Bringing today’s tech—GPS, efficiency tracking, and more—to 15-year-old clunkers

In 2015, connected cars are all the rage. You only needed to pay cursory attention to this year’s CES conference for this new reality to become clear. Touchscreens, 3G, and now 4G LTE modems are being added to new vehicles by many car makers, eager to replicate the smartphone experience inside our daily drives. For techies wanting to buy new, this is all good news.

General Motors arguably got the ball rolling nearly 20 years ago with the introduction of OnStar, which coupled remote safety monitoring with an on-demand concierge service. More recently the advent of smartphones and cheap, rugged wireless modems has seen more and more OEMs offer connected cars. So equipped, you can use a smartphone app to lock your car or sound the horn, check how much fuel is in the tank, or access deeper diagnostic information about your vehicle (like error codes or upcoming service intervals). They’re even providing APIs for third-party developers.

But very few of us can afford to chop and change our vehicles the way we upgrade our phones. In fact, we’re actually changing our cars less frequently than before—on average, Americans will now hold onto a car for 11 years. This might indicate the connected car experience will remain the preserve of the few, but not so fast. Today, almost any car built after 1996 can join the connected car revolution thanks to aftermarket solutions. We’ve spent the past year or so trying out a couple of such devices, one from Automatic and another from Mojio. Using a 2005 Saab 9-2x Aero as our test vehicle, we set out to discover if it was truly possible to have all the connected luxury of today without shelling out for an entirely new vehicle.

(Quick note: we also tried to use a 1996 Mazda Miata for a test vehicle, but we were never able to get it to work properly with either device. Unfortunately, this may be due to some lowlife who broke in and tried to hotwire it.)

Speaking the car’s language

Cars almost two decades old aren’t quite as dumb as one would think; they just need a little help communicating with the world. Traditionally, older cars can chat with the environment beyond their interiors via an interface called On-board Diagnostics II (OBD-II). While car makers started including primitive forms of on-board diagnostics as early as the 1970s, it was done in the absence of any industry-wide standard. The OBD-II common diagnostic standard was recommended by the Society of Automotive Engineers in the late 1980s, and it started to be implemented thanks to California’s smog watchdog (and that state’s position as the leading car market in the country).

In 1991, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued a mandate for all cars sold in-state to have an OBD system. In 1994, the organization adopted SAE’s specification, which it called OBD-II. Since no one was prepared to give up selling cars in California, the standard proliferated. Federal regulators soon followed Califiornia’s lead, and every car sold in the US from 1996-on has thus included what we can think of as the automobile’s equivalent to a USB port.

Via ODB-II, your mechanic deciphers what’s wrong with your car when the check engine light comes on. And this very port allows companies like Cobb to alter engine management software to retune performance cars. As one might expect, it was only a matter of time before someone came along with a device that would allow a car’s brain to tell a smartphone what it was thinking.

Basics: Automatic

According to Thejo Kote, one of Automatic’s co-founders, the inspiration for Automatic came during grad school. He and his colleagues were looking at transportation choices and realized that most people were making decisions without basic information like what their actual gas mileage was. “At Automatic,” he told Ars, “we want to empower drivers with knowledge about themselves and their cars. We believe you shouldn’t have to buy a new car to have a better driving experience. The phone in your pocket can bring the future of driving to today’s automobiles.”

Its adapter—called a Link—is a small grey and white device. It’s used in conjunction with either an iPhone or Android smartphone running the Automatic app. The device communicates with a smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0, chiming once connected to let you know your car is now talking to your phone. In addition to reading data from the car, the Link has an accelerometer (for detecting if your car has been in a crash) and built-in GPS so it can log journeys if a phone isn’t present (the GPS was added to the second generation Link, which we haven’t had a chance to test yet). It’s a simple device to set up via the smartphone app, and as long as your phone has Bluetooth turned on, you needn’t do anything else to sync with the Link when you go for a drive.

Automatic’s iPhone app. This is what you’ll see if you’re driving. A cumulative score for the week is up top, with individual trip details below.

Automatic’s iPhone app. This is what you’ll see if you’re driving. A cumulative score for the week is up top, with individual trip details below.

Here, we’ve focused on an individual trip. You can see we weren’t shy using the gas or the brake.

Here, we’ve focused on an individual trip. You can see we weren’t shy using the gas or the brake.

Automatic will give you a weekly report, shown here. We got a pretty good score!

Automatic will give you a weekly report, shown here. We got a pretty good score!

Here, we’ve focused on an individual trip. You can see we weren’t shy using the gas or the brake.

Automatic will give you a weekly report, shown here. We got a pretty good score!

Everyone dreads the ‘Check Engine’ light. Should one appear, Automatic will decipher it for you.

A screenshot of Automatic’s Web dashboard. From here you can analyze your driving behavior and export data (.csv).

While driving, Automatic will keep an eye out for a number of different events: hard braking, hard acceleration, and any time spent over 70 mph. The Link will record these occurrences and alert you to them at the end of your trip. It also monitors your fuel efficiency, offering drivers a weekly score on how well you drove (i.e. not too many hard braking or acceleration events). Automatic has a Web interface in addition to the phone, and interested drivers can export data from there. Trips can even be tagged according to their purpose, so drivers can, for example, record business trips more easily in order to accurately calculate business use of your vehicle (handy both for reimbursement and also tax time).

