Need your opinion!

[VanGogua]

Hello, I am about to start my first Kickstarter campaign. Guys, I want to see if anyone had some advice on my device.



My device is an OBD-II scanner based on Android OS with a preloaded software. There are a lot of features such as: GPS and Wi-Fi tracking, it sends notifications about car accident and after you can see a 3D model of a moving car during the accident, monitoring of a car condition, you can see data about engine level and temperature, current speed, fuel consumption, it will read error codes, also it will be a Wi-Fi hotspot in a car. You will be able to monitor with our special app on the phone or in your account. You can control your car everywhere in the world. And this is not the end. We have more features, sensors. If you have questions - ask) What features would you like to use in such device. What will be useful?



Any help is appreciated!

 

[Bill1954]

A function to stop the engine starting during a given time period. Very handy to prevent car theft while you're on holiday etc.

 

[fisicx]

How are you going to get all the data from the car? My old banger doesn't even have sensors for those things. GPS is already built into most phones so that's no benefit and I've got a WiFi dongle already.

And if I have an accident then the chances are I'll know about it as I will be sat in the thing.

 

[VanGogua]

A function to stop the engine starting during a given time period. Very handy to prevent car theft while you're on holiday etc.

We have such function, but a bit different. The device has motion sensor from Bosch and it sees movements in the car while you're away. And you will receive notification on your phone that something happenes. The same when your car was towed away or it was hit. You will be always aware of situation. You can control your car everywhere in the world.

 

[VanGogua]

How are you going to get all the data from the car? My old banger doesn't even have sensors for those things. GPS is already built into most phones so that's no benefit and I've got a WiFi dongle already.

And if I have an accident then the chances are I'll know about it as I will be sat in the thing.

The device gets data from OBD-II port. And it saves in the memory-stick or it goes to the server.

 

[fisicx]

I have no idea what an OBD-II port is. I'm assuming it's a connector somewhere under the bonnet but I still don't understand the moving car and accident thing. If I rear end someone how will your device know it was a shunt and not just an emergency stop? Why do I need to download engine temperature or display it on my phone?

I'm sure it's a good gadget but I don't quite understand why I would need it.

 

[Bill1954]

We have such function, but a bit different. The device has motion sensor from Bosch and it sees movements in the car while you're away. And you will receive notification on your phone that something happenes. The same when your car was towed away or it was hit. You will be always aware of situation. You can control your car everywhere in the world.

All very well but if I'm lying on a beach in the Med, I want to know that my car can't be started. It does me little good to know that someone is in it !!!

 

[stephan2307]

I partly agree with fisicx. If I have an accident, I don't really care about engine temperature.

However I can see a potential usage for the device for parents that want to be in control of their kids cars. Parents would be aware of where, when and how the kids are driving and potentially take action. For this the gravitational forces would be interesting to determine the driving style.

Another potential use for a device like this would be hire cars.

But for myself I wouldn't see the need of purchasing.

Good luck for your kickstarter though.

 

[fisicx]

Being able to disable the engine would be really useful. Not sure that your claim to control your car from anywhere in the world is valid, getting notifications isn't the same as being able to control the car's functions.

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

OBD2 scanners from china with wifi or bluetooth tethering around about £ 25 a pop (iirc, used mine once to clear a service notice ~6 months ago), you get full access to what OBD2 data your car supports. Then you get freemium apps for various OS from your mobile app store. So I'd focus on building a good app people want to buy, rather than getting into hardware that already exists with all the features needed.

EDIT: GPS is going to put your costs up significantly and are included on most reasonably priced dashcams which are much more effective for crash analysis.

EDIT2: Reading OBD2 doesn't invalidate any warranties, writing / controlling your car (where supported) via OBD2 almost certainly will and sounds like asking for a world of pain. Quite a few new cars come with manufacturer supplied and supported features like this, which is only set to increase with time and narrow/remove your market.

 

[VanGogua]

I partly agree with fisicx. If I have an accident, I don't really care about engine temperature.

However I can see a potential usage for the device for parents that want to be in control of their kids cars. Parents would be aware of where, when and how the kids are driving and potentially take action. For this the gravitational forces would be interesting to determine the driving style.

Another potential use for a device like this would be hire cars.

But for myself I wouldn't see the need of purchasing.

Good luck for your kickstarter though.

Yes, you're right. It can be useful for parents and hire cars.
But for example, if your car was towed away, you would get a notification.
In general you can make your car smarter and this device helps you to monitor your car, you can use the deivce like an alarm and controling device. But the usage of the device is infinite. We will develope much more features. I hope that you will help us too.

