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-   -   Review: Autowiz Car Tracker (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifications-accessories/177829-review-autowiz-car-tracker.html)

I was in the market for a vehicle tracking device for my car. My requirement, essentially, was to track vehicle within city limits. I considered the following:

1. MapMyIndia Rover vehicle tracker devices:
Seemed to meet my requirements. However, I tried several times to contact the company to procure the device. I got absolutely no response and was left terribly disappointed with their service. Emails-independent and through their website elicited only complete silence. I gave up after several weeks of of trying

2. Phoenix Ninja-N2 (www.phoenixsecure.in)
This device matched all my requirements. The company called back immediately after asked for information. They followed up with information and further calls. Overall , I was very pleased with the interaction. However, they are based in Delhi and have no support whatsoever in Bangalore , or any other south Indian city. The sales team offered to send me the device and suggested that it could be installed by any competent car mechanic. She was also willing to arrange for their installation person to talk to the local garage technician and guide the installation. The cost was coming to around 12K. This business of installing by another technician, I thought, would be problematic and I was not happy going that route. If problems arose, each would blame the other party and I would be stuck in-between.


Another decision to be made was :

1. A device that required wiring and tapping into the car electricals. Advantage: more secure perhaps and more bang-for-the-buck features. Though they all say there is no splicing of wires, there is electrical connections to be made, battery to be tapped and wires to be run.
2. A OBD based device. MapMyIndia has one too-however, as mentioned earlier, I was unhappy with their response-or total lack thereof!. Essentially, this is a small device that plugs onto the OBD port and provides the tracking facility. The advantage is the ease of installation. The disadvantage, obviously, is it’s visibility.

Then I came upon the AUTOWIZ car tracker on the team-bhp site ; in one of the little pop-up ads that appear from the bottom right of the screen (which is really a pain I must admit!). Further research and a call to the company led me to place the order. A short review follows:

Information gathering:
The website is WWW.AUTOWIZ.IN. The company that makes it is a Bangalore based startup called SenSight technologies. They had launched the device recently and were just beginning their operations. Information was forthcoming easily and there was good interaction with the company and it’s sales people.
Be it patriotic fervor or kinship with a Bangalore based company, I went ahead with ordering the device online. (The last time I did this was for the infamous Notion Ink Adam – this still sits in it’s box, long past it’s very short useful life).I hope, this story will not repeat.

I was pleasantly surprised to be handed the device a few hours later. A sales person came home , delivered and installed the product. The device is custom configured based on the model of car it will be installed in. This configuration allows the “kitna deti hai” question to be answered.

The Device:
The device itself is pretty small, about the size of a large matchbox. On one end is the OBD port connection. On the other face is the SIM card slot, that is sealed with some adhesive, There are also 3 small indicator lights- engine running, Network connection and GPS activated. There is a small socket-I am not sure for what-considering it’s proximity to the GPS light, I wonder if it is for an antenna.
On one side is a small port, similar to a phone charging port.
A very neat, flat, extension cable is included in the box. This is excellent, because, when plugged into the OBD port, it sits almost flat on the port and is hidden from view. The cable is long enough to allow the device itself to be placed hidden behind the dashboard. They also supply double sided adhesive tape and thus, self-installation is a breeze.

The Software App:
The autowiz software app is available for both iPhone (via app store) and Android (via google play store). Again, download and installation was trouble free. At first log in, the details of the device need to be filled in and you are good to go.

The first time the device is attached, it take a few minutes to latch on to the networks. Once this connection is through, it functions smoothly.