Since the Link is able to decipher messages from the car’s ECU, it will monitor for any diagnostic warnings and alert you to them. Accordingly, it will then tell you about nearby mechanics. In the event of a crash, Automatic will have a human try to contact you via your phone. Failing that, the company will alert emergency services and give them your location.

Basics: Mojio

Mojio, according to CEO Jay Giraud, is a reaction to the walled gardens that are OEM connected cars. The technology or app experiences that a driver has with one vehicle today is rarely transferable to another one, particularly if we’re talking about different car brands. Mojio’s device is conceptually similar to Automatic’s, but there are a few notable differences. It’s slightly larger, and instead of communicating to your phone wirelessly, it has a built-in AT&T 4G LTE connection which it uses to talk to Mojio’s servers. There’s still a smartphone app, but you needn’t be within Bluetooth range of your car to make use of it. As long as the Mojio has a cellular signal, your car can talk to you. Coupled with the built-in GPS, this means you can also track a Mojio-equipped car remotely.

Setup is almost as easy as the Automatic. Plug the device into your car’s OBD-II port, download the app (iOS or Android), then enter the device’s IMEI in the app, and you’re ready to go. Once you’re paired, the smartphone app will monitor your speed plus fuel mileage and cost. At the end of a trip, it will record the time and distance. As long as everything is copacetic, the app’s background will be green when driving (blue if connected to your car when it’s parked and grey if there’s no connection). If the Mojio detects a diagnostic warning, the app background changes to yellow or red depending on the severity of the problem. The smartphone app can also be granted access to your calendar so it knows about upcoming trips. Finally, there’s also a Web interface that lets you dive into your data, export it, or monitor your car from afar.

The Mojio iPhone app screen. If the background is green, everything’s working as it should, and the car is driving.

The Mojio iPhone app screen. If the background is green, everything’s working as it should, and the car is driving.

If Mojio has a signal, but the car is parked, the app background changes to blue. Here we can see there aren’t any problems being reported.

If Mojio has a signal, but the car is parked, the app background changes to blue. Here we can see there aren’t any problems being reported.

You can use the mobile app to get details about individual trips.

You can use the mobile app to get details about individual trips.

If Mojio has a signal, but the car is parked, the app background changes to blue. Here we can see there aren’t any problems being reported.

You can use the mobile app to get details about individual trips.

Mojio will also create reports for longer time periods so you can see how you’re doing in aggregate.

A screenshot of Mojio’s Web dashboard. As you can see from the sidebar, this can be accessed while the car is in motion, and it will update in real-time.

Not just devices, but platforms

Both Automatic and Mojio work as standalone devices, and in the year that we’ve been testing them, they both work quite well. But these companies have bigger plans, aiming for their OBD-II connectors to become connected car platforms for which other developers can (and have) created apps. Automatic currently has more than 20 of these different apps available, and just over half of those target business users (things like fleet management or expense reporting). Other apps will talk to a Pebble watch, a Jawbone Up fitness monitor, or even a Nest thermostat. Lacking a fleet, a Nest thermostat, a Jawbone, or a Pebble, we must confess we’ve not tested any of those yet.

Currently the most interesting apps—at least as far as Cars Technica is concerned—are performance-related. For example, it’s a particular bugbear of ours that so few cars include things like an oil temperature gauge, something which can now be rectified as a virtual gauge displayed on a smartphone with data streamed from the Link. Unfortunately, this last category of apps requires the 2nd generation Link, which can take advantage of Automatic’s real-time event API. (We plan to test the newer Link and some of those apps in the very near future—keep your eyes peeled.)

The app ecosystem for Mojio is a little smaller than Automatic’s at the moment—only two appear installable at the time of writing. According to Giraud, we can expect the same sorts of apps (from many of the same developers) as Automatic over time. Both companies appear keen to encourage developers to take advantage of their platforms, perhaps sensing that a vibrant community of third-party apps may be the key to success in the marketplace. But partnerships with OEMs are underway as well. Last year, Automatic announced a partnership with Ford that enables Siri to work with Ford’s SYNC infotainment system (enabling Siri through the push-to-talk button on the steering wheel), and Mojio’s Giraud likened his company’s device to something like Sirius or XM radio. Those started off as aftermarket devices people bought and then installed, but today they’re offered as integrated solutions.

Is it safe?

At this point, some of you might be wondering just what kind of privacy controls are in place to safeguard all this data. After all, we’re talking about devices that track everywhere you drive—and how you drive. That’s intensely personal; even the oft-divided Supreme Court ruled unanimously that it shouldn’t be available without a warrant.

Both companies told Ars that they take the issue of privacy seriously. Automatic says it will “pursue every avenue available to inform you and protect your data” in the event of a request by the government or law enforcement, and Mojio says that user data and metadata will only ever be shared if it’s presented with a court order instructing the company to do so.