 

[stephan2307]

infinite

Nothing is infinite. And the more features you put in the more expensive it will get.
What if you loose your smartphone? What if someone nicks it and then has control over the car?

There are loads of concerns about this.

 

[VanGogua]

Nothing is infinite. And the more features you put in the more expensive it will get.
What if you loose your smartphone? What if someone nicks it and then has control over the car?

There are loads of concerns about this.

Even you've lost the phone, nobody will not control your car. He won't be able to open doors or strart engine. And you will be able to change you login and password in your account.
We can create new apps to enrich functions of the device. It's a great opportunity. That's why we launch our Kickstarter campaign.

 

[fisicx]

If I've lost my phone how do I get into the car? I'm in the middle of Norfolk with no signal and no access to a computer. Does your device allow me to open the door and start the car even if your device has imobilised everything?

If I open the bonnet and unplug your device does everything reset? And if that is the case it's not going be much use if the car is stolen and your thing is lying on the side of the road.

As an aside, if it acts as a wifi hostspot what network is it using? Do I have unlimited access to download films for the kids in the backseat?

 

[Your Company Formations]

There was a similar app which appeared on dragons den. The application was mainly for starting the car however it fell down as it took away the key function completely. So you can imagine you get to your car and you find your phone has no battery! However your app sounds a lot more in depth it would be interesting to hear how it works with different manufacturers and the cost to the end user?

 

[VanGogua]

If I've lost my phone how do I get into the car? I'm in the middle of Norfolk with no signal and no access to a computer. Does your device allow me to open the door and start the car even if your device has imobilised everything?

If I open the bonnet and unplug your device does everything reset? And if that is the case it's not going be much use if the car is stolen and your thing is lying on the side of the road.

As an aside, if it acts as a wifi hostspot what network is it using? Do I have unlimited access to download films for the kids in the backseat?

So, you won't be able to start engine and lock/unlock you car with our device. It will be available in the next engine. And if someone unplug the device you won't lost the signal. First, you will receive notification that somebody is in your car (because of the motion sensor) and if he unplug the device you will receive notification that the device was unplug.

 

[VanGogua]

There was a similar app which appeared on dragons den. The application was mainly for starting the car however it fell down as it took away the key function completely. So you can imagine you get to your car and you find your phone has no battery! However your app sounds a lot more in depth it would be interesting to hear how it works with different manufacturers and the cost to the end user?

To tell the truth I didn't understand the idea. Do you want to start engine with the app?

 

[fisicx]

So, you won't be able to start engine and lock/unlock you car with our device. It will be available in the next engine. And if someone unplug the device you won't lost the signal. First, you will receive notification that somebody is in your car (because of the motion sensor) and if he unplug the device you will receive notification that the device was unplug.

You misunderstood my questions.
1. If there is no signal or I do not have my phone, will your device prevent me starting the engine?
2. If the device is unplugged will it disable the the engine start.

If all the device is doing is notify me that my car is being moved then I can already get a device that does this and then tell me where the car is. And it doesn't need to be plugged into the OBD socket either, it's hidden away so a potential thief won't know it's there.

 

[DazRave]

I've an OBDII bluetooth dongle in my own car.. and i've also built in a custom android tablet into the dashboard. So almost all the features this device can do I have myself tried to do (some I can do, some I found impossible).

Which means this device interests me.. so a few questions if I may; (sorry if these have been covered already I've only had time to skim read the thread!)

1. Where does the OBDII device get it's signal from? I assume it needs some sort of sim card and data allowance?
2. How does the OBDII detect someone is in the car? Especially since the device gets it's power from the car battery.. therefore if someone gets into my car and pulled the device out...boom.. the device wouldn't even have had time to trigger the motion detector surely, since the car never moved? That leads me nicely into my third point...
3. When the car is off it will run on the car's battery. How much of a drain will this actually be? Car batteries don't function like phone batteries, they are not suppose to really be trickle drained/charged.
4. Apart from the standard data you can get from an OBD-II port, what else are you really giving the user here? I can currently grab loads of data from my car but in all honestly, apart from the error codes when something goes wrong the data is kind of pointless to none petrol heads.
5. Hire car companies can already get their hands on the same devices popped into vehicles used with car insurance. Come to think of it, is this just a re-branded, consumer version of a car insurance gadget fitted into cars to lower young drivers premiums?
6. What is the price of the device going to be?

 

[DazRave]

1. If there is no signal or I do not have my phone, will your device prevent me starting the engine?
2. If the device is unplugged will it disable the the engine start.

