In the year 2016, your car can talk to your phone, your computer, and even your mechanic, but what about your house? As smart cars and smart homes continue to evolve, it’s only a matter of time before vehicle-to-dwelling communication is a part of our daily routines.
We inched a little closer to that future today, as the makers of the Vinli connected car system have announced a new product called Vinli Home Connect — a cross-platform interface that allows vehicles to connect with domiciles.
Imagine you’re coming home from work, and your family’s trusted rig crosses some specified boundary — a driveway, a subdivision, a neighborhood gate — and when it does, the vehicle’s connected computer reaches out to the electronic brain at the center of your connected home. Depending on your preferences, the car could instruct the lights inside to turn on, the doors to unlock, the climate control to ramp up, or even the oven to preheat. In Vinli’s words, the house “wakes up.”
It works in the opposite direction as well; the company gives an example of a driver being the last to leave home, and when their car crosses the boundary, the security system automatically arms. Rather than acting on a timer, however, Vinli Home Connect prepares for the resident’s arrival ahead of time, and departure upon receiving notice, and acts accordingly, no matter when it happens to occur.
“We’re seeing this rapid growth of integrations being developed for the connected home and car markets, but this is creating a fragmentation problem and frustration for the consumer,” said Mark Haidar, founder and CEO of Vinli. “Our team has created an elegant, easy-to-use solution for connected homes in the U.S. and abroad, so consumers can seamlessly manage their network of connected home products and connected vehicles, all from a single source.”
Vinli Home Connect functions on top of the brand’s connected car platform, which is enabled by an OBDII connector that works on cars 1996 and newer. Homes equipped with connected systems like Nest, Icontrol Networks, and Samsung’s SmartThings are compatible for integration with the app.
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?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.