radio suggestion

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jlsoaz

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 8, 2012
Messages
849
Location
Southern Arizona, USA
I made a suggestion at gm-volt.com, and to OnStar directly, that may have fallen on deaf ears, and as I revisit the Leaf forum and revisit the question of Nissan's open-ness to suggestions, I wonder if it might be worth making here. It is simply that, as I listen to the conventional radio, we be able to participate in a program that would allow the vehicle to track what stations and songs and programs we are listening to. When I drive a car and hear a station or song or talk or news show that I love, it sometimes kind of makes me want to "vote" for that, and instead of having to wait for some constrained polling place to call or arrange with me once every 20 years if I am randomly selected, an program like this might really be fun for me and some other drivers to participate in. I assume other drivers might not want it at all, and so maybe there is a way to manage privacy concerns, such as by making it opt-in. The results don't have to be declared "scientific" but might be of interest to radio and music industry and others. I mostly have conventional radio in mind. I don't know if tracking of satellite radio is already done.
 
Since radio is designed as receive only, getting the results from the driver 'voting' is a definite issue that will prevent your idea from being taken seriously.
 
baustin said:
Since radio is designed as receive only, getting the results from the driver 'voting' is a definite issue that will prevent your idea from being taken seriously.

Hi - Radio is receive-only, but as far as I know, a Nissan Leaf is not. It can upload data on a variety of things, and in theory this could include granular data on what radio stations have been listened to, on the radio in the Leaf.
 
Nubo said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_People_Meter

Interesting, thanks for posting. I suppose it helps me emphasize that the Leaf, the Volt and all other modern vehicles with decent data upload capability could become de facto competitors to this type of portable meter, for the time when the vehicle radio is used, though not outside the vehicle.

I want to add that at some point I was chosen preliminarily possibly to participate in Nielsen (I think it was) but ultimately couldn't do it because of a work affiliation. Ok, they have to follow their rules to maintain their reputation and to do their work in a way that is scientific as possible. However, I think it leaves the door open for a company like any major auto company to offer drivers the chance to participate in something which may or may not be as useful as Nielsen data, but which could have access to a much larger sample set (by number of units) and whose data might be valuable to some even if the collecting of data is not useful for some rigorous scientific purposes. It also might be fun for some drivers and their families and thus add (in a low cost way) to the overall enjoyment of features of the vehicle.
 
jlsoaz said:
Nubo said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_People_Meter

Interesting, thanks for posting. I suppose it helps me emphasize that the Leaf, the Volt and all other modern vehicles with decent data upload capability could become de facto competitors to this type of portable meter, for the time when the vehicle radio is used, though not outside the vehicle.

I want to add that at some point I was chosen preliminarily possibly to participate in a round of Nielsen (I think it was) radio data, but ultimately couldn't do it because of a work affiliation. Ok, sure, they have to follow their rules to maintain their reputation and to do their work in a way that is scientific as possible. I get that. However, I think it leaves the door open for a company like any major auto company to offer drivers the chance to participate in something which may or may not be as useful as Nielsen data, but which could have access to a much larger sample set (by number of units) and whose data might be valuable to some even if the collecting of data is not useful for some rigorous scientific purposes. It also might be fun for some drivers and their families and thus add (in a low cost way) to the overall enjoyment of features of the vehicle.
 
I suggest Nissan and the other automakers consider allowing vehicle riders to opt-in to having their conventional and satellite radio listening monitored. Maybe this is already done for satellite? I see this as a way that folks can be part of ratings without having to participate in a method like Nielsen, though to be sure it would not be as scientific in some way, since the sampling group selection would be different.

As well, maybe include some sort of "polling" options directly on the dashboard of the vehicle? Could be just about voting for things the riders would like to see (more range, more fast public charging stations near where they live, etc.) or it could be broader societal stuff (where do you stand on thus-and-such issue, what foods do you like, etc?)

I would imagine that both of these might
1) have some minor revenue stream potential for an automaker that implements them, and
2) might amount to an included vehicle infotainment option that could count favorably in some minor way for some vehicle shoppers in weighing their decisions.

it's been a few years since I've been in a Leaf, and so acknowledging that some of these may already be implemented there.
 
You have already posted about this: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=27931

On top of the fact that radio in the car is receive only, there are distracted driving laws that would interfere with implementation of this. The Leaf already limits interaction with the NAV system when the vehicle is moving, due to safety concerns.
 
This could conceivably be done with a phone app. It would periodically sample the mic, listening for what program/station is currently playing. When you're done driving, you could then review the list of programs you had listened to and up/down rank them. Although, to be honest, the fact that you listened for a period of time is sort of an automatic up vote, isn't it?
 
baustin said:
You have already posted about this: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=27931

On top of the fact that radio in the car is receive only, there are distracted driving laws that would interfere with implementation of this. The Leaf already limits interaction with the NAV system when the vehicle is moving, due to safety concerns.

