Hit the road, and experience travel through an app
Source: Agencies |
August 16, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LIFE is short - so why not take the scenic route? That is the message BMW Financial Services seems to be encouraging with its new app, the Ultimate Drive.
Released last week, this free app allows users to discover, share and rate the world's most interesting driving routes contributed by users worldwide. By incorporating GPS (the global positioning system), the app is also able to find routes surrounding a particular location.
"There are plenty of sites that will show you the top roads to drive," said Pawan Murthy, of BMW Group Financial Services, which provides financing for BMW and Mini vehicles.
So far more than 600 routes have been added to the app. Murthy said the most interesting routes are those with the best scenery.
He said: "It starts getting very granular from a user-experience standpoint as to what people will share on the app."
He said this release was the first iteration of an app moving further toward "gamification," - introducing game-play elements to increase customer participation.
A future version set for release in early October will be more interactive and include a points system aimed at giving customers greater incentive to participate.
Murthy said: "We wanted to get version 1 out so we could expose it to the world and initiate crowd-sourcing of routes. Succeeding versions will have a closer connection with financial services."
Most car companies provide free apps for a wide variety of purposes. One from Nissan, for example, allows owners to manage and maintain their vehicles remotely. Another from Mazda puts drivers in direct contact with roadside assistance.
One drawback to the Ultimate Drive is that directions are not provided natively within the app. But routes can be exported to Facebook or through email, and can also be ported to another GPS-based maps application for directions.
The Ultimate Drive is currently available only in North America.
Released last week, this free app allows users to discover, share and rate the world's most interesting driving routes contributed by users worldwide. By incorporating GPS (the global positioning system), the app is also able to find routes surrounding a particular location.
"There are plenty of sites that will show you the top roads to drive," said Pawan Murthy, of BMW Group Financial Services, which provides financing for BMW and Mini vehicles.
So far more than 600 routes have been added to the app. Murthy said the most interesting routes are those with the best scenery.
He said: "It starts getting very granular from a user-experience standpoint as to what people will share on the app."
He said this release was the first iteration of an app moving further toward "gamification," - introducing game-play elements to increase customer participation.
A future version set for release in early October will be more interactive and include a points system aimed at giving customers greater incentive to participate.
Murthy said: "We wanted to get version 1 out so we could expose it to the world and initiate crowd-sourcing of routes. Succeeding versions will have a closer connection with financial services."
Most car companies provide free apps for a wide variety of purposes. One from Nissan, for example, allows owners to manage and maintain their vehicles remotely. Another from Mazda puts drivers in direct contact with roadside assistance.
One drawback to the Ultimate Drive is that directions are not provided natively within the app. But routes can be exported to Facebook or through email, and can also be ported to another GPS-based maps application for directions.
The Ultimate Drive is currently available only in North America.
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