Automatic: Connected Car Adapter

It's been on a week or so. When it came on the car stumbled for a second, but has run fine ever since so I just ignored it. However, this was the event that spurred me to look into code readers (my BIL has one) which led to the Automatic which does oh so much more. I was able to READ the code with the new toy, but not to CLEAR it.

Mechanic? Not since carburetors went computerized.

Carburetors didn't go computerized - they went extinct.
So you were a mechanic before computers on cars? Or were you, like nearly every human with a penis, of the opinion that you knew everything there was to know about cars?

I had a Ford Cortina.  I learned how to do points, plugs and condenser. That's all

That's equivalent to learning how to tie your shoes.

I wear slipons.

The adapter is zero-for-two now.

Pulled another "check engine light" this week -- P0400, EGR Fault -- but the adapter would not let me clear it. Drove with it for three days (because everything seemed to be working fine) and the light went out on its own.

I have left my Automatic dongle plugged in these past 2½ years -- it beeps at me occasionally but otherwise I can forget it's there -- and it keeps track of my trips and mileage and driving habits.  To be honest I've mostly ignored it.  My mileage and "errors" have remained pretty constant.

I initially bought it to use it to reset the recurring faulty EGR sensor, but it won't let me do that.  The light comes on, stays on a couple days, then goes off again on its own.  I've learned to ignore that too.

So when I got this from Automatic today, my reaction is "so what":

Quote :

Here at Automatic, our team has been hard at work developing new features and designing products using state-of-the-art hardware to help drivers become safer and smarter on the road.

With these advances and due to the expense of maintaining apps on legacy technology, the adapter powering your current Automatic service will no longer be supported after August 31, 2019.

EXCLUSIVE OFFER
UPGRADE TO THE NEW CONNECTED CAR ASSISTANT FROM AUTOMATIC
Includes LTE-M Connectivity - was $99.99 now $59.99 Redeemable through August 31, 2019

My response: No.

Hmmm, just re-read this last posting. Maybe that's why Automatic won't let me register it to the new car, or remove the old car. No error message, just failure.

Oh well, I don't need it $60 worth. A lot of the functions are already built into the new car. It was a fun nerd toy for a while, but not useful for anything.

NoCoPilot wrote:

A lot of the functions are already built into the new car.  

New 2020 Subaru has an MPG readout on the dash, I just left it alone since I bought the car and the cumulative MPG had settled into 27.7mpg.  Could be better, but I rarely get out on the freeway.

At 10,000 miles last week I went in for my 2nd oil change.  For some reason(?) the tech reset my trip meter, which I hadn't bothered with in twenty months.  That of course reset my MPG calculator, and it was fun watching it bounce all over the place in the first 50 miles.

On the freeway, coming back from the dealer: 34.4.

Around town, grocery shopping and going to the pool, 26.1.

Coming home from the pool, I put the car in neutral and coasted down the long hill toward my house.  Watched the MPG tick up from 27.1 to 28, 29, finally 30.4 MPG (all in the course of a mile) before I pulled into the driveway.

Hmmm, what did that remind me of?  Oh yeah -- the "Automatic" car dongle that monitored my MPG in real time and made me experiment with different driving styles.  Cool.

This weekend I filled up the tank, but forgot to reset the trip meter.  As I was coming home from the pool just now, at the top of the long 1.2 mile hill, I said to myself, hey let's reset it and see how high I can get.

When it finally registered, almost at the bottom, I was getting 99.9 mph ... in neutral.

Hey that's as accurate as Volkswagen's official figures isn't it?