One of the greatest benefits of Automatic's Link driving assistant dongle is that it finally made it possible to hook your car's metadata to the web. You could then use your smartphone to do things like track your trips, note your parking spot and even figure out your Check Engine light problem without going to a mechanic. Well today, it's about to go one step further thanks to a partnership with IFTTT. IFTTT, if you're unaware, is a service that hooks up a variety of apps and services together with a series of "If This, Then That" formulas. Now with Automatic, you can create recipes that'll prompt an action once it detects certain information from your car.
For example, you can set it so that you get a text message every time the car starts up, or send a push notification to your spouse whenever you're running late. You can automatically post trip summaries to Facebook, tweet if you're ever in an accident or keep track of your mileage in a dedicated Google Spreadsheet. It even works with other Internet connected hardware -- a possible recipe is to turn on all your Philips Hue lights as soon as you get home.
IFTTT's Automatic channel already has a pretty healthy set of triggers, but Ljuba Miljkovic, Automatic's chief product officer, tells us they're hoping to build more around activities like speeding or braking hard. "We see this as a step toward Automatic really being connected to the wider world," says Miljkovic. "For example, we announced that the Link now has iBeacon thanks to a software update. We really see third party integration as a big thing in our future [...] We're making it possible to add your car to the Internet of Things." If that sounds like an exciting proposition to you, head on over to the source to find out more about the Automatic Link, IFTTT and its plans for an even more connected car.
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