I drive a lot — two hours a day covering a total of 100 miles. This week, I was shown this cool little device by a coworker and was immediately intrigued.
Automatic is a tiny device you plug into your car’s data port and links to your iPhone or Android (download at Google Play) through an app. It provides all sorts of fun information about your driving and your car. At first I thought my 2007 VW Rabbit wouldn’t be smart enough to contain the proper hardware to make this work, but Automatic actually works with most cars that have sold in the US since 1996.
The Automatic Link gives you useful information such as gas consumption, time it takes to get to and from places, driving style and car maintenance. It’ll also keep track of where you park, which can be helpful in certain situations (I may or may have not lost my car in Brooklyn a few weeks ago…).
Automatic learns your driving style and gives you the appropriate feedback to improve things like wasting gas from accelerating too fast or slamming on the breaks too often. Every week you’ll get a driving score to help you improve. They even claim that a high score could save you hundreds on gas every year.
Automatic is priced at $100 and does not have subscription fees. My other car-enthused coworker may just invest in one of these in the near future. I think I may wait to hear his feedback before rushing out to grab one myself, but I think that this could provide some really cool information as well as improve my (sometimes crazed) driving.
Have one yourself? Tell me about it!