Generally speaking, if your car needs service, you take it to a shop and let the mechanics do their thing. What exactly happens back there though? Magic wench-wielding repair gnomes? Mystical fix-it spray? A stack of Easy Buttons? With a new smartphone application by Openbay, you can keep tabs on the entire process right from your phone.
Openbay is an online marketplace that allows customers to locate, schedule, and purchase auto repair services in their area. The company’s new Openbay app — now available for Android and well as iOS devices — builds off an already established community of service professionals by allowing them to communicate with car owners. With Openbay, the wall between mechanic and driver has been broken down.
“Until now, there’s been no other native app for consumers to handle the end-to-end process of getting a vehicle serviced via Android,” said Rob Infantino, CEO of Openbay. “More than 40 percent of Openbay consumers book auto repair services via their mobile devices, and we see the trend toward mobile continuing, and look forward to exposing the platform to an entirely new market wherever and whenever they need automotive service.”
Related: Let your car describe its symptoms directly to the mechanic with OpenbayConnect
The Openbay app goes far beyond pictures and messages though; it also tracks service history, allows users to generate Openbay Rewards credits for future services, and even helps customers process payment with their mobile. The program can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Last year, Openbay announced another smartphone app called OpenbayConnect. The program expands on the company’s online services by adding an OBDII plugin, which opens a line of communication between your car and your phone. If there’s an issue with your vehicle, the app will find it, diagnose it, and list local repair offers with prices attached.
Volkswagen’s newest EVs in China are making its American and European models look unusually conservative.
With Xpeng’s help, VW has introduced 800-volt charging and advanced urban driving assistance. The new VEGA technology package brings its locally developed vehicle platforms and CEA electronic architecture under one umbrella. Bloomberg reports that Volkswagen intends to update VEGA every three months. Western buyers can find pieces of that package, but not the whole thing in a Volkswagen.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?