Today GM announced a new feature for their OnStar service. Called Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, the service is to help deter auto theft. If your car is stolen, it would let OnStar operators remotely slow it down, prevent it from restarting, and even let operators send a message over the car’s stereo speakers.
Maybe that will boost Telematics. We measured the market for in-car technology across several years of Technology User Profile, only to find the same thing that Ford, GM, and BMW discovered; some market adoption moves slowly. Also, it might appeal to surprising market segments.
Innovations like this, however, might just attract a different market segment that the one we found. In 2005, we released a TUPdate entitled Senior Couples Lead the Way with In-Car Navigation, as well as the Telematics Profile Report, published in conjunction with the Telematics Research Group.
As the father of a pre-teen that wants to be driving as soon as she can, I might just like this sort of remote control!
