An insurance giant will attempt to purchase Automatic. That's my guess.
Progressive already does this with a similar gadget:
http://www.progressive.com/auto/snapshot.aspx
Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
141–150 of 305 posts
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're paranoid about not running your car's battery down. When the ignition is off, we consume less than 1 mA. By itself, the Automatic Link would take 3-4 years to drain even a cheap battery.
I think it's better to break this down, because this myth of 'running out of battery' is really exaggerated Let's say your average battery has 40AH. That means it can provide 1A for 40h (or better, the product time(h) x current(A) = 40 for a charged battery) @ 12v If your lamps consume 24W (I'm guessing), that's 2A, it means it would go from fully charget to nothing in 20h. But of course, your battery is usually not…
I wouldn't call it a myth people have reported issues with similar port adapters, particularly bluetooth ones. If the issue doesn't apply here then great but in general people should pay attention.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#143Wow I had an idea similar to this back in college, couldn't get any co-founders interested in doing a proper startup sadly! iPhone accessory manufacturer had a smartphone-OBD-II product called CarTrip which they discontinued: http://www.griffintechnology.com/blog/new/cartrip-and-cleand... As others have noted, you can buy the hardware yourself for pretty cheap: http://dx.com/p/obdii-bluetooth-car-diagnostic-cable-bla…
Last I looked, none of these were iPhone compatible, as they were Bluetooth Serial profile (SPP), which isn't supported for app use. This may have changed, so for now the conventional ELM### devices are Android/Jailbreak only. As an iOS user, this alone makes me interested in Automatic's product.
Rev, linked above, has been around for a few years and is iPhone compatible. See the hardware page on their site for bluetooth info.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#144[deleted]
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#145Cool, but seems like it's not available in Canada.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#146Lesson for startups here: There are tons of devices/apps that do exactly what this does already. What's the difference? Automatic has great design, snappy domain name, and most importantly mass market positioning. These had traditionally been targeted towards gear heads, but Automatic smartly positioned it to be something mass market (gas mileage, etc...)
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#147I've seen these before. There are several companies working on similar products (and things like HUDs you can get off of eBay which show you OBD-II information). The main problem with these (all of them!) is that the OBD II was never designed to be used like this. It will run the device 24/7 even when the car is turned off. So it will run down your battery in a similar way to leaving the cabin light on would do... No…
Can't the dongle just kill its own connection to the OBDII port? i.e. appear inert to the car's hardware as if nothing is plugged in?
I wonder how Progressive solved that problem with their OBD II + Qualcomm MSM device.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#148Seems very similar to these guys as well: http://moj.io I am looking forward to the competition (and innovation) in this space.
It's shocking to me how much better the automatic web design is. They tell a similar story but I leave automatic's site with a much clearer understanding of the features, price and value proposition.
and yet they are very different products, moj.io uses a mobile data network, automatic is just a bluetooth dongle.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#149Very good concept overall, I like the idea A LOT. One thing that surprised me: >> Speeding doesn't save as much time as you might think, but driving 10 MPH over the speed limit reduces fuel efficiency by 12-15%. How's my fuel efficiency related to the speed limit set by local authorities?
The highest gear's most efficient peak of most "consumer" cars maximizes efficiency around 65mph. The NHTSA considered efficiency along with safety when making their recommendation so many years ago.
65mph is slightly too high for most models.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fuel_economy_vs_speed_1997...
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have a source for that? Because from experience (being an EU driver) most cars I've dealt with have the port in a different location. Some as wonderful as being literally right in the centre console, to being as horrible as under a mat in the passenger side.
I don't have a source, but I was also advised a couple of years ago that it is mandated to be under the dashboard on the driver side.
According to http://www.obdii.com/connector.html :
Where is the connector located?
The connector must be located within three feet of the driver and must not require any tools to be revealed. Look under the dash and behind ashtrays.