EVLN(CAReader in Toyota EV & hybrid)

[Bruce EVangel Parmenter <brucedp@yahoo.com>]

EVLN(CAReader in Toyota EV & hybrid)
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV
 informational purposes. Contact publication for reprint rights.]
 --- {EVangel}
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20020729-9999_mz1b29car.html
By Frank Green UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER July 29, 2002

The car's engine is sputtering like an old Yugo.
But don't pop the hood to look for the trouble.
Just turn on your PC and get a complete diagnostic rundown
on the ailing motor.

San Diego-based Networkcar's CAReader plugs into a vehicle's
engine computer system and monitors dozens of hot spots,
from fuel tank pressure and battery strength to transmission
fluid temperature and emission levels.

The information can also be sent to the dealership where the
car was purchased so mechanics can determine if the
automobile needs to be rolled in for servicing.

Moreover, the wireless, palm-sized device – which sells for
about $700 and is mounted unobtrusively inside the car's
frame – comes equipped with a satellite-based sensor
designed to keep track of the vehicle's location with
pinpoint accuracy anywhere in the United States. (If the car
is stolen, for instance, the owner can phone a Networkcar
call center, which forwards information to police on where
the vehicle can be recovered.)

CAReader "can't do tire pressure – yet," Charles Myers, the
company's chief executive officer, said half-jokingly.

So far, CAReader is available as an add-on option at 12
dealerships in California, although not yet in San Diego
County.

Networkcar has an agreement with Reynolds & Reynolds, a top
supplier to 10,000 auto retailers in the country, to roll
out the system nationwide in the coming year.

CAReader is also being used in a state program to monitor
emission levels of 118 taxicabs in Los Angeles.

And Toyota has installed dozens of CAReaders in electric
vehicles and hybrid cars in a car-sharing program in Irvine
to help keep tabs on the battery charge and other key engine
indicators.

"The initial feedback from customers has been very
favorable," said Paul Nogaki, vice president of marketing at
the Tuttle Click car dealerships in Orange County.

Tuttle Click, which operates Ford, Mitsubishi, Chrysler and
Dodge franchises in the region, said it has sold the
CAReader to 100 customers in recent months.

"We originally thought that most CAReader sales would be for
higher-end cars, but sales have so far been across the
board," Nogaki said.

CAReader is part of a high-tech boom in the car industry in
the last decade that has seen the development of such
cutting-edge innovations as the Global Positioning System to
help with navigation, talking cars (a digitalized voice
delivers the time, temperature and speed to drivers),
satellite-radio car receivers offering hundreds of stations
and stolen-vehicle recovery systems like LoJack.

CAReader may be the most practical application of technology
for motorists unschooled in the intricacies of crankshafts
and transmissions.

Indeed, CAReader was selected last year by the California
Alliance for Advanced Transportation Systems as the best
private innovation.

Networkcar also received a market engineering award for the
product last year from Frost & Sullivan.

Besides diagnosing engine trouble, CAReader sends e-mail
reminders to motorists when their car is within 500 miles of
scheduled maintenance, as well as monthly e-mail reassuring
them that the motor is purring at tiptop efficiency.

Customers also get live feeds from the National Highway
Traffic Safety Safety Administration alerting them about new
recall notices.

Moreover, the CAReader keeps a complete file of service
records, from who did the work to how much the repairs
cost.

"It also routinely checks such things as the battery
voltage," said Networkcar's Myers. "If the charge is down,
it sends an e-mail (to motorists) telling them that it's
likely that the car lights were left on."

Yearly cost of $96

The origin of the CAReader dates to 1996, when Myers entered
a prototype of the device in a student competition at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Myers' entry was the
first runner-up.

He didn't begin refining CAReader's hardware until 1999.

Two years ago, Networkcar landed financing from San Diego's
Science Applications International Corp., Merrill Lynch and
other investors and began hiring technicians and sales
personnel.

The company expects to begin turning a profit in the first
quarter of fiscal 2003.

CAReader's initial cost includes a year of network and
call-center service. Each additional year of service costs
$96.

Myers said that Networkcar has already received nibbles from
major car manufacturers offering to buy the company, an
indication to him of CAReader's mass-market potential.

The device "is especially popular in test-marketing with
women, who are responsible for 70 percent of car-purchase
decisions," he said.
Frank Green: (619) 293-1233; frank.green@uniontrib.com
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