The Gen XY Lifestyle
A Smarter Way to Monitor Your Car’s Performance
Prevent Breakdowns Before They Happen with Carmen Automotive’s Connected Car System
It’s easy to forget that your car needs maintenance now and then, and like everything in life, keeping your vehicle in tip-top condition is cheaper than fixing it when it breaks down.
For those that aren’t technically inclined, local startup Carmen Automotive is offering an easy-to-use solution that takes the guesswork out of car maintenance. It predicts and alerts you of failing batteries, overheating engines, and other impending car troubles.
Carmen tracks and stores critical data from your Engine Control Unit (ECU) and furnishes you with details — typically accessible only to workshops — in a way that a non-expert can understand. It is even colour coded so that a quick glance is enough to know if any action is needed. You can also turn on the advanced function or use the web dashboard to access more data and graphs if you need extra information.
Another useful feature is that the app can send you SMS and email updates when an impending problem is detected, so you can send your vehicle in for a checkup before a breakdown occurs.
How it works
The system consists of a Bluetooth dongle, the app, and the web dashboard. The dongle attaches to the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) port, pulls the data from your car and relays it to your mobile device when synced. The information is uploaded to Carmen’s servers, which processes the data and updates your app and web dashboard on your car’s condition. By building up a database of your car’s performance, Carmen can give you insight on how your car is faring. As the user base and database grows, the system becomes more intelligent.
Key features
At time of launch, the Carmen system tracks the following critical information to help pre-empt impending issues: Battery Life, Coolant Temperature, Fault Codes, Fuel Efficiency, and Mileage.
Carmen says that they will continue to upgrade its range of services, with additional functions such as the checking of tyre pressure coming soon.
At the moment, Carmen has been tested to work with Honda, Nissan, and Toyota vehicles, which make up 60 percent of current car owners in Singapore. They are working on compatibility with other brands, and continental brands like Mercedes and BMW are in their roadmap. Carmen is targeting compatibility with 90 percent of road users in Singapore and the region by the first quarter of 2017.
Availability
The product is set to launch in late September, with pre-orders now available on the company’s online store for S$119.90, which includes a year’s subscription, which costs S$39.90 subsequently. The Carmen App is now free to download on the Google Play Store and will launch on the iOS App Store in early September.
