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How will this solution work for drivers and repairers?
We're enabling drivers to gather information about their vehicle. Most of the vehicles on the road have OBDII ports. The range of aftermarket choices and OEM choices for diagnostic tools is very broad, and it's not easy to manage as a consumer. We provision that, and give you a safe place for your vehicle data to go. The driver is always in control of whom they share their information with. You can build applications around that, too.
The device we provide sits right on the mobile network, so the driver can get all of this information in the background. To drive costs down, as a data service we aggregate that information; we don't make money on the hardware. We're trying to pass things through at the lowest possible cost.
If you want to share your information with a sponsor (a repairer or dealer), you can. We have a range of different sponsorships. Small, independent shops can't afford the higher level sponsorships, so they may want to pay to just receive information when somebody needs a specific kind of service. Drivers opt-in, and that information is shared with them. We're providing a pathway for communication.
Drivers can access this on their phones as well as via an online Web portal?
The solution is built on HTML5, so you can access it on mobile devices. It presents well on almost all devices.
You've partnered with some dealerships. What's the attraction for a dealer, given that OEMs also offer their own telematics services?
OEM programs are great — they are primarily trying to step up in front of the next vehicle purchase. What we're doing is trying to feed better information to dealerships. Nowhere near all new cars have telematics built in, and there are hundreds of millions of vehicles that don't have it at all. The way OEM solutions provide information, it doesn't always reinforce the relationship with the dealer.
If a dealer wants to have ongoing, conversational relationships with drivers, the OEM programs are really not structured to engage with customers on that day-to-day basis. We're trying to give them a respectful communication tool. It doesn't supplant what they have. It's a way to reinforce good customer service.
What's the business case for aftermarket repairers?
The overwhelming majority of out-of-warranty vehicles on the road don't have telematics from an OEM. For repair shops, they now have a way of tapping into the driver base with better technical information. They can engage and reach drivers. You create a much better connection from intent to consume to the actual consumption of the service. We give the driver a way to broadcast their intent, and the repair shops a way to respond with better technical information.
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