Loyalty Truth Staff Writer
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Would the owner of a blue Honda Civic please come to the front desk…Your lights are on. It’s situations like these that Bump.com is trying to help resolve more efficiently. The
service, touted as “AAA meets Foursquare” by founder Michael Thrower, is essentially a social networking tool that links drivers through their automobile’s license plates.
The idea is that drivers will be able to communicate with other motorists, the government and marketers—using license plates as identifiers. Bump’s video explores a bevy of solutions that it will offer fellow drivers, including everything from alerting when a taillight is out to letting someone know about leaking oil.
The possibilities of Bump do not end with simply helping other drivers. The company has also expressed how there are endless other ways to put the service to use. A few of these, according to Wired Magazine include, “Fleets and cab companies using Bump to contact their drivers, meter maids alerting you when your car is about to get towed, car manufacturers sending important recall information directly to Bump accounts and eventually drivers being able to renew their licenses and registrations through the service.”
As with any new social networking service, Bump has raised privacy concerns. Objections to social media that can track an individual’s location and activity will always exist. A Bump member can choose to share their personal information or not, but this does not answer all of these legitimate privacy uncertainties.
Thrower said Bump will be in a public beta by Thanksgiving, so that leaves the rest of us to speculate. Will Bump take off and enjoy similar success like its social networking kin? Predictions are all over the map for Bump, but the service’s critics seem to be the loudest right now.
Don’t forget though, back in 2004 people said a website with that linked 1 million college students would never grow to become worth an estimated $40 billion and redefine how the world uses the Internet.
Everyone has to start somewhere, right Facebook?
By: Ray Kowatch, of JZMcBride and Associates
