{"id":4603,"date":"2015-04-27T19:30:35","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T19:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=4603"},"modified":"2015-03-30T20:19:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T20:19:10","slug":"tech-the-automatic-link-car-adapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/04\/27\/tech-the-automatic-link-car-adapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech: The Automatic Link Car Adapter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:4013,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.automatic.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20200619170546\\\/https:\\\/\\\/automatic.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/automatic.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-05 18:34:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-17 04:42:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-29 03:37:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-02 06:06:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-08 02:13:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-20 05:26:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-26 11:30:05&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-03 20:37:22&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-15 12:44:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-20 15:00:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-27 07:48:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-01 04:52:39&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-19 12:18:32&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-25 06:21:24&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 15:52:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-16 22:36:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-20 18:20:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 13:01:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-28 09:11:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-28 09:11:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6943,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/adam-jackson.net\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/06\\\/technology-automatic-smart-driving-assistant&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019ve been using the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.automatic.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Automatic Smart Driving Assistant<\/a> since <a href=\"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/2013\/09\/06\/technology-automatic-smart-driving-assistant\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September of 2013 (initial review)<\/a>. 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\u2019t recommend this to friends.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The functionality of the dongle hasn\u2019t 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\u2019t mean the dongle started logging a new trip are nice improvements but the overall functionality and impact to my experience if pretty much unchanged.<\/li>\n<li>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\u2019t.<\/li>\n<li>The dongle only works half of the time. I start the car, launch Automatic app (or make sure it\u2019s 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.<\/li>\n<li>I can\u2019t use the Dongle in any car but my own or when a friend borrows my car, that trip isn\u2019t logged because my phone isn\u2019t in the vehicle. The always dependent iPhone to Dongle link should be eliminated.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Finally, my driving score is awful (20 out of 100) and there\u2019s 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 \u201chard acceleration\u201d 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 \u201cMinutes over 70MPH\u201d is always high and considering my car tops out at 155MPH, 70 isn\u2019t that high. The 3rd driving score factor is hard braking which I almost never have those.<\/p>\n<p>I should be able to adjust all of these factors to match the car &amp; driving of everyone around me but it\u2019s not possible. Scoring 20 out of a 100 high score week after week as the main factor for this is annoying.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t happened in 10 years of driving).<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s a don\u2019t buy recommendation from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been using the Automatic Smart Driving Assistant since September of 2013 (initial review). I was optimistic when&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-03-17T02:32:26Z","apple_news_api_id":"9b570612-450b-487a-b0ef-7f5769c2be7b","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-03-17T02:32:26Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Am1cGEkULSHqw739XacK-ew","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-technology","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-1cf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4657,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/05\/19\/tech-automatic-car-dongle-version-2-released\/","url_meta":{"origin":4603,"position":0},"title":"Tech: Automatic Car Dongle version 2 Released","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"May 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"via Jalopnik and many other places today: also Automatic.com\u00a0and their blog: Today, alongside all the other 3rd party apps, Automatic now supports three of the top real-time data apps for iPhone and iPad: DashCommand, Harry\u2019s LapTimer, and OBD Fusion. (Android support coming soon.) To do this we had to build\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6330,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/25\/technology-automatic-pro-and-lite-and-a-sub-par-product\/","url_meta":{"origin":4603,"position":1},"title":"Technology: Automatic Pro and Lite and a Sub-Par product","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m pretty upset with how Automatic handled their 2016 product lineup. First, some background: I pre-ordered the Automatic in 2013. I\u2019ve covered the device extensively on this blog both the good and the bad and It think their V2 product made this a mainstream and awesome device.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my past\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Rants&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Automatic Pro Issues","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5349\/29928914194_50642a21ce_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5271,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/12\/02\/my-car-automatic-driving-data\/","url_meta":{"origin":4603,"position":2},"title":"My Car: Automatic Driving Data","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve enjoyed being an automatic customer. The first year was plagued with reliability issues and an overall lack of value for the $99. Automatic in 2015 didn\u2019t see a price increase but their V2 Dongle with built in GPS and support for other driving applications as well as beefier statistics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Car&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Car","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/my-car\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Automatic Trip Logging","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5677\/23361855932_018c15575a_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5092,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/09\/29\/technology-automatic-continues-to-innovate\/","url_meta":{"origin":4603,"position":3},"title":"Technology: Automatic continues to innovate","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve written about Automatic, the car dongle a few times. Not only is it now a fantastic platform for tracking my trips and where I go even when the iPhone is not present but their dashboard has a lot of power and shows me for example where my mechanic went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Automatic's new Dashboard (Labs) features","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5674\/21831951641_f243a6ba92_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3968,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2013\/09\/06\/technology-automatic-smart-driving-assistant\/","url_meta":{"origin":4603,"position":4},"title":"\u2605 Technology: Automatic Smart Driving Assistant","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This little nifty dongle came in the other day. I've only had it for 3 days but I'll be sure to post some thoughts soon. For now, check out some unboxing gadget pr0n","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Automatic - Smart Driving Assistant","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7386\/9690481152_fe8fc567d2_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7386\/9690481152_fe8fc567d2_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7386\/9690481152_fe8fc567d2_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6235,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/09\/26\/technology-automatic-pro-aka-v3-unboxing-and-install\/","url_meta":{"origin":4603,"position":5},"title":"Technology: Automatic Pro (aka V3) Unboxing and Install","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Eventually, I\u2019ll get around to a complete review of the new Automatic. Initial negative of this is that it occasionally doesn\u2019t send date up to the cloud as fast as the old unit because the dongle doesn\u2019t have cell-service at my house. It still will send data eventually but it\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Automatic Pro Adapter (3G+GPS)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8399\/28885107773_3cbfc0e3c5_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8399\/28885107773_3cbfc0e3c5_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8399\/28885107773_3cbfc0e3c5_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}