatic is a device that monitors the car and transfers essential information in real-time to a mobile phone.

Hybris North America President Steven Kramer said: While social media channels can be valuable awareness-generating vehicles for retailers, they are not currently preferred options for consumers when it comes to purchasing, with consumers visiting retailers' social media sites to gather information that they will then oftentimes use to complete a purchase via another channel. Consumers continue to want information when they want it, where they want it, and how they want it, but when it comes to actually making a purchase, social media is not a preferred or trusted choice. This demonstrates the importance of retailers having a cohesive, cross-channel marketing and commerce strategy, with social media just a piece of the overall multichannel puzzle.

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.

"Another day, another fake viral video breaks our hearts. This time it's a WipeOut model-car track whose vehicles appear to use superconductivity and magnetic fields to hover above the ground."

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.

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.