The Upgrade

Were you used to seeing the CarIQ SmartPlug smaller? Here's why we moved to the new design and form factor.

What changed and why:

We have upgraded our hardware for the better. Primarily among them is a superior GPS unit. The size has changed a bit now, however it allows for third party integration with additional in-car devices and add-ons in the future.

​Here's why we moved to the new model:

  • Powerful GPS: The old GPS would not work in certain geo​graphic areas. While it worked for 90% of the cases, we did not want to restrict the usage of this device.
  • A new enclosure and installation position: The first three versions of CarIQ were dongles that were fitted directly on the OBD port.​The new design-change decision is coming for solving the following challenges:
    • Many cars do not have required space to connect a device and many are located right above the accelerator pedal that keeps interfering with the foot movement
    • A dongle-styled ​design limits the possibilities for add-ons. ​E.g: ​Imagine​ ​y​ou wanted to integrate with an immobilizer or a heads-up-display. One would see cable coming out of the unit with no place for a good automotive grade connector
    • ​ The location and direction of the OBD port - Our observation has been that the OBD port (which is a D shaped female connector) is connected in all possible angles. Some are at 90 degree, some inverted, and many others are at 45 degree to the floor mats. This means that the GPS will be in a different direction for every car type which seriously hinders the quality of GPS in certain models
  • Advanced Automotive Port: This will allow CarIQ to work with third party hardware manufactures and get them to integrate it into CarIQ. Immobilizers, Driver identification, Door lock-unlock, AC control, Heads-up-displays... You name it. These integrations are easily possible with the new design.




We hope this new future-proofed version would serve you even better. What you get with the new version is our experience and leaning of three years, distilled into one hardware. This new hardware was originally given to our enterprise clients where the environment was very demanding in terms of temperature as well as driving hours.

And here's how the device looks once installed

BMW

City

Civic

VW Jetta