Among the things every man should know — carve a turkey, fix a drink, delete your browsing history (and your cookies … and your autocomplete cache) — diagnosing what ails your buggy should be 101.
Here’s what’ll school you: the Automatic app, shipping now.
Automatic is a dongle — about the size of a stubby USB stick — that plugs into your car’s data port (if you have a car built since ‘96, you have one: check your compatibility here).
From there, it wirelessly connects to your smartphone, and then the driving mastery begins.
First and foremost, Automatic claims you’ll save ⅓ your yearly spend on gas. The app monitors your wasteful driving practices (e.g., accelerating too quickly) and helps you gamify your drive — offering up a weekly score, a timeline and efficiency suggestions.
Some other benefits:
- Tells you exactly what that mystifying “check engine” light means — and offers solutions.
- Reminds you where you parked your car.
- In case of a crash, connects you to Automatic’s call center, which alerts authorities.
Automatic is now available for about a C-note for the iPhone, with Android support coming later this month.
You can never know too much, man.
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