I didn't know there was already a second generation Automatic.
I pre-ordered the first one and had a lot of problems with it constantly losing connection and not tracking trips. I checked the app a few times to find out that data was just not collected, and it was just cumbersome to get the device to reconnect, with having to turn off my engine and do a dance to get it to talk to my car, that it just became a pain and sat in my glove box for months.
Hope they've fixed these issues, but I'm skeptical about buying a 2nd gen after that experience.
I also have a 1st Gen Automatic that I got with the launch/pre-order. Same issues! I have a 2nd one I ordered last year for our other car ... same problem there.
It mostly just won't connect, seems far worse with the iPhone 6 than it was with the 5S. I tried Automatic Support, but didn't get very far beyond "iOS is killing the app due to memory".
When it works it's great! I'm also skeptical about buying a 2nd gen. Would love this to work properly!
I'm sorry you did not have a great experience with our first gen device. We're announcing the second generation device today with the developer platform. The connectivity issues some of our users experienced with the first gen device were mainly due to BTLE. The second gen device has MFi support which allows us to support classic Bluetooth with iPhones. It's much more reliable. You must have received an email with a discount code. I hope you try it. We're also happy to help you get to the bottom of your issues if you write to support@automatic.com.
You should offer discounts to all who kickstarted your product. I'm also disappointed and don't look at the app anymore as it's missing trips and because we share a car with my wife, trips either get registered to her or my phone when we're in the car together. Haven't you thought about this basic use case?
I would assume that the most basic use case is one car, one driver... Nearly every person I know that would care about having a device like this meets these criteria.
How, exactly, would you expect it to work with two phones in the same car? It's not like it could tell which of you is driving...
I guess my argument is that it is likely less 'basic' than you think. Having two people share a car, and both interested in accessing their data, sounds like an edge case.
I imagine that it'd be easier to either get rid of one of your accounts so everything goes to one single account, or have multiple plugs, and you swap out based on who is driving.
Also, I got a discount as an original kickstarter. You should check your email/spam folder to see if you got one as well.
Never said it's most basic, but it's basic across the globe. Only in America a car per person is the most common case. I do live in Orange County where there are more cars than people, but I work from home and I don't need to maintain a car that stays in the garage 99% of the time.
How do I expect it to work? I do have an NFC tag in the car where the person driving places the phone. Automatic can ship with a sticker tag like that.
In my case I have one car and one account but my wife is usually driving in the morning and drops me off. So those trips get chopped in half and messes up the data. I basically use it only as a novelty at this point.
I could set it up on her phone but then we have the two phones problem. Obviously she isn't the driver all the time so I can't just delete it from my phone either.
Ideal would be to connect two phones to one account and if one phone disconnects then resume the trip on the other phone. If the data is in their cloud anyway this should be possible.
I have the exact same situation (1st Gen Link). I take the public transport to office and my wife drives the car during the day. So, the app only registers data when I'm driving (evenings/weekends). All the data during the day is not registered :(.
Perhaps the 2nd Gen Link solves this, now that it has a built-in GPS?
Also, of late, it's been really troubling me connecting to my iPhone 6. I have a support ticket open with Automatic, where they basically suggested deleting and re-installing the Automatic iOS App. Going to try that today to see if it works.
I'm considering getting the 2nd Gen Link, but would love to know if these issues have been resolved. Also, a discount would be nice :D!
Bought two devices one of myself, one for a family member. Both had same issues as parent. Support's response was basically "too bad, here's a list of things you can try every morning to maybe fix the problem." Never buying Automatic again, and I wonder when we'll hear about lawsuits if their emergency features fail during a car accident.
OK thanks maybe I'll contact support - I have to say though that the SDK looks very exciting, especially the streaming events. Kudos on fixing on this very opaque part of car maintenance.
Completely agree. Why would you trust these guys again? I won't. I didn't sign up to be a system administrator for my truck, and they see no problem with shipping hardware that can't do the ONE THING that they claim to sell it for. Track trips - maybe!
I had the exact same problems. It simply didn't want to connect to my android devices half the time. There was no point in collecting all that data if half of it was missing. Was thoroughly disappointed with that pre-order.
We did not support Diesel cars when we launched two years ago. We do now. You can continue to use the device you have now if you car is model year 2006 or later, but please drive for a bit and let the firmware update to the latest version. The latest generation of the hardware supports Diesel as well.
It was very clearly mentioned in various places on our website that Diesel cars were not supported before we added support, but we're happy to give you a refund if you missed it and never got to use the product. Please send an email to support@automatic.com and point them to this comment and they'll take care of it for you.
That sucks yours didn't work out, but I just want to contrast the others here to say that my Automatic worked (and works) great in both my 2000 Honda Accord and my VW Jetta.
I've had a few minor connection issues, but over all it's been very solid when connected to my iPhones.
I pre-ordered the first one and had a lot of problems with it constantly losing connection and not tracking trips. I checked the app a few times to find out that data was just not collected, and it was just cumbersome to get the device to reconnect, with having to turn off my engine and do a dance to get it to talk to my car, that it just became a pain and sat in my glove box for months.
Hope they've fixed these issues, but I'm skeptical about buying a 2nd gen after that experience.