(Disclaimer: I am personally involved in the development of Fiat's digital presence with my work at AKQA)
BMW and Crysler DO NOT GET IT! (read the comments).
Ford sounds like it's right behind them...
It's interesting to see how Fiat are describing and marketing their Blue&Me technology.
They seem concerned about the detail, which is always a good sign. They offer Blue&Me EcoDrive as standard and have Nav and Map add-on features.
Fiat EcoDrive is described in greater detail here, but essentially it measures your driving style irrespective of the car you drive. It puts everyone on a level playing field and gives them tips and suggestions on how to improve their driving style, saving them money by lowering their fuel consumption.
It's a niche, but interesting, concept and importantly it's engaging whilst not being disruptive. EcoDrive promises to 'teach drivers how to go greener'. Drivers can fit whichever navigation system they choose to the car, rather than being tied down to a locked-in version, suceptable to bugs and poorly executed updates.
I'll be interested to find out how drivers communicate between their car and their desktop computers to make intelligent use of all the data that's captured and (possibly sharing that information within a community???), but it strikes me as a far stronger proposition than attempting to steal a march on the SatNav's out there like TomTom and Dash.net in the US, who only last week announced that they were opening up their API to developers.
What do you think? Do you want to watch YouTube in the car? Is being online important?? Is this running before you can walk or a bold move?
