Internet bus rumbles in to Adelaide at hefty cost
Adelaide, South Australia have followed in the footsteps of many other tech savvy cities and developed an internet enabled bus going by the name of, “i-commute bus”. The project has been sponsored by the South Australian government in partnership with Cisco systems, Adam internet, and real-time passenger information system “transSpot” of Israel. The bus will perform a myriad of functions for passengers including route timings, wifi, GPS, Bluetooth access to games and of course (censored) internet. The project has cost tax payers a staggering $500,000 AUD and has taken 18 months to develop.
Admittedly, my first thoughts of this very expensive Australian foray in the connected public transport arena were very negative. Half a million to put internet on a bus in a city that has a highly developed 3G network as well as multiple mobile broadband suppliers? Not to mention, the San Francisco version was a hybrid “Green” bus that balanced out the emissions generated from so much extra weight/technology. The word excessive comes to mind? On the positive, this opens the door for targeted location based advertising direct to consumers. Think- “Hungry? McDonalds at your next stop”. I assume this could be sold at a premium.
Connected busses are definitely a good thing and pave the way for all sorts of internet capable public services such as trains and trams but are coming a heavy price for the tax payer as well as the environment. Great opportunity for marketeers, though!
Source: News.com.au
