General Motors Receives Patent To Sell 'Geoboxed' Radio Presets At Auction
General Motors recently received a patent allowing the automaker to sell your radio’s presets to the highest bidder at auction.
The patent — titled “System and method for auctioning geoboxed flexible, semi-locked or locked radio presets” — would let GM sell the presets to various bidders on different vehicles, Jalopnik reports, with each preset being geo-fenced.
Thus, if one were to be out on the road listening to NPR, the preset could switch abruptly from the sleepy sounds of “Morning Edition,” to the “wacky” antics of Scumdog McTatertot and the Mötley Breakfäst Crüe once the motorist entered the winning bidder’s geo-fence. Another scenario could have McDonald’s hijack your navigation settings when you were looking for Starbucks for breakfast.
Though GM has the patent to do this to its consumers to bring in revenue from the connected-vehicle space, whether it acts on the patent remains to be seen.
[Source: Cadillac]
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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Before the freakout gets any bigger, note: 1) Patent doesn't mean product. 2) GM's never going to do that in a car they sell to an individual. They've never been remotely stupid enough to try. 3) Bet you'll be able to get a discount on a rental by being subjected to those presets, or fleets will use them to force drivers to listen to the weather station, or "approved channels only".
Note to self: Do not buy any car that can talk to the internet in any way. I just hate the idea of that crap in my car's systems. I'll also only wear mechanical wristwatches. Get your 'net out of my car and get off my lawn.
Somehow I'm not at surprised to see this from GM. This is what's to be expected from a company run by short-sighted accountants and not by engineers or marketing people. It boggles the mind that there are people actually paid by GM to think of crap like this. Maybe if they spent the time and money thinking about how to make better cars that consumers actually want to buy they would't have had to go through a taxpayer-subsidized bankruptcy. If GM ever actually did this, it would be reason enough alone to keep me from ever buying a GM car.
I'm assuming GM wants to patent this idea because it's data that advertisers will pay for. That's exactly the kind of usage/interests information that has made Google one of the wealthiest companies in the world. If you know what somebody listens to, you can now cross-reference this behavior with other behaviors (e.g., listens to the Catholic network AND buys fish?) to target market messages with much greater precision, not only in this medium but also in others. It's very much in the pattern of modern database marketing, and it's pretty insidious. And yes, this information about us obviously has a monetary value. I don't usually participate in the TTAC national sport of "Government Motors" hysteria, but I do get a kick out of thinking I should ask to get my taxes lowered by whatever amount of money they make off this invasion of my privacy.