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Hands-On with the 'Automatic' Connected Driving Assistant System
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Murphintosh
macrumors member
"Regardless of whether or not you even have the app open"
You can have "Regardless of whether" or
you can have "whether or not" but you can not have both.
It could be worse. I've actually seen "whether or whether or not."
I know, I know, but it gets to me.
You can have "Regardless of whether" or
you can have "whether or not" but you can not have both.
It could be worse. I've actually seen "whether or whether or not."
I know, I know, but it gets to me.
Like Golf???
So, in my Cadillac STS-V (469 HP Supercharged V-8) the purpose of this would be to achieve a LOW score like in golf???
Nice Tool!
So, in my Cadillac STS-V (469 HP Supercharged V-8) the purpose of this would be to achieve a LOW score like in golf???
Nice Tool!
iMerik
macrumors 6502a
This is very cheap for what it does. Super chips used to make something called the bluefin which would translate error codes and load a new engine map onto your ecu, £220 it cost!!!
The adaptors they use in garages usually cost quite a lot and the adaptors to plug to certain agricultural tractors cost £700 + leads, I know that first hand.
$70 is nothing for what this does and you can reuse it in future vehicles.
pubwvj
macrumors 68000
The difference between a consumer product and a technician product. With the captive audience of mechanics they get to charge very high prices. With consumers the prices typically go down 10 to 100 fold. Thus a price of $30 would be about right. It has to do with monopoly power over markets and economies of scale.
So, let's review here, this is a product which provides information some people find interesting and useful. This makes the Automatic, a small piece of plastic and silicone, more useful than you since you provide information (your opinion of a product you have not used) which is neither interesting, or useful. Just a thought.
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Well, technically, it is still version 0.9.3 so give them a little time. We 1st world humans are setting the bar of what we get from prerelease software pretty frickin' high these days.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8m5d0_everything-is-amazing-and-nobody-i_fun
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I asked them about being able to peg the speeding to the speed limit on the road where you are driving and the answer I got was essentially: Yeah, we're working on that. It's not an easy problem. We'll get there soon.
Another thing they have mentioned is the ability to unlock the car from the phone which would be handy. And to all the people who are going to say "My brand new <insert car name here> does that." I would point out that my 2008 FJ can now do the same things your brand new car can do and it only cost me $70.
wackymacky
macrumors 68000
Same thing crossed my mind. Am I opting to plug a tracking device into my car as well as the capacity already to track my phone.
Think I'll opt out of this one for now.
Murphintosh
macrumors member
Well, it's worth at least $20, which is what most OBD2 readers go for in the store. Even cheaper on Amazon. They've been out for, what, a decade now? Or, just stop at your nearest auto parts store and ask them to scan your vehicle for you (they obviously would much rather you scan than the service station, because then you're more likely to buy parts at their store) almost always at no charge.
The other features are what you get for the other $50+. If you just want to figure out why your check engine light is on without having to tell the guy at AutoZone "No, I don't want to buy the bits to fix that right now", buy a cheap scanner off Amazon and be done.
From a high-level point of view, I'd love to see this succeed. However, for a gadget nerd to get excited about it, Automatic needs to prove its hardware is capable of reading realtime ECU data (ie, the data displayed by $80+ single-purpose hardware OBD2 readers, such as specific engine timings and misfires data, etc). If it can just get that data sent across to the phone, beating the Actron devices is all a matter of software, and I'm confident software written on a general-purpose device will quickly surpass that built into single-purpose hardware (as has been the case in every previous similar situation over the past 30+ years) and Automatic will have a rabid customer base.
Of course, another option if you want the more techy aspects of it (as opposed to the slow-down / auto-call-for-help-in-an-accident features which seem pretty much completely divorced from the OBD data stream except maybe for braking measures) is to get a $15 OBD2 bluetooth dongle at Amazon and a $50 display/logging app in the app store (but it sounds like you need to jailbreak your phone to get the bluetooth OBD2 dongle to connect!). In the non-jailbreak world, though, it sounds like that $15 device needs to be replaces with a $150-ish WiFi device (and you need to have your phone ad hoc connect to its wireless, which might cause issues with your carrier's data connection, etc).
Overall, I think Automatic has a good start. Keeping things simple is a great strategy here. If they can build out (or partner with one of the existing iOS OBD display/log software houses) their software they can really make a killing in a market whose leaders have long been in complacent cash-cow-milking mode.
I think that the thinking is that, despite various speed limits across the country, fuel efficiency tends to really drop off on current vehicles once you've hit 65 (sometimes, even 45). Look around, and you'll see a lot of charts that look like the top chart at http://www.mpgforspeed.com when graphing measured miles per gallon versus sustained (highway) speed.
So, even though your state allows and encourages fast driving on those country roads, it has not conquered physics. Your car still does use more gas per mile to go 75 than it does to go 70 or 65. Thus, if you were able to safely drive on those roads (safely being the most important word here) at a lower speed you would see your gas mileage increase, just as Automatic would tell you.
