OnStar Files Patents for Minority Report-Style Billboards

Wired

May 17, 2012

Two weeks ago, a patent filing by General Motors was uncovered that proposed using data collected from its OnStar service to tailor public advertisements to individual drivers.

Like the billboards Tom Cruise encountered in Minority Report, the OnStar-linked ads would be tailored to passing motorists based on personal information they’d shared with their telematics service.

Perusing the patent’s text, nightmare scenarios flooded our thoughts. Kids in the backseat? Be prepared to see ads for Happy Meals and nearby amusement parks.

Headed to the doctor’s office? A friendly reminder to schedule a colonoscopy, in flashing 40-foot letters.

The most alarming aspect of the patent is how it proposes gathering personal data. Expectedly, the patent covers the use of location-based information from OnStar’s turn-by-turn navigation system. But more intrusively, it also includes the use of in-vehicle cameras to determine unspecified demographics of vehicle occupants.

Even power seat positions could be used to estimate the age of a driver.

Scary stuff. But put away the roll of tinfoil, because this patent probably isn’t going anywhere soon – or ever.

Like any tech company, OnStar routinely files hundreds of patents for any innovation that might be even remotely valuable to their future business interests.

Patents are filed as soon as new ideas are conceived, and the process is often done just to make sure nobody else profits off the idea in the future.

In OnStar’s case, the company let us know it files about one patent application every five days. This one was filed in August of 2010 and sat through a quiet period of public comment until Jalopnik took note of it.

Submitting paperwork to the patent office is as far from implementing a new technology as putting a poster of a Porsche 936 on the wall is to driving like Hurley Haywood.

Read Entire Article