All you Twitter addicts stuck in traffic, some good news. You might not have to risk your life any longer sending out one-handed Tweets on your Blackberry or iPhone, while trying to hide the fact that you are doing so under the dashboard. If you have OnStar in your car, you may soon be able to send and receive hands-free Tweets through OnStar’s voice-activated calling system. Andru Edwards at Gear Live discovered the potential feature. Your voice messages will be converted into text and sent to all of your Twitter followers. (Don’t worry if the translation is not perfect, everyone will think you are just using Twitter’s abbreviated style). It is not clear, however, whether or not the system tells you if you are over the 140-character limit.
I can just see it now. Instead of listening to the radio, people will start listening to everyone they are following on Twitter (your Twitter stream can be read to you by the OnStar system). Then you are lost, and instead of using teh OnStar GPS, you ask your followers for directions. And they each give you a different way to go.
This is definitely a sign of the Armageddon.
This can’t be true. I suspect an early April Fools prank.
“This is definitely a sign of the Armageddon.”
Truth
Andru Edwards here, I’m the author of the article. Definitely not an early April Fools joke. Check out our 5-year history. We’ve never run an inaccurate story for the sake of April Fool’s Day. Completely real on this one.
We were accused of the same when we broke the iPhone 1.1.3 firmware leak, everyone said we were bluffing. Come on, guys
Hi, this is OnStar. We received a signal you’ve been in an accident. Would you like us to post this on twitter!
The way things are going right now in the world. Hey ANYTHING is possible. I guess that is one way of big insurance companies paying back some of the stimulus money!
huh. not sure this is useful.
“useful” is not associated with twitter — twitter is more likely addictive — this could be addictive too — but never useful
I would have to agree with both of you in this case
TWITTER is super useful.
It helps me to protect my brand, Adrian Eden, which is my Government name.
Google search ‘Adrian Eden’:
http://tinyurl....drianedengoogle
Chances are you will find my Twitter near the top, right beside AdrianEden.com!
GYEH. Ballin is my hobby.
im waiting for the day Mike responds to another author’s post with:
“Slow News Day”
I hope this isn’t true.
In a really weird way, this makes a lot of sense.
The first true reverse broadcast, and where else, but from the place where you have historically received broadcasts.
Big deal we are working on a stealth project to bring to market an embeddable RFID-chip. This will send out information such as pulse (every 1 minute) , blood pressure (every 20 minutes), and ekg (every hour) to a company twitter account so that all employees can be monitored at all times. For an additional price you can allow family members to monitor you as well.
This has all the signs of an April Fools prank
O.M.F.G…
Thats just too much man…
sure…and OnStar wants to pay for you to use the bandwidth on their network for twitter…early april fools
I hope it’s a joke. Otherwise, my twitter stream could become a constant barrage of messages like “Driving to wor– LEARN TO DRIVE, JACKASS!” and “Heading ho — DAMMIT, OUT OF MY WAY, MORON!”
I think I just spit coffee all over my laptop! Thanks for the laugh.
yep, cracked me up too. +1 to Facebook User
LOL Men!
Just rest your iPhone on the dashboard and record to audioboo.fm. You US people are quite behind the times these days…
It sounds very similar to Irish company MaxRoam that lets you tweet via a phone call.
http://maxroam.com/
Hmmm.. What cars have OnStar again?
GM. If that is the Twitter demographic, it really is going mainstream.
LOL!
It’s funny how many people are claiming that it is an early April Fools joke, but I would bet that the same people making those claims are the same people that would be among the first in line to purchase a vehicle equipped with this!
Lets hope it doesn’t have an auto-capture feature.
THAT MOTHER F*(&(*^&*( JUST CUT ME OFF! WHAT THE FU*(&!@#*)$(&*(@#
sorry. I mentioned that MaxRoam lets you twitter via a phone call in a previous comment. I had the right Irish Entrepreneur, but the wrong company.
Pat Phelan founded MaxRoam all right, but it’s his *other* company that allows you to tweet via a phone call:
twitterfone
http://www.twitterfone.com/
it’s been a long day…sorry about that.
I’d prefer listening to tweets read to me in a stephen-hawking-esque robot voice than the radio, that’s for sure. Granted I don’t drive almost ever and have no plans of buying a new car anytime in the next 10 years, so I may be slightly outside of OnStar’s target demo
Now, that would be a nice feature – choosing the voices and having my replies read to me while driving!
Ooh, all my tweets read by Alan Rickman!
I can’t wait to download apps to my cars platform. This an idea that is pointed in the right direction. Being able to tweet in your car could cause a lot of accidents. Atleast you can tweet if you see a drunk driver.
@Steve_Gonzalez
You don’t need onstar. Dial2Do (http://www.dial2do.com) lets you tweet from your cellphone. Other similar services probably do, too. Still a bad idea, though…
How many people do you know that would actually want to do this? Probably a lot…. That’s the scary part.
twitter has become the equivalent of shoulder pads in the 1980’s.
please Lord, let it be over soon.
That’s crazy. Who’d want their Twitter stream read to them while driving. That’d make me insane. In my car, music will always win out over Twitter!
april fools
Could this mean that Scobble will buy an American car?
Having twittered while in the car, I’m sure there are many others who would find this useful! That being said, it’s only as useful as the 140 character limit, unless it automatically breaks it up into several Tweets. I’m not about to drive, dictate, AND have to count characters in my head!!
This is going to be awesome. I can’t wait. I’m addicted to twitter.
My friend Flint who is an enthusiastic guy has developed a site called http://money-ma....synthasite.com which has information about sites where you could make money and you could get his advise on them.
I don’t think the techcrunch demo is going to fall for your crap. Maybe take your game to craigslist
this in insane..This is taking Twitter to another level…but I bet this is April Fools prank played…
This sounds great. I wonder if you crash with your car and have few minutes to live, what would you do: call 911 or twit about it.
I Know This Sounds Bad But I Would Most Likely Tweet About It. Also OnStar Would Have Already Called 911 For Me Anyway lol
Very well-written post!!! Please check out my site as well at http://macmaniapodcast.com
http://youtube.com/befryxell
This is fucking retarded. Slap whoever digged this.
Does anyone think that the public’s overextension of Twitter is going to harm it in the long run? If Twitter is going to be a long-term business, is this type of oddness going to contribute to a future segment on VH-1’s “Fabulous 2000s” where D-List actors make fun of how many silly different ways we ‘twittered’.
It feels like Twitter’s utility is being shadowed by what could be a looming pop-culture rejection now that it has become mainstream.
I like Twitter and use it for my business. But this type of overexposure may not be in the best interests of expanding the service’s audience. The downside of being part of popular culture is you’re not popular forever…
But MySpace brushes all those jokes off its back and rakes in millions, so maybe this is completely off.
Did I hear CB radio?
You know, it’s interesting that CB isn’t outlawed (for those who still use it), but talking on your cell phone while driving is. Hmn.
I miss CB radio. ):
I already Twitter from my car. It is called a Blackberry.
Onstar, that is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of. Fire the person whose bright idea that was, and move on.
Voice -> Text -> Voice ? Why does everything have to go through Twitter? Why can’t it just be voice and video all around?
I’ll believe it when I see an OnStar press release. (:
Twittering with voice is already possible with Vlingo! http://vlingo.com/
Just when I was getting really irritated with onstar, you give me a reason to like them again. Thanks I think.
The first step in healing your addiction is admitting you have a problem.
I take calls at an onstar center, and I seriously doubt there is any way they would be able to do that.