Automotive IndustrySoftware Technology

Top Android Apps to Make Dumb Cars Smart

While cars have definitely become smarter over the years, most of their intelligence lies within the vehicle itself and there’s relatively little interactivity with the driver. However, with smartphones around, owners and drivers now have a large number of options for keeping tabs on how the car is performing, what the driver is doing and what he ought to be doing. Some top Android apps that can make the life of car owners easier are listed below:

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Canary

Trusting your teenager with the family car can be bit of a nerve-wracking exercise for most parents, especially in the initial days. This free app is designed to notify parents if their kids are using their smartphones in any way while driving the car at anything more than 12 mph. So, parents can be rest assured that the child is not calling, texting or on the social media while driving. Apart from this, parents automatically receive alerts if the car breaks speed limits so kids tend to automatically drive safer. Extra-cautious parents may also use the app to blacklist certain areas as no-go, create geo-fenced areas that are designated safe, and also specify a curfew time.

Automatic

If your car does not have built-in smart diagnostics, then this $99.95 wireless accessory is the perfect solution that can provide a great deal of diagnostic information that is typically found only in the latest-gen smart cars. The device plugs into the on-board diagnostic port (OBD) that most post-1996 cars have, and delivers information via Bluetooth pertaining to the engine performance, driving habits, tracks fuel-level, warns about speed limits, and should you crash, makes a call automatically for emergency assistance. All information is stored in the cloud so that you can access it for any analysis that you might want to do subsequently.

Waze

 The free traffic and navigation app is currently the world’s largest community app that lets you join in to share and receive information regarding road and traffic conditions on a real-time basis from other drivers. With this app you can save driving time, improve your commuting experience and also save on gas money. You can also contribute by sharing information regarding road congestion, report accidents and other hazards, including speed and police traps. The app provides live maps that are continuously updated and edited by the community’s map editors, and provides rerouting options automatically as the road conditions change. There’s also a voice-guided turn by turn navigation.

Gas Buddy

 There’s nothing like a really long road trip with the family for that special vacation. However, you need to be careful about filling up at the most dependable filling stations so that you are never caught with an empty tank in the middle of nowhere. There’s also the need to fill up as inexpensively as possible so that you can splurge on other things. Gasbuddy is a free app that allows motorists in America and Canada to just do that. Depending upon their current locations they can locate the most economical filling station close by. Many of the prices are user-reported and the app encourages such contribution by giving points that can be used to participate in raffles with prizes like free gasoline.

ParkDroid

In today’s urban landscapes, it is always not too easy to find parking spaces close to your actual destination, especially if you are attending shows or games at stadiums, where parking restrictions can force you to leave your car quite some distance away. One of the biggest worries that car owners have is not being able to track down the car later on, especially if there are no distinctive landmarks around. Park Droid offers the perfect solution to such concerns as you can tag the location with GPS and use it to find your car later on after your visit is over. The app also can pull up a list of parking locations, both paid and free, and map them out for your convenience.

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