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Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

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Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#291

Post by mistercow »

thejo wrote: post #34
isalmon wrote: post #19

Very 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?

Hey isalmon, fuel efficiency is not related to the speed limit. We just use that as a frame of reference. The actual numbers are that fuel efficiency drops by 12-15% for every 10 mph above 50 mph. Here's an article which talks about that - http://www.greencarcongress.com/2013/01/thomas-20130117.html

That data includes cars going back to 1984. From what I have heard (and have no citation for this), newer cars remain efficient at higher speeds than 50 mph. Do you know if that's true?

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#292

Post by graysnorf »

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…

google latitude is actually okay for #2, as long as people have it on so your location updates aren't too far out of date.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#293

Post by azernik »

Hmmm. What's the multi-driver and privacy story for this? I see one mention (being able but not required to share your parking location with other drivers) but I'm curious about how this handles eg trip history information when a different smartphone plugs in.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#294

Post by stcredzero »

jessaustin wrote: post #267
stcredzero wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually a confession by the perp, and/or by the owner. It's not unusual at all for people not to know the details of the law like this and blurt out factoids, and for there to be harsh but difficult to enforce laws in the US.

I'd expect a "confession" by one who stole a car to be worth very little in a civil action by a third party against the owner of that car.

If the "confession" is from a known car thief, sure. If from a neighborhood kid with an otherwise clean record, then not so much.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#295

Post by VLM »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #56
Wintamute wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It could, but keep in mind many OBD-II ports are out of reach. The one shown in the marketing is real, but many are located on the passenger side or a lot deeper on the driver's side. OBD-II might be a standard, but as I said it was designed to be used while the car is in a garage, never while it is being driven. So there is no "standard" for manufacturers to position it.

"never while it is being driven."

One reason to own a scan tool is to debug anti-lock brake sensors by driving around and noticing which wheel always reports zero... then replace that one sensor. This is far superior to random shotgun troubleshooting. Also while I had a thermostat problem I drove around quite awhile with my scan tool watching the thermostat misregulate my cooling system which is what led to failed readiness indicators because the engine never warmed up all the way only 99% of the way, etc etc. ODB-II is very old, like a college freshman, whereas this is a new iphone app. The equivalent for android, a program called Torque, is old. There are almost certainly HN posters younger than the standard ODB-II port. I bought a bluetooth ODB-II reader for my android/torque phone probably two years ago? It does apparently everything this new app does. My now antique orange physical scan tool appliance that cost me about $150 is about ten years old and obsolete, although it does still work. It is much tougher construction that my phone, which cost a lot more than $150...

One of the nicest Torque features is being able to reconfigure the gauge display. No point in being distracted by the oil pressure gauge when you're driving around if all you care about is a graph of the coolant temp vs time or peak coolant temp or whatever it was.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#296

Post by VLM »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #74
freehunter wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what he meant was, can't the device shut itself off in software to appear as though it is unplugged. Not having the user unplug it himself.

Oh I see what you mean. I bet it could. But how would it ever turn its self back on? I mean if it is receiving OBD-II information then it knows when the car is running, but if it isn't (which it wouldn't be if it is "off") then it couldn't know to switch its self on. Kind of a chick/egg problem.

"Kind of a chick/egg problem."

The phrase you need to google for is "battery isolator". Unfortunately most are rated at like 40 amps for RVs and you want a 40 milliamp one. Many ham radio guys know all about little boxes that connect when the voltage rises above 13.7 volts and disconnect when the voltage applied drops below 13 volts or so. Traditionally you don't use a microprocessor for this, its a beefy FET and two resistors in a voltage divider and not much else. That can be kinda drifty and imprecise depending on resistor and FET tolerance.

Another way is the car squirts ODB-II "stuff" at the port when its on, so little more than a diode/cap/FET combined properly will more or less work.

The strangest way I ever saw relied on what amounts to "hearing" alternator whine over the DC bus. If the alternator isn't spinning while the engine's running, you've got issues. Any source of KHz range noise would activate them, including unfortunately high powered CB radios.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#297

Post by VLM »

mcescalante wrote: post #38
hadem wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do most cars have an Onboard Diagnostics Port or is this more so in newer cars only? I wish there was some information about what cars this is expected to work with.

Any car with a OBD II port should work with the device... just Google your car. As noted, it's basically anything after 96 save for Hondas and a few other models.

"Save for Hondas and a few other models."

How does that work? There's 11 counties in Wisconsin where you cannot register your car unless you pass a biannual smog check which for any post '96 car involves the OBD-II check for codes and readiness indicators. So no ODB-II port means no wisconsin license plate with very few exceptions (mainly antique cars and electric cars)

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#298

Post by regularfry »

revelation wrote: post #158
nlh wrote: post #99

This is a great start to what I hope will be an awesome product. One of the other commenters mentioned fleet/enterprise customers -- let me raise my hand (as one of those customers) and say how SORELY needed this sort of approach to tech is in the fleet space. I actually predict (hope?) this will take off more on the business side than the consumer side. Here's the problem: Fleet managers (that is, people who are res…

Teslas Model S does 1, 2 and 3 out of the box and offers you a REST api to automate it. This stuff should just be standard issue in this day and age. (I thought the OBD port is decidedly "read-only"? Given how easy access is mandated by law.)

It might be standard issue, but it sure as hell isn't standardised. For instance: some (all? It's been a while) BMWs have the engine's CAN bus available on a couple of pins in the OBD-II socket. If you knew what you were doing, you could have an awful lot of fun with that, but the chances of it being compatible with any other manufacturer out of the box? Slim.

And it certainly isn't read-only :-)

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#299

Post by regularfry »

raverbashing wrote: post #107
thejo wrote: post #62

Earlier 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…

The current budget for an unpowered car is on the order of 20mA, and they're specced to leave the factory such that they can be left in that state and started after a month.

If you switch the alarm on, that budget increases to something like 120mA, but you'll kill the car inside a fortnight.

Re: Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant

#300

Post by jarek »

sah2ed wrote: post #290
jarek wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlikely. Cellular modems might be notorious when it comes to mobile devices, but the power use is tiny compared to car electrics (headlights, spark plugs, various fans). A cell phone might have a 5 Wh battery (5.45 Wh in iPhone 5); car batteries are closer to anywhere from 500 to beyond 1000 Wh. If your phone can idle for two days with only occasional modem use (no screen and minimal CPU use), a car battery can do m…

> ... but the power use is tiny compared to car electrics (headlights, spark plugs, various fans). Spark plugs?

I may have gotten a little ahead of myself with the spark plugs. They're necessarily very high voltage (north of 10k volts), so they come to mind easily, but I'm sure the current and spark duration are quite low.

Still, just the lights will easily outweigh a consumer-grade cellular modem.

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