Priceline inked a deal with General Motors’ Chevrolet that opens up a new area of mobile commerce for the online travel agency within a car.
Chevy’s in-car system
Mobile-fueled connected car experiences are growing quickly, as seen yesterday with new big announcements from Priceline and General Motors, as well as Pandora. For the new deal between Priceline and Chevy, the focus is around serving up a utility as an extension of the online travel agency’s existent mobile strategy.
“Through this new partnership with General Motors, Priceline.com will be continuing our commitment to the highest levels of innovation when it comes to mobile travel,†said Brett Keller, chief marketing officer at Priceline, Norwalk, CT.
As we reported yesterday, Chevrolet will be live streaming the official reveal of the 2015 Corvette Z06 at the North American International Auto Show on Monday morning beginning with a special event at 9:30 am EST. A special live stream page is already live and we checked it out yesterday like good CorvetteBloggers do.
But it seems that our friends at Jalopnik have just found something very interesting on Google relating to the 2015 Corvette Z06 and that official live stream page. If you search Google with the keywords “Chevrolet Z06 Supercar Reveal”, the results shows the website to the Corvette Z06 Reveal page that was made public yesterday, but the meta data on the page spills the beans:
With 620 horsepower and 650 lb.-ft. of torque, the 2015 Corvette Z06 is the most advanced Corvette ever made. Read more about Chevy’s supercar here.
Website meta data is text hidden in the HTML code of websites and is used to tell search engines what the description of that page is. Unfortunately for Chevrolet, the reveal page for the 2015 Corvette Z06 lists the performance stats as 620 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque.
Now we know why Chevrolet is calling the 2015 Corvette Z06 “the most track-capable Corvette ever, designed to deliver supercar levels of performance through unique powertrain, chassis and aerodynamic features” when it announced last month that it would unveil the performance car at NAIAS.
We’ve speculated the C7 Z06 to come in around 600+ horsepower but I don’t anyone expected 650 lb-ft of torque. After all, the 2013 ZR1 comes in at 604 lb-ft of torque while the previous generation’s 7.0L LS7 powered Z06 is rated at 470 lb-ft of torque.
Although these performance numbers are leaked from an official Chevrolet website, chances are they could be slightly different when the rumored LT4 supercharged engine is officially certified by SAE. We saw that with the Corvette Stingray earlier this year.
The official reveal for the 2015 Corvette Z06, along with Corvette Racing’s C7.R will happen next Monday at 10 am EST. Join the fun by tuning into Chevrolet.com/Z06Reveal beginning at 9:30 am EST for a special event and then watch the reveals following.
Update
Chevrolet has already changed the meta data of the page. It now reads “The 2015 Corvette Z06 is the most advanced Corvette ever made. Read more about Chevy’s supercar here.” The new description is now updated on Google as well. Glad I grabbed those screen shots when I did!
How would you like to turn your Chevrolet vehicle into a mobile hotspot?
Starting with the 2015 Corvette, Impala, Malibu, and Volt, customers will be able to option their vehicles with OnStar 4G LTE. Eventually, the Equinox, Silverado, Silverado HD, Spark, and Spark EV will follow suit.
Chevy says the majority of its 2015 lineup will have a 4G LTE connection built-in at vehicle launch.
That means the vehicle will have a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot so passengers can connect multiple devices like smartphones, laptops, and tablets – at the same time – to high-speed wireless Internet offered on AT&T’s network, billed as the nation’s fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network.
The announcement came today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“Chevrolet is expected to implement the broadest deployment of 4G LTE in the automotive industry,” said Alan Batey, senior vice president of Global Chevrolet. “The fact that OnStar with 4G LTE will be available in models that range from the Chevrolet Spark to the Silverado to the Corvette, is indicative of our broad commitment to deliver more value and convenience through smart technology applications. This new, purposeful technology solution will make our consumers lives easier to connect.”
Mary Chan, president, GM’s Global Connected Consumer, says that its customers rely on their wireless connections throughout the day, and having a 4G LTE hotspot built into their vehicles “will provide a more consistent and powerful Wi-Fi connection than a smartphone,” she says.
Thanks to a partnership with AT&T, customers will be able to get a fast and flexible data plan for their vehicles. Current AT&T customers will be able to add their vehicle to a shareable bucket of data through AT&T Mobile Share plans, or through a standalone plan. More details will be released later this year about other pricing and data packages.
The built-in 4G LTE connection will also allow select 2015 Chevys to be updated with the latest software and apps through AppShop via Chevrolet MyLink, Chan says. “This means that the driver’s vehicle infotainment systems can keep getting better after purchase as customers can continue to add on and customize their features.”
Jan 7, 2014: Two stunning, multi award winning 1960s American Muscle Car convertibles from Ford and GM are going toe-to-toe for a last blast of sunshine in Shannons Melbourne Late Summer Auction on February 17. From the blue corner comes a superb, multiple trophy winning Shelby Mustang GT 350 Convertible – one of only 404 made for the 1968 model … (more)
Jan 7, 2014: Two stunning, multi award winning 1960s American Muscle Car convertibles from Ford and GM are going toe-to-toe for a last blast of sunshine in Shannons Melbourne Late Summer Auction on February 17. From the blue corner comes a superb, multiple trophy winning Shelby Mustang GT 350 Convertible – one of only 404 made for the 1968 model … (more)