Just so you know @fisicx. You can't gain control of ANY functionality of a car through the OBDII port. It's purely used to read data from the on board computer. Therefore I'm pretty confident in saying that you'll never be able to start/stop or disable the engine.

One other reason for OBD-II ports is to turn features of the car on/off. For example my BMW had the 'close all windows via key fob' option turned off. I could open them all, but for some reason in Europe, since my windows don't have a safety trigger preventing them from closing if they detect something in the way (like a child's hand/fingers) the disabled the auto close. I used my OBD-II device to switch this feature back on again since I don't have kids anyway!

 

[fisicx]

Thanks Daz,
So the one feature I would want it to have it can't do. I've already got a wifi dongle and GPS tracker so it's not a lot. of use

 

[VanGogua]

You misunderstood my questions.
1. If there is no signal or I do not have my phone, will your device prevent me starting the engine?
2. If the device is unplugged will it disable the the engine start.

If all the device is doing is notify me that my car is being moved then I can already get a device that does this and then tell me where the car is. And it doesn't need to be plugged into the OBD socket either, it's hidden away so a potential thief won't know it's there.

1. No, it won't prevent you starting engine.
2.If it's unplugged it won't disable the engine start.

So, I see. But unfortunately, our device can't prevent engine start. It has more other features. For example accident notification or 3D model of an accident.

 

[VanGogua]

I've an OBDII bluetooth dongle in my own car.. and i've also built in a custom android tablet into the dashboard. So almost all the features this device can do I have myself tried to do (some I can do, some I found impossible).

Which means this device interests me.. so a few questions if I may; (sorry if these have been covered already I've only had time to skim read the thread!)

1. Where does the OBDII device get it's signal from? I assume it needs some sort of sim card and data allowance?
2. How does the OBDII detect someone is in the car? Especially since the device gets it's power from the car battery.. therefore if someone gets into my car and pulled the device out...boom.. the device wouldn't even have had time to trigger the motion detector surely, since the car never moved? That leads me nicely into my third point...
3. When the car is off it will run on the car's battery. How much of a drain will this actually be? Car batteries don't function like phone batteries, they are not suppose to really be trickle drained/charged.
4. Apart from the standard data you can get from an OBD-II port, what else are you really giving the user here? I can currently grab loads of data from my car but in all honestly, apart from the error codes when something goes wrong the data is kind of pointless to none petrol heads.
5. Hire car companies can already get their hands on the same devices popped into vehicles used with car insurance. Come to think of it, is this just a re-branded, consumer version of a car insurance gadget fitted into cars to lower young drivers premiums?
6. What is the price of the device going to be?

Thanks for your answers.
1. Our device gets signal from GPRS module. So, you need to insert a sim-card and you will have an internet and moreover Wi-FI hot spot in your car.
2. The device detects somebody using Microwave Motion Sensor. And when a car is off , the device starts working from its own battery and it sends data to you, makes motion sensor work and doesn't drain your car's battery. And if someone pulls the device you will receive the notification about it.
4. You will get all information that OBD port can provide. So, it's rpm, current speed, temp, fuel and a lot of other things. So, you will be aware of your car's condition. And of course you will be able to read error codes.
5. Do you want to say, that hire car companies don't use it? The device can use everybody.
6. The price will be 150$

 

[stephan2307]

Sorry but the more I read about this device the more I wonder why? What problem are you actually trying to solve?

All modern cars have alarm and immobilisation systems. I don't think I need anything else.

Anyway good luck with it.

 

[DazRave]

Thanks for your answers.
1. Our device gets signal from GPRS module. So, you need to insert a sim-card and you will have an internet and moreover Wi-FI hot spot in your car.
2. The device detects somebody using Microwave Motion Sensor. And when a car is off , the device starts working from its own battery and it sends data to you, makes motion sensor work and doesn't drain your car's battery. And if someone pulls the device you will receive the notification about it.
4. You will get all information that OBD port can provide. So, it's rpm, current speed, temp, fuel and a lot of other things. So, you will be aware of your car's condition. And of course you will be able to read error codes.
5. Do you want to say, that hire car companies don't use it? The device can use everybody.
6. The price will be 150$

Re: point 2
Does that mean that, if the car alarm is triggered but the mircowave motion sensor isn't... the device will not report anything is wrong?

