Get Ready For Your Car To Spam You…

That is, if you have a Lexus. Toyota, the maker of the Lexus line of luxury autos, has announced plans to roll out a system that will allow them to send messages to their cars. The messages would be transmitted as audio to the car’s occupants. Called Lexus Insider, it will allow the transmission of whatever messages the automaker chooses. Toyota however, promises not to spam:

          “We’re not going to barrage customers with marketing messages,” vows Jon Bucci, vice president of Toyota’s U.S. advanced technology unit.

However he went on to describe how the system can be used to send “targeted” messages based on the model of car and even the zip code it’s in. The messages would be an average of three minutes long. Since many people consider their car a sort of cocoon, it will be interesting to see the reaction to to these messages.  Industry insiders aren’t impressed:

          It’s a non-starter,” says William Matthies of consultants Coyote Insight and a longtime consumer electronics executive. “You’ve got the same thing coming to your home now. It strikes me as the same thing” as junk mail. Assertions that the messages will be targeted and useful enough to appeal to particular drivers don’t impress Matthies. “They’re not claiming anything different than all direct marketers claim,” he says.

It would be naive to think advertisers won’t show interest in this. With new technologies like DVRs that automatically skip commercials and ad free satellite radio. they are always looking for new ways to get to us, and it looks like Lexus has found an attractive one.