First Thoughts of Automatic

I have been patiently waiting for my Automatic for some time.  I ordered it about two months ago and was hostage to them finally releasing it.  It came this past Friday.  Here's the opening:

My key fob for some perspective on size

Open the box

And that is all of the documentation you get . . . good thing that they've given me a sticker

The key piece of hardware.  Note the speaker holes so it can squawk at you when you behave badly

Installation

Reasonably painless.  The app downloads quickly and then walks you through the steps to get set up.  I didn't even have to get down on my hands and knees to find the OBD port.  Once you firmly place the fob in, it will chirp and you can continue through the process.

The view if I bend down to look - my port had no cover over it

I can barely see the Automatic fob when sitting in the drivers' seat

My only hiccup was the Automatic didn't see ignition the first time that I tried.  I went through the process once again, and the second time was a charm.

First Thoughts

Real-time Feedback

The Automatic does chirp as advertised, but unfortunately in a way that is indecipherable.  It chirps when you break too hard or when you accelerate too quickly.  From my limited driving so far, I have found that I have to slow down pretty sharply before it yells at me.  So far, those times have only been when I had to (i.e., somebody in front of me was doing something stupid).  It would seem like a bad thing that I don't slow down quickly enough because I'm somewhat worried about getting chirped at.

So far, I'd rather just have somebody yelling English comments at me.

Details?  Where are the details?

So I know that there are a lot of details being captured by Automatic along side the GPS data from my phone.  None of it is accessible at least from the app itself.  I know its early for Automatic, but frankly this should be the easy stuff.  I'm either going to be their biggest fan if I can get my data, or their biggest detractor.

Here are the details I'd like to be able to get access to:

• GPS track of every trip with the other associated information (fuel usage, braking, acceleration, other car messages).  I assume that this would look something like the Garmin training XML format.  This could open up a whole eco-system of add-on analysis packages to explore the data and provide useful information to the users.
• Access to a website that lets me download all of this information (why in the world is their not a website where I can see the information that I can also see on the phone-based app?)
• Compare (similar to Strava) trips and segments that I drive on a regular basis.  
• Show me my acceleration habits compared to ideal for my car and the terrain that I've passed over - this is probably something that you look at a few times, learn what you are going to learn and then move on.  That said, Automatic could send you emails every month to let you know how you are doing (I'm thinking like Nest and FitBit).
• Sum of all of the tolls that I should have paid based on my trips
• Beep when I'm 10 mph over on all streets.  In fact, let me choose the number of mph over.  Just chirping at 70 mph is only mildly useful.
• Comparison of my mileage against that of others with the same make, model and year car
• Same as above, normalized for traffic, traffic lights, terrain, stop signs.
• To be fair, Automatic does show you your mileage against a theoretical EPA milage for that segment.  The problem here is that I don't know how that is determined.  Does it take into account terrain, traffic conditions, etc.?  I don't think it does based on my limited use.
• Feedback from other Automatic drivers for real-time traffic information (maybe this is already covered well by Google?)
• Ability to see and set gas price levels.  Even better would be to choose my favorite gas station and have Automatic keep tabs on what I'm paying.  (BTW: How does it know how much I pay?  It probably has a good estimate, but doesn't share that with me.)  Maybe this should be as simple as putting in the number of gallons and total cost every time I fill up.  The interface could be as simple as taking a picture of the fuel pump display, no?

Automatic Marketing

I think that they are missing the boat.  There should be a much larger and more interesting segment to market to than their current website indicates.  Why in the world are they not marketing to parents?  This seems like an obvious segment.  The idea would be simply this: force your child to run the app on their phone if they wanted to be able to drive your (the parent's) car.  As a parent, you can:

1. Look at the driving score (particularly speeding issues)
2. See exactly where they went

Even if its only after the fact, this should be a huge deterrent from the kids doing anything stupid.  Better would be the ability to have a parent/child account hierarchy and have real-time or near real-time data available to the parent on-line.  Ongoing access to a car should be a huge incentive for good behavior.  As well as their ability to push back on kids egging them on (i.e., their parents will look at exactly where they went - so they can't go to an unapproved place).  My next Automatic will be for the kids' car.  And that will be a precondition of them having access to the car.  But this would be more compelling with the additional features.