Smartcar - automated climate control and charge scheduling for Model S

[wts13]

Really cool new service by the same guy that developed Glass Tesla

Smartcar - Intelligent automation

Offers to learn driving behavior and set climate control automatically, as well as schedule charging off-peak automatically.

Personally I've never bothered to use the climate controls in the app - too much trouble to plan that far ahead Nest-like behavior would be fantastic and actually walking out to a cool/warm car without having to think about it a lot of the time would definitely be nice.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I find that whenever a piece of technology tries to predict my behavior, it's wrong 95% of the time.

 

[ElSupreme]

I find that whenever a piece of technology tries to predict my behavior, it's wrong 95% of the time.

Maybe if the software could figure out what time my alarm went off, and how many times I hit snooze. Then it might have a shot of getting my morning strategy correct.

 

[wts13]

I find that whenever a piece of technology tries to predict my behavior, it's wrong 95% of the time.

Must be why Google bought Nest for $3 Billion and change

Maybe if the software could figure out what time my alarm went off, and how many times I hit snooze. Then it might have a shot of getting my morning strategy correct.

This is not a bad idea

 

[Chris Naps]

To me this seems a little fishy / scary. On their website they have a Q/A and one of the Q/A's are:
Will I need to plug something into my car? No. Smartcar connects to your vehicle over-the-air, no additional hardware needed.

Does that mean, technically speaking, if developer can get into the vehicle's software (over-the-air through certain ports) the developer would have full access to change certain things such as "learning your habits" by changing charging times or climate control? Is he essentially always able to access your vehicle at any time? And what else can he see / change on your vehicle? I'm not to sure I like this idea, maybe because I am not fully aware of the clockwork behind this project, but to me I figure if he is able to change settings on my vehicle, then he will be able to change other things as well, or possibly allow for someone else to change it without the developers intention (hacker).

I may be wrong, but that's how I look at it. He must be either opening a port that should not be open or possibly going through a port that was not intended for that direct purpose.

 

[Discoducky]

Maybe if the software could figure out what time my alarm went off, and how many times I hit snooze. Then it might have a shot of getting my morning strategy correct.

All the app needs to know, from telemetry, is when you typically leave in the morning. This is analogous to hitting snooze I would expect. It will know, from telemetry, where your home and work are as well

 

[jhs_7645]

To me this seems a little fishy / scary. On their website they have a Q/A and one of the Q/A's are:
Will I need to plug something into my car? No. Smartcar connects to your vehicle over-the-air, no additional hardware needed.

Does that mean, technically speaking, if developer can get into the vehicle's software (over-the-air through certain ports) the developer would have full access to change certain things such as "learning your habits" by changing charging times or climate control? Is he essentially always able to access your vehicle at any time? And what else can he see / change on your vehicle? I'm not to sure I like this idea, maybe because I am not fully aware of the clockwork behind this project, but to me I figure if he is able to change settings on my vehicle, then he will be able to change other things as well, or possibly allow for someone else to change it without the developers intention (hacker).

I may be wrong, but that's how I look at it. He must be either opening a port that should not be open or possibly going through a port that was not intended for that direct purpose.

I’m sure it’s using existing REST api’s and using the client side app to determine how to behave. Not much more than VisibleTesla with some scheduling smarts.

 

[ACDriveMotor]

Yes, this is something I've been considering doing for some time. It is not hard to learn basic patterns of behavior. But exceptions will always get you into trouble - as amped says, there is no way to predict the unpredictable. For any app to work through exceptions the user will have to override the learned behavior.

The focus on electrical cost savings is uninteresting in WA where the electrical costs are flat. Optimizing around long-term battery health would be much more interesting.

 

[jayman]

I pretty much already do what this service is suggesting. The tools are already there to command your car using the "unofficial api". With a little scripting knowledge and using my home automation system one can do 10x more and much more accurately reflect behavior patterns...

 

[wts13]

I pretty much already do what this service is suggesting. The tools are already there to command your car using the "unofficial api". With a little scripting knowledge and using my home automation system one can do 10x more and much more accurately reflect behavior patterns...

That's pretty sweet. Mind sharing your setup?

 

[jayman]

Sure. My home automation software is homeseer which I had already been using to control my lights, location, garage, climate, etc. So I just have been using the tools here: hjespers/teslams · GitHub. My home knows when I am working the next day and my car is appropriately charged and warm. I also using the streaming portion to track my car into a mongo database. I use the location data to do things like open the garage door when I am approaching home or setting the alarm and decreasing the thermostat when I leave.

 

[yobigd20]

Yea this guy is charging for something that is brain dead easy to program using the same rest APIs. Honestly this is mostly hype there's not really any value added by what he's offering.

 

[LuckyLuke]

So, basically this guy needs a $50k down payment for his new Model S ?

 

[caddieo]

I find that whenever a piece of technology tries to predict my behavior, it's wrong 95% of the time.

Which is worse - this, or when it tries to dictate your behavior? Just wondering/asking.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Which is worse - this, or when it tries to dictate your behavior? Just wondering/asking.

I'm not sure I understand. Can you give me an example of technology that tries to dictate my behavior?

 

[Chris Naps]

So, basically this guy needs a $50k down payment for his new Model S ?

Haha - Agreed. If anything I would rather wait for Tesla to design it.

 

[Mr X]

thread needs actual smart car

 

[EchoDelta]

I think a good analogous tech is the Nest thermostat. With enough feedback loops you can do a clustering/Bayesian model that's pretty robust, and you always have the manual override at your fingertips. Good design would be key around managing how exceptional events can be learned from

 

[AmpedRealtor]

It sounds like more effort than it's worth. If this is a freebie, cool, but I definitely wouldn't pay for something like this.

 

[simonog]

Sure. My home automation software is homeseer which I had already been using to control my lights, location, garage, climate, etc. So I just have been using the tools here: hjespers/teslams · GitHub. My home knows when I am working the next day and my car is appropriately charged and warm. I also using the streaming portion to track my car into a mongo database. I use the location data to do things like open the garage door when I am approaching home or setting the alarm and decreasing the thermostat when I leave.

Sticking with the home seer theme, did you write a PlugIn or are you using scripts for the link. I agree about home seer being a really useful event processor!