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Top 5 Social Networking Apps for Car Owners

By Debjit on January 29th, 2013 
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The thought that you might have to sit down with your car and tell it to stop giving out so much personal information on the internet, well, it might be here. Not really, but Ford now has a vehicle that “Tweets” how it’s doing. Is it creepy? That’s up for individual interpretation, but apps for cars are the hottest thing on the horizon for auto makers.

The ultimate goal of creating a social car is to make it easier for the owner. The apps are designed to give real time information regarding weather, traffic, construction, location and all things travel related. There does seem to be some movement towards giving an almost “personality” to vehicles.

It’s unsure how receptive the public will be beyond the initial “awe, how cute” phase. It might be a good idea to keep up on those oil changes though, or your car is liable to tell on you!

Here are a few of the current apps and some that are in development right now:

American Journey 2.0

American Journey 2.0 is a Ford app that is making waves. It’s designed to give all the information you want to know about directions, local businesses, and weather. Where Ford is trying to push the envelope is to actually make the car attach to a social network platform, such as Twitter or Facebook.

The public has been very receptive to date and are more than a bit intrigued that their new car might have more personality than what was first believed.

‘Auto’matic Blog

This is an incredible app by Ford that actually allows your vehicle to automatically “blog” about how it’s doing to a social platform. This is where you want to make sure you keep up on the maintenance and keep the trash picked up. You wouldn’t want your car to let your friends know you’re a slob!

Toyota Friends

The Toyota Friends app is one that is designed to bring owners of Toyota vehicles together in a social bonding. They can trade information about vehicles, ask each other advice on maintenance and improvements to make on their cars and trucks. It brings people together with the common interest of loving their Toyota.

GigaOM Pro

GigaOM Pro is GM’s answer to the app frenzy. The developers have a lot of financial backing to create more features for the coming year, such as the ability to send diagnostic information to the dealership shops and mechanics if the vehicle is experiencing any problems. That would be a new twist on things.

The time that feature could save to the shops and consumer is astounding. Of course, all of the majors seem to be working diligently to try and get that feature successfully up and running. Time will tell if it’s really going to work, or simply be sending owners on a wild goose chase over the slightest engine glitch.

BMW iVentures

BMW developed this app to simply help owners find available modes of public transportation, GPS location information, road construction and all manners of things that effect how and when you can drive safely.

They are quickly joining in the clamor to bring social networking into the fold; whether it’s simply fellow owners socializing on the myriads of networks, or a helpful blog- type app that gives pertinent information on repairs, maintenance and saving money.

These are only a few of the apps that are in the beginning stages of development. This is a whole new world that auto makers are venturing into and you’ll see some big strides made over the course of 2013. They are certainly making consumers ponder the real possibilities of one day having a car that can operate it.

Author Bio: Jason Phillips has submitted this article. He is working with the site Gili's Automotive as an online counselor. People can visit there site for any king of automotive related problem.

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Top 5 Social Networking Apps for Car Owners was originally published on Digitizor.com on January 29, 2013 - 12:25 am (Indian Standard Time)