Calling All Cars!
Posted on Apr 12th 2015
As smart as our phones have become, our cars remain dumb. Most older vehicles lack any kind of wireless connectivity, and outside of a few warning lights can't even communicate with their owners about the specifics of any problem. In most vehicles on the road, knowing what's causing a check engine light to switch on requires special scanners, sifting through trouble codes, and a trip to the repair shop.
Now a Boston-based online auto repair marketplace wants to be the first to make that process more intelligent. By using technology from insurance companies similar to what is in their “good driver” black boxes, the new service would have mechanics bidding to repair your car quickly after a check engine light comes on. Openbay currently has some 20,000 auto repair shops bidding on jobs submitted by car owners, many of whom generally know what needs to be fixed. Rob Infantino, founder and CEO of Openbay, says the new service, called Openbay Connect, will be aimed at buyers who sometimes ignore their check engine lights because they don’t understand how the code system works.
There will always be people who say that they are not car people. They put gas in the thing, and that’s about all. The company figured to take advantage of that type of car owner by proactively managing repairs for them. The target market is larger than most people think. The service uses the existing OBD-II port, present under the dashboard near the steering wheel in every vehicle since 1996. Newer vehicles have factory systems such as OnStar that can diagnose problems remotely. That still leaves tens of millions of older models that suffer problems with increasing regularity without any remote diagnostic help.
To reach them, Openbay will piggyback on another technology: The driving monitors of auto insurance companies. Many large insurers such as Progressive and Allstate offer discounts for good drivers who elect to plug in devices that keep track of speed, braking, and other data. Those dongles gather data from the OBD-II port and send it wirelessly back to the insurer. With its technology, Openbay can use that same data for diagnostics.
When a car sends out a code, it can be sent to the cloud, along with all the environmental data surrounding what caused the code to be generated. This includes data about the car itself and mileage. While it's not fully automated yet, drivers can get offers from mechanics within a minute or and hour depending on the auto shop. The data, however, will be sent in real-time. Success and customer service will come down to which shop responds quicker.
For now, the service is offered free through Openbay and certain partners, including insurance companies, as a test application. If it proves to be successful, Openbay could offer the service as a type of “OnStar-lite,” either on its own or as an add-on through other firms. So, even old cars can get smart, even if their owners are not so bright.
You can always educate yourself about this and other motor vehicle technology on the MotorsHiFi site, located on the web at www.motorshifi.com. Here you can go to get your dream vehicle.