Gadgetory

okay you may be asking why are we in a car and what does this have to do with the cnet smart oh well there are ways of integrating your car into your smart home so this week we're taking a look at automatic this $99 gadget plugs into your car's obd2 port and contract diagnostic data like miles driven and gas used and when you finally pull into your garage at the end of long commute and turn your car off it'll trigger your lights and adjust your temperature automatic even has some integrations with the Amazon echo which has become the center of the scene on smartone alexa ask automatic where's my car 5402 Shepherdsville Road ask automatic how much I drove last week you drove 82 miles over 4.0 hours last week and that's pretty much it automatic doesn't do much else it only sends if commands when your ignition goes on or off either forever or only in an area you specify or when the check engine light comes on or off it doesn't have geofencing so it can't automate the opening of your garage door as you approach your house and the echo integrations while cool are kind of thin so in short by automatic for its ability to track the data from your obd2 port and not for its smart home integrations for our part it's the best option available for getting your car to work with your smart home there are other devices like automatic but they don't have Alexis skills which is a no-go for us so while we aren't thrilled with its smartphone functionality automatic is our pick for a way to integrate a car with the sea not smart you