3 ms·
Ok I know this is going to sound harsh given the praise of this thread, but I am just not getting it. The design is brilliant, the idea seems great, but of the
by gfodor 14y ago
Ok I know this is going to sound harsh given the praise of this thread, but I am just not getting it. The design is brilliant, the idea seems great, but of the applications listed there isn't anything there that makes me want to reach in my pocket and spend $70 on this. I'm not interested in how efficiently I am driving. This is not going to help me find my car in a parking lot, since it is an estimate and often these things are underground.
911 response is interesting but not enough to push me into purchasing. Check engine info is interesting but again this happens so rarely I can't justify purchasing this thing. I don't see a killer app here.
In the interest of not being all negative, I'll tell you the types of applications that would be far more useful to me and I would pay for. I'll list these as "pain points" since I don't want to assume too much about what this device will make possible:
- When I suddenly realize I am low on gas, I have to awkwardly (and unsafely) find a gas station with Siri. Can this make this easier?
- When I am driving to meet someone, they have no idea how close I am or when I will arrive. Can this make that easier?
- When I get in the car to go somewhere, I have to punch in navigation directions or press Siri before I leave. Can this do a better job of somehow getting the GPS navigation started on my phone intelligently?
- When I am driving into a city, I have no idea where to find parking. Can this help me find a parking spot?
I realize these may be wildly inapplicable to this device but these are real problems that I wish someone would solve for me. It seems like a more intelligent driving assistant that doesn't require unsafe gestures to be made on my phone while driving could potentially be more possible with something like this. For the problems above, there is surely "an app for that" but I'm not using them because they require me to awkwardly remember to use them before I leave or require me to take my eyes off the road. If this can solve those problems for me in a contextually sensitive way automatically, it would be great.
- masoninthesis 14y agoI commend you for being part of the solution, but I have to say- for myself, the ability to check the cause of the check engine light would be worth it. If your car is fairly new, you may experience the check engine light very rarely. But for cars over 5 years old, I think that's the best feature. As opposed to taking it into a mechanic where you are completely ignorant of what the cause was.
- phmagic 14y agoGo to autozone, checkers, oreilly. They will diagnose for free.
- fatbat 14y agoI know some cars can blink light codes (morse-like on dashboard) that you can reference online to self-diagnose the engine problem. I did it once with a weird combination of brake and pedal pushes. Kinda cool actually. Method name escapes me now.
- devicenull 14y agoNormal OBDII readers are cheap ($20). You can also get the codes read for free at pretty much any parts store.
- gfodor 14y agoI think it's an interesting feature, but it's still something that is a "once in a long while" feature. And, when I do use it, it's often pointless since I will need to take it to the mechanic anyway. If this was a free feature on my car, sure, I'll use it, but I'm not going to buy a product for that feature. More importantly, people who really don't care about cars in general and just take it in when the lights go on aren't going to either. (Especially when you consider the cost of getting your own self-diagnosis wrong. How is my mom supposed to know if a loose gas cap is a big deal or not?) I think there's a lot of potential here but it needs to be something that a) I will use all the time and b) I will get real, tangible value out of it, not academic understanding of my driving habits or a few bucks a month off of my gas by changing them. (Which, by the way, is another "thing" I now have to worry about: is Automotive telling me my driving is ok? What do I need to change? Now I feel like a loser when I don't "do well" one month.) It needs to make my life easier or allow me to do things behind the wheel that are valuable but currently hard/dangerous to do. I think there's plenty there.
- epochwolf 14y agoI have a $50 device that can pull the codes for any vehicle they listed with a description of the error.
- enraged_camel 14y agoMy thoughts exactly. I'd pay $7 for this app, but not $70.
- pfranz 14y agoI used Glympse before Find My Friends was added to the iPhone for ETA stuff: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glympse-share-location-friends/id330316698?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glympse-share-location-frien...
- graysnorf 14y agogoogle latitude is actually okay for #2, as long as people have it on so your location updates aren't too far out of date.