MacRumors Giveaway: Win an 'Automatic Link' Connected Car Adapter

[ArtOfWarfare]

In the end, if I'd paid $60 for it, I would not feel ripped off either. I'm considering getting another for our other car.

It costs $100, not $60, though.

 

[jephrey]

ODB reader is going to be something like $50. Simple models will likely give you an LED readout to decode with the instructions, and you'd really only attach it to check a check engine light. The advertised features of this Automatic reader seem nice but as others pointed out, maybe not worth double that of a simple reader if that's your main reason for getting it. However, you'd have to expect even a simple wireless reader which displays some diagnostic reports in software (instead of decoding LEDs) would cost more than the cheap readers so as some others pointed out, its worth may be $60-$70. I would also consider this for $60-70 because I'd only really be interested in the diagnostics portion. My question is if the additional $30-$40 worth trying the other software? Sounds like it's not.

 

[rworne]

It costs $100, not $60, though.

I believe when I signed up for the pre-order and beta test, it was $60 at the time. If it costs more now, I had no idea.

 

[zorinlynx]

Someone I know had her insurance company send them a ODB monitoring device, and it would also bitch when you braked too hard, and the company said that if you do that too many times you won't get the safe driving discount.

This is absolutely ridiculous. There are many times when driving that you might have to brake harder than normal, and trying to avoid doing so to prevent the chirp can be extremely dangerous! Not only that, but the threshold of braking that created the chirp was WAY too low. You would often hear it when simply braking to stop at a red light, the only alternative being to run the light at the very end of the yellow or beginning of the red!

Sometimes braking hard is a fact of driving life. One should never think they might be penalized for it, because hesitating can mean a serious accident.

So if I you're an engaged user, thinking about your score, and the guy in front of you slams on the brakes, your score gets a negative hit even though you did the right thing and braked hard enough to keep from rear-ending the person. Same is true if someone cuts you off, pulls out unexpectedly, or otherwise drives erratically or irresponsibily. In fairness, you can turn those three features off, but beyond an emergency crash phone call, I see little use for this device other than checking and clearing check engine codes. And yes, I've tried to use this with IF (formerly IFTTT) and I have a Nest and have tried using it with that (the constant text messages were annoying so I disconnected my Automatic from the Nest - the Nest on the other hand is AMAZING, I've had it two years and I LOVE it).

 

[rworne]

That OBD monitoring device is pretty cool if it belongs to you and not the insurance company. I do believe they were custom versions of the Davis Carchip.

I had one of these Carchips in my car when some jerkoff spun out in an intersection and clipped my car while I was waiting for a light. I dumped the data and submitted it to my insurance company - hard to fault me for an accident when my car wasn't moving. The accelerometer even recorded the blip of the impact too.

Very nice to have when you need to back up your story.