Carvoyant, a Tampa Bay, Fla. startup, is developing a platform for the "connected car" that it hopes will bring about a tidal wave of innovation in the automotive technology space.
Carvoyant's platform will allow application developers in the automotive industry the tools to access vehicles on one universal platform.
The company claims this platform expedites the reality of a connected car, as an app developer no longer needs to develop applications for the siloed structures of each auto manufacturer. In other words, a developer will not need to learn the GM platform, which is different from the Ford platform, which is different from that of Toyota, and so on.
This siloed structure becomes especially cumbersome for developers developing for one platform since any one platform has limited reach. A current example is Ford's Sync platform - one of the most progressive connected car platforms. Yet, there are less than a dozen applications developed for it. Carvoyant claims this is about to change as it builds the pipeline to give developers one system in which to connect an application allowing them to stay focused on their app development and user experience while Carvoyant builds the infrastructure enabling rapid deployment of the new app.
In order to build this platform, Carvoyant is starting with an actual end application of its own. Auto service is a universal point of pain that all 300 million used cars experience. Caroyant has a device that plugs into the on-board diagnostic port, universally accessible by legislative mandate and available on all U.S. cars since the late 1990s. This device sits on the cellular network and streams data from the car to Carvoyant’s servers. When a check engine light turns on, or routine maintenance is required (oil change, 50,000 mile service, etc), Carvoyant knows about it and can connect a driver to a local repair shop or auto dealer service center. This service is being launched through car dealers.
Carvoyant is also launching a consumer platform at http://www.carvoyant.com to take the automotive service monitoring feature to a new level and adds battery monitoring and teenage driver tracking. The battery monitoring service from Carvoyant calls the consumer’s phone when the battery is draining. The cause is most likely a light that’s been left on somewhere in the car. The call ensures the car will start in the morning as long as the person turns off the light. Teenage driver monitoring notifies parents anytime a driver goes over a certain speed or outside a designated geographic range.
Carvoyant is also reaching out to the application developers. If a developer buys the Carvoyant service, they receive API to the data on their own car for free. This gives an app developer the tools to build an app for his own car. If it works for his car, he could leverage the Carvoyant system to offer this app to other drivers.
As application developers get hold of the Carvoyant system, the connected car becomes more and more a reality. For more information, go to http://www.carvoyant.com.
