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GM puts e-commerce shopping in car dashboards

DETROIT — General Motors on Tuesday said it will equip newer cars with in-dash e-commerce technology, betting it can profit as drivers order food, find fuel or reserve hotel rooms by tapping icons on the dashboard screen, instead of using smartphones while driving. GM's Marketplace technology, developed with IBM, will be uploaded automatically to about 1.9 million model-year 2017 and later vehicles starting immediately, with about 4 million vehicles across the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands equipped with the capability in the United States by the end of 2018, GM said. GM will get an undisclosed amount of revenue from merchants featured on its in-dash Marketplace, Santiago Chamorro, GM vice president for global connected customer experience, said during a briefing for reporters. Customers will not be charged for using the service or the data transmitted to and from the car while making transactions, he said. "This platform is financed by the merchants," Chamorro said. GM will get paid for placing a merchant's application on its screens, and "there's some level of revenue sharing" based on each transaction, he said. It is too soon to say how much revenue GM could realize from the Marketplace system, he said. The GM Marketplace will compete for customer clicks and revenue with hand-held smartphones, which offer a far richer array of applications than the GM system will at the outset. Amazon.com is partnering with other automakers, including Ford, to offer in-car e-commerce capability through Amazon's Alexa personal assistant system. For example, GM will launch Marketplace with just Shell and Exxon Mobil icons in the fuel category. The only restaurant available for in-car table reservations at launch is the chain TGI Fridays, GM said. In addition, there will be apps for parking, and ordering ahead at coffee shops and restaurants such as Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and Applebee's. "We will be adding more vendors," with some coming in the first quarter of 2018, Chamorro said. In addition, he said GM plans to expand integration into its vehicles of music, news and other information services. GM also hopes to use its in-car Marketplace connections to expand purchases of products and services, such as additional access to in-car wifi, from its own replacement parts business and dealer network. Customers can "expect to see more service promotions coming through the platform," Chamorro said. Reporting by Joe WhiteRelated Video:

Cadillac ParkWhiz app helps avoid endless circling to find parking

General Motors recently launched an app for its vehicles called Marketplace that includes various apps that let you order and pay for things from your car. The company is continuing to add apps to Marketplace, and the latest sounds quite useful. It's called ParkWhiz, and it will be available on Cadillacs. Basically, it lets you find and pay for parking from your car. In more detail, ParkWhiz will let you find parking in 250 cities. The app shows locations that have spaces available and which are full, along with prices for all of them. You can then select one and pay for it for however long you'll use it. You can even reserve parking in advance in case you're going to a busy event. The big benefit here is that you should be able to eliminate a lot of cruising around looking for spaces. That will save you time and money. Additionally, this could save you from having to go really early to an event to find decent parking. It's a handy sounding app, and fortunately, if you don't have a Cadillac, you can get the app on your phone. The only downside to the phone app is that it's not built into the car's infotainment system.

Cadillac cancels its car subscription program after just two years

Cadillac is cancelling its Book by Cadillac subscription service, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal and confirmed to Autoblog by a Cadillac spokesperson. The $1,800 a month service has been in operation since early last year. The Cadillac spokesperson told us this: "Following nearly two years of service, Cadillac will temporarily pause the Book by Cadillac program effective December 1, 2018." This moves comes not too long after the decision to leave its New York City headquarters and return to Michigan. While Cadillac claims the disruption of service will be temporary, there's no defined plan to start the program back up again. The reason for the cancellation? The service ended up being more costly than Cadillac expected it to be. Owners will have 30 days from the time they're notified to turn their vehicles in. If this subscription service was your only transportation, then you better start looking for something else. The service was available in New York City, Dallas and Los Angeles. Subscribers could choose between five different Cadillacs: ATS-V, CTS-V, CT6, XT5 and Escalade. You'd be allowed up to 2,000 miles per month and 18 vehicle swaps per year through the concierge service. Cadillac would bring the car of your choice to you and take the old car away at your whimsy. The price included registration, taxes, insurance and maintenance costs. No long term commitment was necessary to sign up. This makes Cadillac one of the first manufacturers to end a nascent subscription service. If it starts back up again, expect it to look a bit different from the current program. Cadillac says it's using this experience to make strategy adjustments in the future. Whether that means a much more costly program for users, or no subscription program at all, we don't know. Plenty of other manufacturers still offer limited subscription programs in select cities. We highlighted some of the biggest ones in our vehicle subscription service guide here. It'll just be a waiting game to figure out if these modes of ownership take off going forward. For more information on Vehicle Subscription Services, check out the Complete Guide. Related video: Cadillac Car Buying subscription service book by cadillac