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Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

automatic.com

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251–260 of 305 posts

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#251

Post by phmagic »

masoninthesis wrote: post #249
gfodor wrote: post #248

Ok I know this is going to sound harsh given the praise of this thread, but I am just not getting it. The design is brilliant, the idea seems great, but of the applications listed there isn't anything there that makes me want to reach in my pocket and spend $70 on this. I'm not interested in how efficiently I am driving. This is not going to help me find my car in a parking lot, since it is an estimate and often thes…

I commend you for being part of the solution, but I have to say- for myself, the ability to check the cause of the check engine light would be worth it. If your car is fairly new, you may experience the check engine light very rarely. But for cars over 5 years old, I think that's the best feature. As opposed to taking it into a mechanic where you are completely ignorant of what the cause was.

Go to autozone, checkers, oreilly. They will diagnose for free.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#252

Post by fatbat »

masoninthesis wrote: post #249
gfodor wrote: post #248

Ok I know this is going to sound harsh given the praise of this thread, but I am just not getting it. The design is brilliant, the idea seems great, but of the applications listed there isn't anything there that makes me want to reach in my pocket and spend $70 on this. I'm not interested in how efficiently I am driving. This is not going to help me find my car in a parking lot, since it is an estimate and often thes…

I commend you for being part of the solution, but I have to say- for myself, the ability to check the cause of the check engine light would be worth it. If your car is fairly new, you may experience the check engine light very rarely. But for cars over 5 years old, I think that's the best feature. As opposed to taking it into a mechanic where you are completely ignorant of what the cause was.

I know some cars can blink light codes (morse-like on dashboard) that you can reference online to self-diagnose the engine problem.

I did it once with a weird combination of brake and pedal pushes. Kinda cool actually. Method name escapes me now.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#254

Post by jessaustin »

stcredzero wrote: post #222
umsm wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the driver and the area you're from. In front of my home, I rarely lock my car.

Depending on the jurisdiction, you could be liable for stuff that happens if someone steals your unlocked car.

If this is a common thing, how does the party holding you liable typically show that the car was unlocked?

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#255

Post by devicenull »

masoninthesis wrote: post #249
gfodor wrote: post #248

Ok I know this is going to sound harsh given the praise of this thread, but I am just not getting it. The design is brilliant, the idea seems great, but of the applications listed there isn't anything there that makes me want to reach in my pocket and spend $70 on this. I'm not interested in how efficiently I am driving. This is not going to help me find my car in a parking lot, since it is an estimate and often thes…

I commend you for being part of the solution, but I have to say- for myself, the ability to check the cause of the check engine light would be worth it. If your car is fairly new, you may experience the check engine light very rarely. But for cars over 5 years old, I think that's the best feature. As opposed to taking it into a mechanic where you are completely ignorant of what the cause was.

Normal OBDII readers are cheap ($20). You can also get the codes read for free at pretty much any parts store.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#256

Post by thejo »

tsycho wrote: post #200

I am really excited about this product, but had a couple of questions: 1. Will this be able to connect to more than one phone without significant reconfigurations? My wife and I own one car. It would be great to swap which phone to connect to depending on who is driving. 2. Will this need a tethering plan (or a jailbreak) for Automatic to use my iPhone's data plan? Since AT&T/Verizon charge extra for a tethering plan…

Automatic is designed to work with multiple drivers. So yes, you can share a car with your wife and both of you can use Automatic.

A tethering plan is not required. The Automatic Link communicates with your iPhone over Bluetooth and uses your phone's data connection.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#257

Post by enraged_camel »

gfodor wrote: post #248

Ok I know this is going to sound harsh given the praise of this thread, but I am just not getting it. The design is brilliant, the idea seems great, but of the applications listed there isn't anything there that makes me want to reach in my pocket and spend $70 on this. I'm not interested in how efficiently I am driving. This is not going to help me find my car in a parking lot, since it is an estimate and often thes…

My thoughts exactly. I'd pay $7 for this app, but not $70.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#258

Post by thejo »

Cub3 wrote: post #241
bargl wrote: post #198

Wow, this could be really cool if you collected all the data from the cars anonymously and then built a data-set that mapped common car issues to mileage for specific makes/models/year combos. That could really improve car performance by predicting when issues will arise and warning the user (my 2002 malibu had a switch fail at 92k which is a common thing once I looked online, but this lead to more issues when it fai…

I'm concerned about the Android version, a week or so ago when I was researching the fitbit It quickly became apparent the lack of Low power BT4.0 support in android core (but available on the (S3 + Note), will this support all android or just low power 4.0?

The Automatic Link supports both Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth Classic, so it will work with many Android phones that don't support BT 4.0 too.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#259

Post by thejo »

msprague wrote: post #238
frogpelt wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it matter what type of car I have as long as it's new enough?

OBD-II just standardizes the connection port, meaning that you can plug in the device, but not all cars support the same information and features. Most of them do, but I'm sure that the guys over at Automatic don't want to sell someone a product that isn't supported or tested for their vehicle.

That's right!

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#260

Post by thejo »

freehunter wrote: post #83
marban wrote: post #28

I feel like the Beta flag next to Crash Alerts gives a new twist to what you can expect from a beta version.

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…

You can disable the crash alert feature if you don't want it.
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