Automatic Link - Smart Driving Assistant
Today, we had the pleasure of speaking with Ljuba Miljkovic, Chief Product Officer for the team over at Automatic. They are releasing a new smart driving assistant that can turn your regular car into a connected "smart" car. The inspiration for Automatic came to the founders while they were grad students at UC Berkeley.
"Our goal is to bring connected car features to the masses without needing to buy a new car."
The premise for their device is that even very small changes can lead to big savings over the life of your vehicle. By helping owners to become more informed drivers, they will see a reduction in the amount they spend per year on a vehicle. A car is likely the most expensive computer that someone owns, yet they are able to get very little, in terms of information, from it. Automatic's device connects directly to a vehicles OBD II port (required on all new vehicles since 1996), and links to a smartphone for give the real-time feedback that very few cars offer. At the moment, they have a team testing their device in as many different vehicles as possible, to make sure that it does exactly as advertised for all vehicles. In fact, Automatic will not sell you a device until they are sure that it will work with your vehicle.
"For people who may not be car fans, one of the standouts is how affordable it is, with no monthly subscription, and easy to install. That's why [we] use a smartphone as the brain, [it] uses smartphone data you're already paying for, GPS, etc, without the costs to have it's own."
As vehicles are replaced, the Automatic Link can be moved to your next car, you won't need to buy a new unit. However, they do suggest that if you own two vehicles, and would like to use it on both, that it would be best to buy 2 units, rather than moving the device back and forth, as it will need to reconfigure each time it is placed in a different vehicle.
"Our first production run sold out in a week, we are looking at a July ship date for orders taken now."
We are hoping to receive a unit for review in the May batch, and will begin reporting on the Automatic Link Smart Driving Assistant as soon as we receive ours. You can find a link to the Automatic website, a small gallery, and a video from their YouTube channel below:
