[fundubytes]

We all have been hearing a lot about Jio. I happened to visit the Jio Experience Zone at Learning & Development Centre, Reliance Corporate Park, Navi Mumbai. And I discovered that Jio is more than mere a 4G SIM card and high speed Internet. At the experience zone, I found a car section. At first I was wondering what is a car doing here.



When I went close by, I learned something interesting - Jio Car Connect, which is under development as we speak.



Jio Car Connect aims to connect 90% of the cars on the Indian roads by year 2020. It's a combo of a hardware device and a mobile app.





The OBD (On-board Diagnostic device) with a Jio SIM inside is attached to the ODB port of the car and thus it creates a WiFi spot on the go.



It also gives you an access to the entire ecosystem of Jio Apps - Jio Music, Jio Cinema .etc. so you can stream your favorite music or movie or TV channel on the go.







If you have a Jio Join App installed on you phone, using the Jio Wifi spot inside your car, you will be able to make voice calls for free.

The Jio Car Connect mobile app shows you vital car information like Oil stats, water levels, fuel info, getting alerts to change battery .etc.







WIth Jio Car Connect you can switch on your car AC when you start walking towards the parking lot. Features like Anti-Theft alarm, Speed limits setup so if you are lending your car to someone, he drives under controlled speed limits. It also provides you weather information and also let you access your driving pattern.

While Jio Car Connect is still in beta development phase, I can foresee many possibilities and various applications in the near future:-

1. Odd-even rationing of roads is already implemented in Delhi. With Jio Car Connect, you may get a limited set of honks balance every month and so once you have exceeded the limits, you are fined. This will surely get us rid of honking habits and the suffering on the roads.

2. When a used car is sold, generally there is a middleman/ agent that buys the car and then after little maintenance sells it off to some other customer. Many a times customers are cheated by hiding significant information or car history. Jio Car Connect can be the benchmark/ parameters basis which a potential car buyer will determine credibility of the car for sale, any accidents the car had encountered in part, insurance claims .etc. all important details that helps in determining the cost and influences during second hand purchase decision/ resale value of a car.

3. Cars will talk to each other. Each car having a unique SIM is like an IP address and they can communicate with each other so as to forecast traffic jam, and alert to detour .etc.

4. If you have read the developments towards driverless cars, this might be something towards that big leap. You never know.

5. Parking tickets, fines .etc will be automatically charged from Jio Money mobile wallet. Your driving pattern is shared with RTO and car insurance company at regular intervals and thus helping us drive more consciously.

6. Needless to say it's quite helpful during occurrence of a road accident.

I can think of the above cases.
Let me know where does your imagination take you with Jio Car Connect!

[novicefreak]

Very informative post, thanks for sharing!!! way to go!!!

Great initiative and seems futuristic!!! Jio is here to stay and for long innings, kudos to vision of Mukesh Ambani & Co.

Honk Balance is one innovative offering and needs to be initiated and installed desperately in all the vehicles including those rouge two wheeler-s with musical and loud horns.

and, yes images are not visible, could you re-post! thanks!

[GrammarNazi]

Arey, I had suggested this to Tata Motors! Connect their DOCOMO SIM to the OBD Port & have a GPS Device installed. They didn't show any interest to study it further, just a generic reply.

They can collect a plathora of information like we get in app's like TorquePro. Like, where the car was & at what speed was the engine revving when the car developed a snag. The Live traffic scenario. A sensor safely mounted on the suspension could help understand the road conditions. They could study the driving pattern, fuel consumption & suggest improvements in the way the driver is driving.

It could not just provide security feature of tracking incase the car was stolen, but also above features for car rental companies or fleet taxi owners to control overspeeding/rash drivers. Road Side Assistance incase the car suffers breakdown. Although Insurance mostly covers the same, even a simple call to the driver in that distress situation will help.

Thanks for this post. Hope Automakers take this up seriously.

[itwasntme]

http://www.cnet.com/news/samsungs-ne...to-to-the-web/

Similar offering from Samsung abroad.

[manojraja]

It's a nice initiative. In this era where we even have the light in our home connected to our mobile, why can't our cars be connected

I remember these features available in Mahindra e2o. Correct me if I am wrong.

[GTO]

Thread moved to the ICE section, thanks for sharing! Heck of a thread, fundubytes. This one's going straight to the homepage.

[paragsachania]

And then many small time firms came and went without a noise. I had a chance to test such devices for a start up in Bangalore for over 10,000 or more kms and today for some reason, that company has ran into some rough weathers.

Apart from the usual engine parameters, it also used to track my driving and give me points based on Hard acceleration/braking/Overspeeding/sudden lane changes. It was a lovely concept and there were many other players who did this too.

The OBD Port + Data + GPS = If one knows how to tap these 3 Technologies for an automobile, market it in the right manner and manage to sell its usefulness and convenience quotient, you have got a winner in your hand.

Now with Jio launch creating all the hoopla in the past week and the fact that data is completely free, I am hoping that this simple product will find a lot of buyers from the Indian market. All that it needs is a convincing, plain jane marketing to make anyone understand what this device can do apart from "theft tracking".

[Tarrodie]

It has some great features but it all depends upon the commercial viability of the product because most drivers will feel that they do not need it. Also, it will have to be available at competitive prices so that people who want to try it can afford it.

[SmartCat]

Mr. Ambani, you can count me in as a customer. This pretty much has everything I'm looking for in a OBD plugin.

Death knell to all other "Car Connects" - Maymyindia, Uno Minda (Honda) etc - unless they pull their pants up and start offering real features, instead of their silly "Trip Analysis".

[mangespat]

This technology will certainly be useful. If this can track all connected cars on a certain route, that can help in traffic/road management as well (eg. Roads that need widening immediately, as opposed to other ones that can wait). Diversions can also be created seamlessly.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by fundubytes

Cars will talk to each other. Each car having a unique SIM is like an IP address and they can communicate with each other so as to forecast traffic jam, and alert to detour .etc.

Way back in 2008, Satyam Computers (now TechMahindra) and Nissan jointly conceptualized this and opened a software development center in Chennai.

They set up infrastructure to develop these kinds of software. e.g., exchange of songs, maps etc., between cars. Unfortunately, the project did not kick off due to the scam in early 2009.

[rubicon]

RJio bringing this here to India is awesome.. very much similar to the below mentioned ones that are just being available around the world.

• Samsung Connect Auto
• Verizon Wireless’ Delphi Connect
• Vinli
• AT&T’s ZTE Mobley

[BoneCollector]

This concept looks good and considering its coming from Reliance industries, I hope it'll see daylight. I was looking for OBD based tracking device but now I'll wait. This is promising stuff. If they can roll a tracking device and an OBD car analysis into one, that would be a boon.

[SDP]

Looks interesting.
A mashup of a OBD2-scanner + WiFi Hotspot + Torque App + Flo app ?

Originally Posted by fundubytes

....
WIth Jio Car Connect you can switch on your car AC when you start walking towards the parking lot. ....

Ummm.. I don't see how this can be implemented.

[--gKrish--]

Originally Posted by SDP

Looks interesting.
A mashup of a OBD2-scanner + WiFi Hotspot + Torque App + Flo app ?



Ummm.. I don't see how this can be implemented.

Something pretty much similar to this.http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...rt-system.html

My friend has seen this work. You can start the car from your mobile and the climate control will cool the car before you get in. It was in automatic in Dubai btw. I think in manual trannys, we have to leave the car in neutral, but it is a safety hazard.