Thanks, I momentarily forgot I had already posted about it.

As to voting and distraction and laws, etc. you are badly misunderstanding my suggestion. All I"m saying is this could be a passive alternative to Nielsen ratings or the like. One needn't do a single solitary thing other than agree to whether Nissan (or some third party agreed with Nissan) has the right to keep track of which radio stations one listens to, at precisely what times, etc.
 
davewill said:
This could conceivably be done with a phone app. It would periodically sample the mic, listening for what program/station is currently playing. When you're done driving, you could then review the list of programs you had listened to and up/down rank them. Although, to be honest, the fact that you listened for a period of time is sort of an automatic up vote, isn't it?

Thanks, I wish that I had not used the word "vote" or "voting" or put forth more than one suggestion in the same post. It seems I have greatly complicated things. I'll try to clear it up:

1) The main thing I am suggesting is simply that, with driver permission, Nissan collect information about what radio stations people are listening to. From there, Nissan might either monetize the information and sell it to such interested parties as advertisers or stations.

At some point I may have used the word "vote" or "voting" to convey that when I turn the dial in the car, if I know that my listening choices are being recorded, it feels as though I am (in a way) "voting" for this or that song or program. This is something that I think I would like to try.

Background to this idea is that at some point I was going to participate in keeping one of the manual diaries that Nielsen apparently uses, but a re-assessment meant that unfortunately I did not qualify to participate. This was kind of disappointing.... I was looking forward to it... I like listening to radio in the car, sometimes.

So, reading through your response, yes, just the recording of the listening would amount to de facto voting/ranking/rating/whatever, and no further action would be needed. But, as I write, and as I think about your comment, _yes_, there would seem to be an opportunity here for a phone app that would allow those of us left out in the cold by the official ratings processes could participate in something, even if we know that it's not accepted as scientific or as useful as the official well-established processes.

I wonder, if a phone app of the sort you describe did get popular with riders whether NIssan or its competitors would then consider whether they would like to gather the in-car radio listening information for those drivers that really wanted to opt in. Among other interesting results of this might be to contrast and mull over the differences in results of the official well-established ratings methods and the opt-in easy-peasy automaker-gathered or app-gathered information.

2) I made a second completely separate suggestion, also intended to leverage the vehicle's information gathering and connectivity capabilities, which is that it might be interesting to have some polling capability built in to the dashboard of the car. There were one or two points made by others as to whether this would be allowed under regulations and in the end even though I think it's half-interesting, it's really not the priority here, and is a different matter altogether.
 
This is probably already done, to some extend, in Android Auto, considering how Google already captures and monetizes user data.

For the automakers, this is a non-starter. There are too many privacy, safety, and regulatory issues to deal with. Also, there are the costs to setup the infrastructure to capture, receive, and store the data, and to pay the personnel to manage the system, and try to find someone willing to pay enough for the data to make the effort worthwhile.
 
baustin said:
This is probably already done, to some extend, in Android Auto, considering how Google already captures and monetizes user data.

Thanks for pointing out Android Auto to me. If it is collecting this data but is not letting people know that they are participating in some sort of radio listening ratings estimation, then this would be stopping short of my suggestion. Again, part of where I am coming from on this is that at some point I was chosen to participate in a radio ratings program, but then unfortunately it became clear that I couldn't participate. But my hopes were up and it brought home to me that it would be fun to think our choices are, in some way, counted.

baustin said:
For the automakers, this is a non-starter. There are too many privacy, safety, and regulatory issues to deal with. Also, there are the costs to setup the infrastructure to capture, receive, and store the data, and to pay the personnel to manage the system, and try to find someone willing to pay enough for the data to make the effort worthwhile.

Your points seem like very strong nay-saying.

Safety concerns? Concerns about what, listening to the radio? Perhaps you mean if some drivers ascribed more importance to changing the channel while driving, motivated by their participation, then this would be a safety concern? That seems thin, but I suppose I could see it.

Privacy of ***opt-in*** radio monitoring? At best that seems thin, especially compared to other privacy concerns that somehow have been overcome.

Infrastructure and personnel costs? I suppose, but there are already such costs borne in gathering other information (EV miles driven, etc.) and ultimately my guess is that it's part of the business now.

I don't know if something like this will be done, whether by automakers, a licensee working in partnership with them (such as if Nielsen or some such company worked with an automaker) or perhaps by a cell phone app provider, but I do know there is an incentive for some riders to try it, which is that some people like participating.
 
Back
Top