The Zubie Key has a lot to say about your car—and your driving. It's not the first device to plug into your car's OBD (on-board diagnostics) port and pull out selected data for use with an app. Rather than the deeply technical performance data sought by racing enthusiasts or mechanics, however, the Zubie Key gathers data for everyday drivers—fuel economy and average driving speed,for instance—and packages it into reports that show in a free iOS app (Android is coming).
Zubie lets you create groups, such as a family, that can be tracked via Zubie Key. The car itself can also be tracked, of course. (click to enlarge)
What you'll be able to do with that data is the most interesting part of the product. Zubie's app can gather driving data on an entire group, and you can belong to (or manage) multiple groups of drivers through the app. It's a very easy way to keep tabs on a hard-driving family or workforce, and use the data to make informed decisions about how people could or should use their cars. And Zubie is just the beginning: With several competitors following close behind, many more such apps are coming.
The Zubie Key works only with OBD-II-equipped cars, a mandatory feature in U.S.-sold cars since 1996. Once plugged in, the Key quietly collects data from your car's computer and beams it to the cloud, using a cellular connection (T-Mobile) that's included in the product's $99.95 yearly subscription fee. If no connection is available, the Key caches the data until it can send it.
My driving habits, revealed
The Zubie Key analyzes your driving using a handful of safety factors. (click to enlarge)
Guess what: I tend to accelerate quickly. My husband could have told you that, but now the Zubie Key lays it all out for me: It counts where and how often I gun it, and how I compare to an average driver.
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