Re: point 2
My OBD-II socket is to the left of my throttle pedal pointing downwards. I've got an OBD-II scanner which is roughly half the size of a packet of cigarettes which protrudes downwards. I did originally have one slightly larger then that but I kept catching it with my feet when entering/exiting the car. How big will this device have to be in order to hold all the sensors and battery. Or will it plug into the OBD-II socket and lead a wire away to where the device is located?

Re: point 5
Car insurance companies currently offer a 'device' that plugs into the same port and monitors the exact same things you claim to do. Minus them having a Wifi Hotspot. My point was, what exactly does your device do that Car Hire companies can't simply get from buying the same device Car Insurance companies use already?

Overall, I'm interested in this device because I'm a petrol head.... but not everybody is and I don't think there is a big enough market unless you can prove otherwise?

Sorry but the more I read about this device the more I wonder why? What problem are you actually trying to solve?

All modern cars have alarm and immobilisation systems. I don't think I need anything else.

Anyway good luck with it.

This isn't trying to replace or improve a car's immobilisation. However, getting a text to my phone that the alarm is going off helps... since I'm not always near enough to hear it.

My car was towed away a few weeks ago because I had parked it outside my Missus' house, which she had just moved into the day before. Road works were due on the road and while I was sleeping in late on a Saturday morning my car was towed away to make room for the road works. I couldn't hear the alarm and had to fork out £200 to get it back the following monday. It could have all been prevented had I heard the alarm and went back to move my car.

It's not a feature everyone will want or understand... but it's certainly something that should be built into new cars just as standard in my opinion.

 

[VanGogua]

Re: point 2
Does that mean that, if the car alarm is triggered but the mircowave motion sensor isn't... the device will not report anything is wrong?

If someone gets into your car, motion sensor will see it and send you a notification.
If your car was moved or hit, you will receive the notification either. So, I can say if the alarm is triggered, you will receive a notification.

Re: point 2
My OBD-II socket is to the left of my throttle pedal pointing downwards. I've got an OBD-II scanner which is roughly half the size of a packet of cigarettes which protrudes downwards. I did originally have one slightly larger then that but I kept catching it with my feet when entering/exiting the car. How big will this device have to be in order to hold all the sensors and battery. Or will it plug into the OBD-II socket and lead a wire away to where the device is located?

Our device isn't big and it's very convenient. We plugged it into different cars and it didn't cause any problems. Even it has a lot of sensors and a battery, it remains small.

Re: point 5
Car insurance companies currently offer a 'device' that plugs into the same port and monitors the exact same things you claim to do. Minus them having a Wifi Hotspot. My point was, what exactly does your device do that Car Hire companies can't simply get from buying the same device Car Insurance companies use already?

So, the data from our device will be available only for user. It won't be sent to a third party or somewhere else. And it combines different functions. From GPS tracker to security system and more. It was invented to make people confident in their cars and close people.

 

[DazRave]

If someone gets into your car, motion sensor will see it and send you a notification.
If your car was moved or hit, you will receive the notification either. So, I can say if the alarm is triggered, you will receive a notification.

Car alarms can be triggered by large noises. What happens then? My question is, does this device actually know when the car alarm is going off? Or is it simply assuming the alarm has been triggered but is actually just getting it's data from it's own functions?

So, the data from our device will be available only for user. It won't be sent to a third party or somewhere else. And it combines different functions. From GPS tracker to security system and more. It was invented to make people confident in their cars and close people.

This limits your market quite a lot though? I might buy one because it interests me... but the newer the persons car the less likely they will want a device like this as most people will simply just trust the alarm systems already installed. They will also probably just ask the questions others have in this very post... "what's the point?". I assumed your target market would be B2B aimed at Car insurance and Car rental companies? To which they all already use a device very very similar to your own.

Not knocking the product at all, as I've stated, I'd want one... I just can't see where your market will be?

 

[VanGogua]

I'm sorry I haven't contacted you the last few days but I've been very busy with my project.

We have filmed some more videos for Kickstarter. We are almost ready to start our Kickstarter, so you will be able to see the result of our work. I believe we will start our campaign next week.

I will keep you updated!

 

[Peter Durrant]

What cars would it work with?

 

[DazRave]

I'm looking forward to this. Do keep us posted.

EDIT: This looks similar to your idea.. is it you?


https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-a-new-direction-in-connected-car/description

 

[VanGogua]

Hi! No) It's similar) You can check out our project on Kickstarter! We've already 50% of the pledge!

I can't post the link here! You can insert "CarDroid" on the Kickstarter website, look at our device and maybe support us)

 

[VanGogua]

What cars would it work with?

It will work with every car which has an OBD-II port)