A new piece of hardware will connect your car to your smartphone. Called Automatic Link, the device launched Wednesday and is a powerful diagnostic tool that monitors your car’s functions.
Automatic Link can provide you with important information on your car’s health and your driving. The system uses a dongle that plugs into your car’s data port (which can be found on any car built after 1996).
The system provides drivers with feedback on their driving style, giving everyone a “Drive Score” on a scale from 1-100, reports 9to5Mac.com. Automatic Link encourages drivers to use their cars efficiently, so accelerating and braking smoothly and gradually will give you a higher score. The company claims a high driver score could save drivers hundreds of dollars on gas.
"The Automatic Link talks to your car's onboard computer and uses your smartphone's GPS and data plan to upgrade your car's capabilities. It works with just about any car sold in the United States since 1996 ... The Automatic Link includes a built-in accelerometer that can detect many types of crashes. Automatic uses your phone's data connection to immediately report the crash to 911 with your name, location and vehicle description," 9to5Mac.com continues.
And useful for long term efficiency, Automatic Link displays all of your trips in a timeline, showing how far you went for each trip, and how much you spent to go there. It can even display accurate MPG readings for older cars that don’t display the information. And because the Automatic Link is GPS-enabled, the app can remind you where you put your parked car (a First World problem, we know). This GPS functionality is also used for a Crash Alert that will alert emergency services if you’re ever in a collision, and can even notify contacts in your phone.
But what’s the most amazing function of the Automatic Link? It can decode that pesky “check engine” light and tell you the problem, and even tell you how to fix in some cases.
The system is available for preorder for $70 and Automatic Link has no subscription fees.
