Toyota announced last week that it has found a way to communicate with their customers directly in their cars.  If you buy a Lexus vehicle in 2009, expect the added bonus of customized audio messages from your car manufacturer or dealership downloaded into your car’s navigational system.  Calling this system the “Lexus Insider,” it will be part of a bigger technology integration package from Toyota called “Enform”.

Enform is the combination of Toyota’s Destination Assist and eDestination, both of which are navigation services that always remain on and provide directions and assistance to the driver.  However, if your 2009 Lexus vehicle is to be equipped with the Enform Navigation package, you will automatically be enrolled into Insider.

Toyota is maintaining the benefits of such a system, but highlighting its research into its customer’s preferences.  According to Toyota, Lexus drivers “appreciate up-to-the-minute information about the world around them.”  The content delivered over the Insider service will be audiocasts hand-selected to suit each driver.  Topics will included Lexus vehicle technology updates, Lexus regional events and Lexus magazine articles. 

This technology is not new on the market, as audio reception and navigation downloads have been enabled in vehicles since the navi-systems started to gain popularity with manufacturers.  However, this does mark the first time a car manufacturer will be using the system to directly market to their existing customers.  With the majority of the delivered content being Lexus-themed, it’s not difficult to draw the similarities between unwanted target advertising.  Toyota maintains that Enform subscribers will be able to opt out of these targeted info-mercials, however it’s up to the dealership to deactivate and inform the consumer of the service.

Toyota believes that this technology distinguishes itself from the competition, namely Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which do not offer a service similar to Insider.  We have to agree that the use of targeted marketing messages delivered through an owner’s navigation system is ingenious, but it is not the ingenuity we would have hoped for.  Toyota has engineered its Enform system to utilize intelligent streaming to optimize delivery as to ensure minimal disruption due to reception range and signal strength.

If Insider proves to be successful, we could see its integration into the whole line of Toyota vehicles in the future.