However, there are few points to note:

1.There is no real time feedback of the tracked vehicles- in the sense that you cannot see the car moving on the map in real time (a la Ola/Uber). You have to query the program and it, almost instantly, shows the position of the vehicle. The route followed by the vehicle is drawn on a fairly detailed map.
2. I was told, that the unit communicates and updates data in real time onto the Autowiz servers. Positional data is obtained via GPS and GPRS. The phone based software queries this database and provides the information sought.In case the device looses network connection, data is stored onboard and then transferred to the server once connection is reestablished.
3. You can see all the trips the vehicle has made in the recent past-upto 2 months I think, within the software. This is also the only way that specific places can be highlighted- such as home, workplace etc. Once this location is saved, you can set up notifications. An alert message is displayed on your phone when the vehicle arrives at these points.
4. In addition, the program displays driving data such as driving speed, average speed and mileage etc.
5. it displays warnings such as exceeded speed limit, sudden braking, revving, acceleration etc.
6. Some car health data is also displayed – I don’t know what this means, I guess that an error when it shows up would be self-explanatory!


Costs:
The price of the device was 6K. This included one years data plan also. Subsequently, there is an annual fee of about 2K.

On the whole, I am happy with the device. It seems a cost effective solution and meets my specific requirements. I only hope that the company can sustain operations and build on what is a solid product.

I have been using the basic model of AutoCop Trackpro for the last 2 years which essentially offers these same functions.

@docsr does the device come with a sim card or do you have to put it in? What does the 2000 subscription fee include?

Call me paranoid but I would be very reluctant to leave any device, let alone a low cost untested one, continuously plugged into the OBD port. Would rather go with a stand alone gps based tracker, lots of which are available cheap.

CDM

The SIM card comes preinstalled in the device and the payment includes annual fee for the data usage. There are no separate data charges to be paid by the end user. I guess the 2000 is for continued SIM annual rental and data package. I do not know if there is a licence fee from the manufacturer too?
The SIM is from Airtel.

CDM, what specifically are you worried about when the device is connected to the OBD port?

My understanding is that the OBD port not only reads data but is also used to program / send signals to the ECM. What would happen if the device were to have a short or some other malfunction. Like I said, call me paranoid but I would prefer a stand alone unit.

CDM

Nice review!

Yes, that is a U. FL connector. Commonly used for external antennas.

rl:

Off topic, but I'd love to hear why it is sitting in its box. Did it stop working? Or did Android simply progress past it?


Really surprising they don't have this option!

Thanks Rehaan.
Regarding the NI Adam, at the time of it's launch, it seemed a great machine. Conceptually it was too. However, the implementation left menu to be desired. The fatal flaw, at least for me, was that it had no software updates/support at all. It would not connect to Play Store. Yes, Android had progressed past it almost as soon as it was launched. The battery too was very poor.

Adam's successor, Cain, seems to be a better and more contemporary machine.

Thanks for that very useful review. I am looking for the same solution and came across two products. One by Fasttrackerz and another by Technopurple.

I'm just wondering if these were considered too. And of these three products (including Autowiz), which one may have the edge over the other two.


I think the option is OBD based vs connecting to your wiring system in some way (not sure if any cutting or splicing is involved). Isn't the latter even worse?

Does anyone have any suggestions to what system would be the safest from the standpoint of car warranty / generally not adversely impacting the car technicals / electricals / electronics in any way.

Thanks in advance.

i also am a bit concerned on connecting a device permanently to the OBDII, but my concern is based on the power draw. The device is continuously drawing power from the OBDII port and could lead to battery drain and worse if there is a short or something inside the device. There is no mention of a battery drain prevention feature.

Most OBD based solutions are meant to be attached permanently as there are features such as towing, unauthorized movement/opening etc can only work when the device is connected.

Can't speak highly of the Chinese imports, but we haven't faced battery drain with any of our ZENE devices. Ever! The device goes into a deep-sleep mode when you park the car. Furthermore, there are inbuilt mechanisms to cut battery draw if there is a short.

Happy to answer any question. @getzene

Can you elucidate a bit more on the tracking features of your product?

I have seen the website but dont have a lot of details of the tracking feature.

Does it support ola/uber type route map for cars?

Does it support geo fencing facility?

My main interest is in this product - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Car-...0-b717dd2e96c5

What all features does your product serve compared to this?