IRA connected car tech experience on my Tata Altroz

n my opinion, I find the security features, navigation and trip recording very useful. If you have a driver, the driving behavior analysis will be of great use.

BHPian PrasannaDhana recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

IRA Connected Car Tech Experience:

I had informed in the beginning that Tata messed up IRA connectivity credentials of my altroz with another customer's. Kaveri Tata did a good job of escalating it and the issue got resolved yesterday.

Since IRA has been touted as a sole differentiator in variants of Tata Punch (and possibly for the future cars too), I thought I could give a detailed user experience of the IRA.

IRA equipped cars have this black box(pun intended) underneath the front passenger seat. I think it is a TCM, which usually will be present only in AT/AMT cars. The dealer wanted this serial number to activate IRA. May be it is connected with the ECU (remote controls/immobilization).

Lets dive into the IRA functions:

Remote Commands:

IRA allows these 6 remote functions, from anywhere with your smartphone:

• Distance to Empty (Range) display.
• Head lights.
• Hazard lights.
• Horn.

Geofence:

You can set a boundary on the map, outside which, if the car goes, you will get an alert. Boundary can be set through radius (in km), either by preset values or you can set your customized value. Range can be as low as 1 km to as high as 100 km.

Valet Mode: It is also a geofence, when you want to make sure the car hasn't gone too far from the parking.

Valet fence range: 500 metres to 4 kms.

Car Diagnosis:

IRA runs a diagnosis and Let's you know the status of the following - EPS, Brake system, power train, airbags and the km left for next service due. Funny how it ignores Tata's 7500 km intervals and shows only the oil change intervals as next service due.

Navigation and trip recording:

You can track the car's location, as well as use the navigation feature through "set a trip".

What interests me is the "Trip history". The car records every single bit of your movement Even if you drove something as small as 1 km, it will record its stats.

Once you click on it, it shows Planned trips (ones you navigated through "set a trip") and unplanned trips.

And you can even see the data of each trip by clicking on them:

It shows a lot of information:

• Trip distance.
• Map view of the trip.
• Trip duration.
• Trip average speed.
• Trip top speed (GPS speed).
• Trip driving analysis.
• Trip start time and end time.

The driving analysis is interesting and actually welcome. It studies your accelerator and brake inputs as well as gear changes. It gives a score out of 10.

For a guy like me with over 20 years and 6+ lakh km of driving experience without a single accident, my ego did not like the idea of an app evaluating my driving behavior at first. I should admit, I like it.

It did prevent me from doing pedal to metal today. There is also a small flaw. It does not reduce the score when the speed limit is exceeded. Or may be, if that happens only for a short while, it doesn't impact the score I guess.

Today's driving data :

My score stands at 9.1/10 from one day & 115 km of IRA tracking me.

Also included were some DPF clog busting runs:

Also notice the time fence:

You can set a time limit and a speed limit, the IRA will give you an alert if the car exceeds that speed limit in that specific time duration. That being said, you will receive an alert if the car exceeds 120 kmph anyways, even without setting up any time fence. Fantastic feature if you let the drivers use your car.

Both the trip data recorder and time fence can make sure you know how your driver is driving your car.

You can also add emergency contacts, who will be alerted in case of an accident.

There is also an emergency SOS alert:

Tribes:

This function is what Tata calls "Tribes". It is like a forum of owners, where you get this stuff:

You can connect with other owners and so on. I am least interested in the Tribes stuff, but like the leaderboard concept lol:

They pick leaders based on distance, driving score and fuel efficiency. Honestly if IRA was active since the start of the month I would have been the 1st rank in distance My Altroz is already 2800 km run.

Security:

Best part of IRA is security. The app alerts you if there is an intrusion in the car and also allows you to locate the car if it has been stolen.

You can also immobilize the car through the app, in case it is stolen.

Conclusion:

Is IRA useful? Absolutely!

Does it work? Totally!

Is it necessary?

In my opinion, I find the security features, navigation and trip recording very useful. If you have a driver, the driving behavior analysis will be of great use. When Maruti can proudly advertise the "track my car" feature on TV ads, I think Tata hasn't marketed IRA enough.

With just an extra 45,000 rupees the XZ+ variant gets IRA Connected CarTech, 10 inch TFT instrument cluster, premium leatherette seats, frameless wipers, Auto Up/down in driver's window, rear fog lamp & express cool feature over the XZ variant.

If you are looking to buy an Altroz, get the XZ+ over XZ or even XT. It is worth the extra money spent.

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