Gadgetory

despite having powerful computers embedded in them the messages most cars send us are unintelligible and that's what one company hopes to change I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is our floor view of automatic I rather enjoy driving my car it isn't the biggest baddest machine on the road but it's immensely fun to drive and raises a few eyebrows the inside however is drab and the instrument panel is bare stoic it doesn't have much to say and for that matter neither does any reasonably priced car from the last decade or so as the creator of automatic says cars have had powerful computers inside them for years but that hasn't improved the way that we drive them and he's right we sit in the driver's seat each morning buckle up start the car and press the gas pedal without regard to how much money each start and stop is costing us there's a language barrier between cars and their drivers instrument panel send us cryptic messages scarce of useful information and that's where automatic steps in to health the automatic link a module would supports most cars released in the u.s. since 1996 plugs into the obd2 data port on your car typically located beneath the steering wheel it communicates to your phone via bluetooth low energy feeding it all sorts of information directly from the brain of your car gas mileage velocity and even engine codes its goal is to make you more conscientious of your driving how each take off and stop affects your wallet or how pushing the speed limit is costing you more overtime installation is incredibly simple download the free application to your iPhone create an account enter the automatic link security pin into the app plug the link into your car's obd2 port and start the engine from there you drive and it immediately begins tracking your driving hit the gas a little too hard when taking off in the automatic link will chirp to let you know you're using more fuel and in return spending more money it will also chirp when you brake too hard or exceed 70 miles per hour using GPS it tracks your routes and calculates based on real time local gas prices and your fuel efficiency how much each trip costs you no matter how long or short it does this by dividing the distance of your trip by your average fuel efficiency and multiplying it by the current price of gasoline in the area double checking the math of the estimates with the local gas prices we've confirmed the automatic link is incredibly accurate if you use regular gasoline however our car requires 91 octane or higher premium gasoline the fuel prices automatic uses our regular grade gasoline not premium meaning the cost estimates of each drive are actually incorrect for us that's only a small issue though one automatic tell assess that choosing premium gas will be available in the future and the effect is still the same we're more aware of how we're driving and the money we're spending even if the price is displayed are not 100% accurate for instance we took a drive to a local coffee shop this morning with all the audio feedback for the link turned off the result our fuel economy went down and the cost of the short trip went up a seven point seven mile trip this morning cost us 87 cents other trips to the same coffee shop with the link audio feedback turned on only cost us around 50 cents within the iPhone app you can look through all of your driving history separated by week you can see exactly how many times and where you accelerated or break too hard and where and how long you drove over 70 miles per hour it provides the start and end point for each trip with timestamps for both you can tap to expand each trip summary which displays a miniature map of the route as well as the cost average fuel efficiency and distance of the trip the top summary is an overview of the entire week showing exactly how long you spent driving how much that driving cost you overall fuel efficiency travel distance and your score judging by how many times the link has chirped at you and your fuel efficiency the automatic iPhone app provides you with a score out of 100 it's an arbitrary number which doesn't really translate directly to anything in the real world other than the closer your score to 100 the better your driving and the more money you're saving this isn't all automatic does however each time you get out of your car it also records GPS location so you never forget where you parked being plugged into the obd2 port comes with some advantages it has a direct connection to your engine when your check engine light comes on for any reason the application displays what's going on under the hood with an engine code in a short description of what's happening it gives you a shortcut to all the local mechanic shops as well and the ability to clear the code right then and there another ability of automatic we were not able to test is the crash alert system which is still in beta automatic can detect when a traffic accident occurs using the accelerometer inside in the event of a crash automatic will report the accident to the local authorities and send text messages to up to three preset contacts with your location and will also tell them that help is on the way overall automatic is a simple yet compelling piece of equipment if you care anything about saving money while driving it will force you to pay more attention to how heavy your foot is on the pedals and it pays off in the end at 100 dollars the device isn't cheap but it could very well pay for itself over a matter of months who knows maybe it could save your life and that's why we give automatic a nine out of ten that's gonna do it for this time if you enjoyed the video let us know by giving it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel to see more videos for myself and the rest of PocketNow crew you can follow us on Twitter Facebook or Google+ at pocket now hi I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time