AUSTIN, Texas — I have news for you: Electric cars can do donuts. In a recenttest drive inside BMW's new i3 electric car, we tested this theory in a small Austin parking lot. To be fair, we never truly "spun" around, but that's only because I was nervous about breaking a law and the driver cautiously held back.
The electric car, a small four-door, five-seater that gets 80 miles to a charge, is finally coming to the United States early this year — and it already has at least one nifty digital integration that could help make this sporty car more attractive to families. It's designed to help you keep track of, find and communicate with family members wherever they are. Life360, the family locator app that set up our test drive, now has dashboard-level integration with the new BMW i3, along with iPhone and Android handsets.
Features like messaging, check-ins, panic buttons and live advisors also extend to the car interface. The advisor, however, is a premium feature. So while Life360 and most of its features are free, the OnStar-like in-car assistant system, which gives you live help wherever you are, costs families $5 per month.
Right now, only a fraction of Life360's members use the feature. When we asked about long-term monetization, our Life360 driver explained that the service is busy collecting a rather large group of people concerned about family and safety — a group that could be interested in other products and services, all of which may offer the app a path to monetization.
Longterm, the company expects to integrate with more "Internet of things" apps and hardware, but for now, the integration with the BMW i3 is pretty smooth and interesting. Now we just have to wait for the car, which should retail for around $42,000, to arrive.
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CP: Mashable
