Automatic
It attaches to OBD2 port in the car and for now only gives MPG per trip and has apps for expense reports where you need to submit logs. For a non business user, it might make you a better driver by warning you on hard acceleration, hard braking or going above certain speed limit you get to set which is really on the highway. It connected with my phone using my email account, phone number and bluetooth and connected with my wife's email account, phone number and bluetooth. When both were in the car, I never really checked if both recorded the same but when I was driving either car, I surely saw the record.
I was an early adapter and got the first gen unit in 2 cars and both my sons also got it for their cars.
First of all I do understand that a bluetooth slave can be paired only with one bluetooth master. So, it is reasonable that if there are 2 phones in the same car with Automatic, only one of them will actually connect with Automatic first and both phones will not see real time status such as Driving. I know that Automatic suggests that the passenger to disable bluetooth so that the driver's phone will link with the Automatic and later on the passenger can enable bluetooth later. That is rather inconvenient. As a minimum, allow a setting to indicate primary phone for each car at the time of set up. If both phones are present, the primary will connect.
However, I suggest an enhancement. Currently, each smart phone which pairs with the Automatic is required (suggested) to ave its own email account and password on Automatic's Server. I suggest a notion of family account that email accounts and passwords can be entered on the Automatic's server to "link" the multiple phones to the same account. When the car is moving allow the option of sending location to the server periodically and rather that say "driving", show speed on the map and show status "stopped" or "parked" based on the status of the engine. Also good to see other status in real time such as engine temperature, distance and avg mpg since last filled (Allow user to mark when tank was filled). Make remote tracking an optional feature with parental lock when a car is given to a new driver by a parent. Finally, after the trip was completed, allow linked accounts to see the complete status and history.
I used IFTTT on both email accounts to send email to a single address at the end of the trip. I also have the option of appending data to a shared .csv file in Dropbox of Google Drive using IFTTT. Automatic could allow sharing too and make it a social networking experience as well.
Once more suggestion I have for Automatic is to change the App to ask if there is another car nearby with Automatic installed in it or scan and inform the user to move away from the other one before set up of a new automatic. Lot of my issues would have gone away.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support I received for Craig Drake and Derrick S of Automatic. Together they helped me pair a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running Kitkat and a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 running Lollipop to a gen 1 automatic and a gen 2 automatic in 2 cars which are parked in the same garage.
It took 2 weeks but bottom line is I got credit for a defective unit and the new one is working.
It attaches to OBD2 port in the car and for now only gives MPG per trip and has apps for expense reports where you need to submit logs. For a non business user, it might make you a better driver by warning you on hard acceleration, hard braking or going above certain speed limit you get to set which is really on the highway. It connected with my phone using my email account, phone number and bluetooth and connected with my wife's email account, phone number and bluetooth. When both were in the car, I never really checked if both recorded the same but when I was driving either car, I surely saw the record.
I was an early adapter and got the first gen unit in 2 cars and both my sons also got it for their cars.
First of all I do understand that a bluetooth slave can be paired only with one bluetooth master. So, it is reasonable that if there are 2 phones in the same car with Automatic, only one of them will actually connect with Automatic first and both phones will not see real time status such as Driving. I know that Automatic suggests that the passenger to disable bluetooth so that the driver's phone will link with the Automatic and later on the passenger can enable bluetooth later. That is rather inconvenient. As a minimum, allow a setting to indicate primary phone for each car at the time of set up. If both phones are present, the primary will connect.
However, I suggest an enhancement. Currently, each smart phone which pairs with the Automatic is required (suggested) to ave its own email account and password on Automatic's Server. I suggest a notion of family account that email accounts and passwords can be entered on the Automatic's server to "link" the multiple phones to the same account. When the car is moving allow the option of sending location to the server periodically and rather that say "driving", show speed on the map and show status "stopped" or "parked" based on the status of the engine. Also good to see other status in real time such as engine temperature, distance and avg mpg since last filled (Allow user to mark when tank was filled). Make remote tracking an optional feature with parental lock when a car is given to a new driver by a parent. Finally, after the trip was completed, allow linked accounts to see the complete status and history.
I used IFTTT on both email accounts to send email to a single address at the end of the trip. I also have the option of appending data to a shared .csv file in Dropbox of Google Drive using IFTTT. Automatic could allow sharing too and make it a social networking experience as well.
Once more suggestion I have for Automatic is to change the App to ask if there is another car nearby with Automatic installed in it or scan and inform the user to move away from the other one before set up of a new automatic. Lot of my issues would have gone away.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support I received for Craig Drake and Derrick S of Automatic. Together they helped me pair a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 running Kitkat and a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 running Lollipop to a gen 1 automatic and a gen 2 automatic in 2 cars which are parked in the same garage.
It took 2 weeks but bottom line is I got credit for a defective unit and the new one is working.
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