Order Pancakes From Your GM Dashboard

Bloomberg reports GM Enables Drivers to Order Espressos, Pancakes From the Road.

GM’s service -- which is made for use while driving -- is initially limited to about a dozen vendors but the automaker wants to add other brands and capabilities as it expands the service. Current offerings include reserving tables at TGI Friday’s, ordering take-out from restaurants including Applebee’s and IHOP, and pre-ordering coffees. Drivers can also use Priceline to find hotel rooms, but they still have to use their phone to complete the reservation.

GM has gotten a jump on other automakers when it comes to offering shopping services in the dashboard, said Mike Ramsey, a research director at Gartner Inc.

“In North American and Europe, this is definitely advanced,” Ramsey said in an interview. “GM is definitely ahead of everybody.”

I am wondering how many accidents there will be when people try to order food from their dashboard. Can you really do this while the car is moving? Of course if you restrict that, you also restrict a passenger from doing so.

Voice activation such as "Marketplace" take me to IHOP is a possibility.

Of course, when cars are self-driving, all of these features make more sense.