You Guys Think Onstar Is Bad

[RyanbabZ71]

IBM Patents Technology That Would Encourage Drivers To Go Past Certain Retailers.

Popular Science (9/28, Boyle) reports, "IBM has apparently patented a couple ideas for earning fees by monitoring driver activity. One plan would encourage drivers to take different routes that bring them past certain retail establishments - if, that is, the retail establishments want to pay for it." The second "plan discusses charging bad drivers a toll for behavior like tailgating."

[Superperv23]

That is quite interesting actually, they are not patents but applications at this stage. The application for the tailgating one discusses incentives for not tailgating meaning somehow you would be paid if you did not. This coupled with the cost of the equipment to do that and the fact there is no legal definition of how far you have to follow behind another car I really do not see that one getting off the ground.

 

Secondly I dont see the route planning taking off, unless ibm is going to start making sat navs then they would have to licence the technology to someone which cuts into the profit for all of those involved. Even if you were to pay 1 cent per car directed past your establishment if 100,000 vehicles drove by that you be paying $1000 for that and who knows if that would make a difference in sales. Of course people would buy sat navs that don't feature this as this whole onstar thing shows people panic about this sort of thing. Realistically the only way this would work as a business model is if they gave away free sat navs that would take you past these locations and say 5 minutes prior to you passing it and add comes up on the screen for what you are going to pass and that gets it in your head and you are more likely to stop.

 

Either way it is always interesting to see the new ways companies try and make money.

[Cool Zr2]

Ok, I'm wrapping my truck in aluminum foil, those bastards won't find me! HA!

[MikeNH]

The route planning is stupid. I use GPS to get me someplace I couldn't otherwise find. If I'm driving to a new place to get dinner I'm not gonna go by the Best Buy and think "gee, I should buy a TV tonight". Not how I work.

[Doug_Scott]

I think the idea is to pop up little text ads on your radio face for upcoming retail outlets on your route. Or pop them up on the heads up display. As much as people insist that ads on tv and radios do not work on them, it is working on someone.

[ChevyTech77]

No comment on IBM, what they do or how they do it. Let's just say that I have an inside seat, everyday, to their operations and it's not pretty.

 

 

The route planning is stupid. I use GPS to get me someplace I couldn't otherwise find. If I'm driving to a new place to get dinner I'm not gonna go by the Best Buy and think "gee, I should buy a TV tonight". Not how I work.

 

What? You mean to tell me that when you're waiting in line at Auto Zone, to pay for your stuff, you don't buy any of the little trinkets hanging there on the counter, just because?

[MikeNH]

Yeah, once. I bought a $2 tire gauge I use for my weekly checks (I have a good one at home for filling with the compressor) when I was 16. I'll be 27 end of October so I guess I'm something special. Now, candy in the supermarket checkout is another animal entirely.

[ChevyTech77]

Yeah, once. I bought a $2 tire gauge I use for my weekly checks (I have a good one at home for filling with the compressor) when I was 16. I'll be 27 end of October so I guess I'm something special. Now, candy in the supermarket checkout is another animal entirely.

 

SEE!?!? You DO impulse buy which is no different than my truck developing a hard steering pull towards the car audio shop everytime I drive buy it. Same thing.

[MikeNH]

No, I just buy peanut butter M&Ms because they're yummy!

[Superperv23]

No comment on IBM, what they do or how they do it. Let's just say that I have an inside seat, everyday, to their operations and it's not pretty.

 

 

The route planning is stupid. I use GPS to get me someplace I couldn't otherwise find. If I'm driving to a new place to get dinner I'm not gonna go by the Best Buy and think "gee, I should buy a TV tonight". Not how I work.

 

What? You mean to tell me that when you're waiting in line at Auto Zone, to pay for your stuff, you don't buy any of the little trinkets hanging there on the counter, just because?

 

 

I bought a $20 box of UGlu once from a checkout line just because I had seen the ads and I knew there was no way it was that good but I had to try it and it was a waste of $20, I tried to stick various things together and nothing held for any period of time.