I’ve been using the Automatic Smart Driving Assistant since September of 2013 (initial review). I was optimistic when first acquiring this device but now the value to me is quite low despite that I still use it daily. This brief post should explain a bit on why I won’t recommend this to friends.
- The functionality of the dongle hasn’t changed much since I first received it. Crash Alert was added as well as a revamped UI and some improvements such as brief stops (getting fuel) didn’t mean the dongle started logging a new trip are nice improvements but the overall functionality and impact to my experience if pretty much unchanged.
- I use DropBox via an IFTT recipe that logs my start and stop lat,long for trips. Automatic should support this natively and they don’t.
- The dongle only works half of the time. I start the car, launch Automatic app (or make sure it’s still open in background) and the dongle makes an error sound. I re-seat it in the OBD port and it works and starts sending data to my phone. Reaching that port in my car while driving is incredibly difficult.
- I can’t use the Dongle in any car but my own or when a friend borrows my car, that trip isn’t logged because my phone isn’t in the vehicle. The always dependent iPhone to Dongle link should be eliminated.
Finally, my driving score is awful (20 out of 100) and there’s no way to tweak this or add some variables to their driving algorithm. For example, my car does 0-60 in 5.2 seconds. My next car does it in just under 4 seconds. This means I have multiple “hard acceleration” marks on my trips every single time I drive despite driving very slow and easy. Also, flow of traffic in my area (very rural NH/VT USA) is 69-70 MPH. Go 65 and people blaze past you. People going 80 is actually quite normal. So I average 70 when you include passing which means “Minutes over 70MPH” is always high and considering my car tops out at 155MPH, 70 isn’t that high. The 3rd driving score factor is hard braking which I almost never have those.
I should be able to adjust all of these factors to match the car & driving of everyone around me but it’s not possible. Scoring 20 out of a 100 high score week after week as the main factor for this is annoying.
So for usefulness of this dongle, the only value I get today is the Recipe that sends a CSV of my driving score to Dropbox after every trip and maybe that eventual benefit of the Crash Alert should I ever get into an accident (hasn’t happened in 10 years of driving).
So the value of this thing is currently very weak. Either the company is slow at adding new features or the OBD port they receive data from only gives them so much go on. Either way, it’s a don’t buy recommendation from me.