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Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

gping.io

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Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#2
There seem like so many ways to make this more secure than a public-but-hard-to-guess URL. Am I missing them? Does anyone have ideas on why it's a bad idea to for example require a login?

Edit: just want to append that this is really neat! I don't think it's dumb at all but my knee-jerk reaction was "aaah somehow this will turn into someone hacking cars that aren't theirs"

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#3
It's an interesting idea, but I fail to see how it compares to TinyURL. Wouldn't this be closer to "Quantified self for your car" ? I could see the data plugged into something that would allow me to predict when I should fill my gas tank and how much I usually spend and stuff like that.

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#4
I don't know if I'd describe it as "TinyURL for your car", but after reading about what it does the description makes sense. It might be hard for people to initially "get" though.

Where I see some future potential is in fleet management for smaller fleets (think your local plumber that has a couple of work vans, or maybe a small taxi company, etc). Being able to inexpensively monitor the locations of the vehicles, how far they've been driven, whether there are any trouble codes, etc, might have potential. I could also see potential for having maintenance reminders built in (e.g., set up the maintenance schedule, have it remind you say 500km, 250km, 100km before maintenance is required).

All of that would require some user management stuff and vehicle management stuff, but that's just software. You've got the hardware side of things taken care of already.

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#6
post #3

It's an interesting idea, but I fail to see how it compares to TinyURL. Wouldn't this be closer to "Quantified self for your car" ? I could see the data plugged into something that would allow me to predict when I should fill my gas tank and how much I usually spend and stuff like that.

It could be considered that, but marketing it that way would make people go "huh?", just like I did at first.

I see potential in turning it into a fleet management solution for small businesses. Have it tell you when maintenance is coming up, track vehicle usage, etc. I'm sure there are small businesses with vehicles where the owner has better things to do that figure out what maintenance is due for what vehicle.

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#7

I don't know if I'd describe it as "TinyURL for your car", but after reading about what it does the description makes sense. It might be hard for people to initially "get" though. Where I see some future potential is in fleet management for smaller fleets (think your local plumber that has a couple of work vans, or maybe a small taxi company, etc). Being able to inexpensively monitor the locations of the vehicles, ho…

Thank you for your comments. Agree with everything you wrote.

The words 'fleet management' may have bounced around in my head once or twice. Nod.

Re: Show HN: Gping.io – Like TinyURL for your car

#9
post #2

There seem like so many ways to make this more secure than a public-but-hard-to-guess URL. Am I missing them? Does anyone have ideas on why it's a bad idea to for example require a login? Edit: just want to append that this is really neat! I don't think it's dumb at all but my knee-jerk reaction was "aaah somehow this will turn into someone hacking cars that aren't theirs"

I agree users will want something better. I want to learn a little more about who the potential users are before implementing an authentication system for them.

For example, if this were to be strictly a consumer app, then Google or Facebook auth would make sense. If this ends up being used by businesses, that speaks to another solution perhaps.

Thanks for the feedback!

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