That having been said, fuel efficiency is definitely not a binary thing. There is nothing "magical" about 70mph; keeping yourself at 75 instead of pushing 80 will also increase your fuel efficiency, perhaps even more so than shifting from an average of 75 to an average of 70. It would be nice if Automatic would look at actual speed / calculated "area under the graph" fuel efficiency to calculate its score rather than having a rather arbitrary black/white division between "good driving" and "bad driving".
All that having been said, the absolute worst gas mileage you will ever get is when your car is smashed up on the side of the road draining its fuel tank onto the shoulder. No minor gas mileage gains are worth driving at speeds significantly inconsistent with the rest of traffic on a road. If you are on a two-lane road, you'd best be going the "normal" rate (often a smidge above whatever the posted speed limit is); if you are on a multi-lane road, keep yourself in the "slow" lane while driving slower than the rest of traffic (and accept that you might actually get worse gas mileage there due to slowing down for merging / exiting traffic).
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What about "Irregardless of whether or not"? Better? 🙂
(I'm pretty sure I've used "regardless of whether or not" as an idiomatic phrase before, and never really thought about it. You are right that it doesn't make sense. I'll try to avoid it from here out.)
PracticalMac
macrumors 68030
Now, when will this be standard on ALL cars?
Since when did diagnostic info have to be secret from the owner??
Since when did diagnostic info have to be secret from the owner??
kissfan
macrumors 6502
Remember kids, it's a Beta product
Hi all,
I'm a beta test user for the Automatic device.
The company is taking all of our suggestions for improvement and looking into them. We have asked for a lot of the things mentioned in this thread, and they are receptive.
I'm sure that soon after the stable 1.0 is released they will start to add features.
I know they're looking at allowing users to set thresholds on speed, acceleration, etc.
Give it time, it's got all kinds of potential.
Hi all,
I'm a beta test user for the Automatic device.
The company is taking all of our suggestions for improvement and looking into them. We have asked for a lot of the things mentioned in this thread, and they are receptive.
I'm sure that soon after the stable 1.0 is released they will start to add features.
I know they're looking at allowing users to set thresholds on speed, acceleration, etc.
Give it time, it's got all kinds of potential.
Regarding the BT abilities of the hardware I found that very interesting car parking and sharing solution:
http://www.park-and-share.com/Park-and-Share/EN/Park-and-Share/English.html
http://www.park-and-share.com/Park-and-Share/EN/Park-and-Share/English.html
iMerik
macrumors 6502a
Good points. Automatic Labs will be improving Link far into the future. I'm happy to be on board now; it's fun and neat.
benji888
macrumors 68000
NOTE TO REVIEWER: Your review is incomplete as you only covered one aspect (ok, two, GPS find-my-car)... This is a 10x better way to hook up to find out what a check engine light is on for, when a device that gives you a code and tells you nothing more costs double or more (in the US too jrawsterne). It calls 911 when it detects a crash is something else you failed to mention, (the car's computer knows when the car has had an impact). Multiple smart phones can connect with the device, and so, if you share a car, the next person to use the car can see on their iphone where it is parked. I'd also like to know, does it show your engine RPMs, does it give you your MPG, tell you the outside temp? My car does not have the latter two features, yet, the A/C system knows the outside temp, so the computer has this info.... What about coolant temp, oil pressure, alternator status, does it have anything else in there?
As far as your Prius's score of 35...the website states that it is for "gasoline engine cars", perhaps that score is given based on the gas engine only, maybe it doesn't account for the hybrid electric motor and regen braking. ("Automatic works only in the United States with just about any gasoline engine car sold in the U.S. since 1996.")
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Exactly!! ...why? so that the carmakers can make profits off servicing your vehicle (they want you to come to the dealerships for this).
AppleTools
macrumors member
Will it work on a 1972 Mach 1?
I could use some gas saving when driving that monster...
Oh wait, I forgot to care the second I heard the V8 and let the clutch go...
Just kidding, I think it's a nice toy for car fans. I wonder if it measures top speed, acceleration and other interesting things. It would also be cool if data could be transmitted using the telephone over the web to a remote computer so you can measure the performance of a car while it's in the track. If combined with the gyroscope and accelerometer of the iPhone you could have some cool data there...
Or you could just stick that thing in your kids car (or your wife's) to constantly see where they are and where they park... 😉
I'm glad I'm still not married and don't have kids! 😀
I could use some gas saving when driving that monster...
Oh wait, I forgot to care the second I heard the V8 and let the clutch go...
Just kidding, I think it's a nice toy for car fans. I wonder if it measures top speed, acceleration and other interesting things. It would also be cool if data could be transmitted using the telephone over the web to a remote computer so you can measure the performance of a car while it's in the track. If combined with the gyroscope and accelerometer of the iPhone you could have some cool data there...
Or you could just stick that thing in your kids car (or your wife's) to constantly see where they are and where they park... 😉
I'm glad I'm still not married and don't have kids! 😀