Tracking Riverboats on Google Maps
San Antonio has long been a center for high-tec innovation, and San Antonio College has been turning out the best and brightest innovators for over a decade. The latest idea is the brain-child of Todd Weisman and Pedro Lopez and with $15 mm of venture capital funding have enabled Riverboats to be trackable from Google Maps. The firm’s slogan “Where’s my boat?” garnered the Best Slogan Slash Idea award at the annual Innovation Awards hosted in New Braunfels. Todd and Pedro hope to generate as much as 30 hits a day on the new website, earning nearly a dollar in advertising revenue.
Each boat is fitted with a $25,000 GPS transponder that tells Rio View’s software where the boats are. Visitors can then see all six boats and their position on the world famous Riverwalk. Initally, Todd says, they thought they had a bug when one Riverboat was shown in a disused parking lot on Houston St, but it turned out that the boat had been stolen and was headed to Austin to be sold for parts. Law enforcement officials were delighted, and intend to issue officers with iPhones so they too can see the positions of the boats to make sure others aren’t being driven away.
Pedro has also announced that version 2 (below) will show bars with active Happy Hours at any time you log in, another great benefits for visitors to San Antonio.
