The android app version says it ships this fall. When does the iOS version ship?
May, according to the order page.
Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
161–170 of 305 posts
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#162Lesson 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...)
Could you give an example or two of their best competitor?
Automatic seems to be mostly aimed at consumers who wish to have statistics more than to perform optimizations or do diagnosis, but here are a couple that are fairly common in the aftermarket:
Stats, Tuning, Android App, Bluetooth dongle: http://www.superchips.com/Store/VIVIDLINQ.aspx
App to work with any number of bluetooth OBD-II dongles: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.prowl.torq...
Personally, as someone who regularly changes drivetrain, tires sizes, gearing, etc. on vehicles, I'll stick with things like VIVID which do work pretty well for the most part. I can see a market for people who just want an easy app that tells them statistics and such (but those do already exist, just not as easy for the average user since they've been the domain of tuners for a while).
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#163Wait, so this 69$ little contraption can read the code behind a check engine light? That's $100 in savings that would otherwise go to the Car Mechanic Mafia. Pre-ordered.
Many shops will give you the code free of charge. It's up to you to take the codes and diagnose it. It's not always easy.
Sure, after you drive to the shop and wait for a while. Knowing without having to go anywhere is a big convenience.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#164Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#165Earlier 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'm glad you replied to this criticism. I'm very excited about your product, and I'm hoping that you are planning on a third party API so folks can build apps for your customers..... maybe that was written somewhere and I missed it??
We'd love to build an API. It's on a long list of things we want to build. The Automatic Link supports OTA updates (through the phone). So, our users can expect improvements. In fact, we think of ourselves as a software company. We built a hardware device because that was the only way we could achieve the user experience we wanted to deliver.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#166Alright. The product seems pretty good, especially the marketing and the spin. But I would have to place it in the category of "cool gadgets that you don't really need". For $20-30, this might be a cool thing to try. But I am not going to shell out $70 for a little tool that will tell me how efficient I am or where I parked my car. People have been parking cars without GPS systems for years just fine. And oh, want to help me be more efficient on the road? I think that people who are serious about saving money already know to now accelerate fast, drive over 65, etc.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm just hoping there's a way to turn it off without losing any other functionality. I really don't want to be hit with the bill from an accidental 911 call, I'll take my chances that if there's an accident someone around (or I) will be able to call 911 without a $70 app deciding it for me. I would also be concerned (this seems to be an extreme edge case) that off-roading may trip the sensor. I try not to break my eq…
Where do you live that you get a bill for 911 calls?
911 is free, but you foot the bill for services rendered and face a fine for false 911 calls.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#168The android app version says it ships this fall. When does the iOS version ship?
May, according to the order page. https://www.automatic.com/order
Doh. For some reason the orange tag on the android one made me expect to see one for the iOS so my eye didn't even read the text. It's right there, haha. My bad.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#169I like the design of the app and the idea of hacking cars ODB data. However I see plenty of things that make me raise (an) eyebrow(s).
1. It relies on the amount and quality of ODB data your car provides. The data is worth as much as the precision of the car sensors (fuel consumption on my 5 year old car is very unreliable).
2. "Upgrade your cars' capabilities" is just fluff. Your car doesn't gain any abilities.
3. I like the idea of making people aware of fuel economy but the quality of feedback is directly depended on 1. Bad sensors will give bad readings. If, however your car has state of the art fuel consumption sensors, chances are pretty high it's a nice car already showing that data right on the dashboard.
4. The emergency services will be contacted after a crash is detected by the accelerations sensors in your smartphone. A device that is loosely lying around somewhere in your car. In the assumption it survives a crash and isn't catapulted through the windshield landing 30 meters outside the range of bluetooth. Upon which it will give an auditive cue informing abrupt braking is bad for fuel economy and your social driving score will be negatively impacted.
The idea is great and has good uses. But for now it looks like a gadget bringing little new to the table. For the features it does have, only time will tell on how fail proof they are implemented.
Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the service turns out to actually be usefil, I hope they will consider charging money for it in lieu of spiriting away my personal information as you suggest.
It's not free, it costs $70.
You could argue that the device costs $70, but the service is "free". What seems to be the plea is to have the device cost something and have the service cost an amount of money, rather than an amount of information.