Help with Understanding Battery/Range Degradation

[jonwitt]

Just so I understand, you want to mine our data for free so you can then analyze and sell it?

Hi Tim,

I certianly understand how it can be perceived or painted in that way. If someone doesn't find the service that is provided in return or what it enables valuable to them, then it isn't a worthwhile ask for both parties. Certainly, I wouldn't push anyone who felt this way to join. My and the team's goal is certainly never to cause anyone heartburn or anxiety about the study or connection to the vehicle.

In exchange for volunteeering the data, in return you do get a monthly personalized report about your vehicle and how it compares to all other electric vehicles in our fleet and compares to all the other Mach Es in our fleet. You also have access to the data as well. From what I can tell based on the feedback from folks who have joined, they find the report insightful. Some have even told us that they used it to reassure a buyer that their vehicle is in tip top shape.

The second reason I have been told folks volunteer their data is because they really align with our mission. We use anonymized aggregated data to develop machine learning models to provide insights about range and battery degradation. At the moment, we then offer report generating services to used car dealerships about cars on their lots so that used EV buyers can feel more empowered to make a decision to buy an EV. We think this has promise in accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles. Many folks in the fleet have joined because they think that it will also accelerate adoption of electric vehicles, and they find value in that.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Best,
Jon Witt

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[DaveRuns]

Just so I understand, you want to mine our data for free so you can then analyze and sell it?

oh...but they'll be sure to give you a nice little spreadsheet of your own data. Which by the way, you could actually create yourself.
In the era of our privacy data being exploited, why would we knowingly want to subject ourselves to potential misuse? I'm quite certain that while the company says it's just analyzing the battery data, they'll probably have access to location data as well, and for me, that's a show-stopper.

 

[jonwitt]

oh...but they'll be sure to give you a nice little spreadsheet of your own data. Which by the way, you could actually create yourself.
In the era of our privacy data being exploited, why would we knowingly want to subject ourselves to potential misuse? I'm quite certain that while the company says it's just analyzing the battery data, they'll probably have access to location data as well, and for me, that's a show-stopper.

Hi Dave,
I definitely understand your concern around this. I have talked to many folks who share your concerns. We are working on a way for folks to participate at the moment that doesn't require a direct connection for the vehicle. We hope to offer this sometime in 2021.

Regarding location access, we have intentionally chosen not to ask volunteers to authorize this. It isn't even an option to accidentally click on when folks go through the sign up process. We don't think it is necessary.

Best,
Jon Witt

 

[DaveRuns]

Hi Dave,
I definitely understand your concern around this. I have talked to many folks who share your concerns. We are working on a way for folks to participate at the moment that doesn't require a direct connection for the vehicle. We hope to offer this sometime in 2021.

Regarding location access, we have intentionally chosen not to ask volunteers to authorize this. It isn't even an option to accidentally click on when folks go through the sign up process. We don't think it is necessary.

Best,
Jon Witt

I do appreciate your willingness and openness to address everyone's concerns. Thank you.

 

[Smartcar Victor]

Hi all! My name is Victor, and I lead the Customer Success team at Smartcar. I thought I’d pop in and help shed some light on who Smartcar is and how we operate.

In short, Smartcar exists because automakers are not great at providing API access for their vehicles. Jonathan and Jon nailed it earlier in the thread - the majority of automakers don’t even provide their own OAuth flows yet, and this is one of the many places where Smartcar is able to provide value for our customers.

We provide our own authentication flow that passes a token to applications using the Smartcar API. This flow always allows you, as the owner of the vehicle, to see exactly which permissions an application is requesting from you. For example, if an application doesn’t request Location access from you, they’ll never be able to see your car’s location without having you go back through the entire flow to grant that access. Billing and other account data are never accessible - you can see a full list of possible permissions here.

As for vehicle data itself, Smartcar never stores any of the data that an application requests - we simply act as the passthrough between folks like Recurrent and vehicle owners like yourselves.

I’d encourage everyone to take a look through our website here to get a feel for our product and the way our customers use us. Specifically take a look through our Privacy Policy and Data Security pages. If you have any questions, let me know here, or shoot me a direct email at [email protected] and I’m happy to help out!

 

[DaveRuns]

Hi all! My name is Victor, and I lead the Customer Success team at Smartcar. I thought I’d pop in and help shed some light on who Smartcar is and how we operate.

In short, Smartcar exists because automakers are not great at providing API access for their vehicles. Jonathan and Jon nailed it earlier in the thread - the majority of automakers don’t even provide their own OAuth flows yet, and this is one of the many places where Smartcar is able to provide value for our customers.

We provide our own authentication flow that passes a token to applications using the Smartcar API. This flow always allows you, as the owner of the vehicle, to see exactly which permissions an application is requesting from you. For example, if an application doesn’t request Location access from you, they’ll never be able to see your car’s location without having you go back through the entire flow to grant that access. Billing and other account data are never accessible - you can see a full list of possible permissions here.

As for vehicle data itself, Smartcar never stores any of the data that an application requests - we simply act as the passthrough between folks like Recurrent and vehicle owners like yourselves.

I’d encourage everyone to take a look through our website here to get a feel for our product and the way our customers use us. Specifically take a look through our Privacy Policy and Data Security pages. If you have any questions, let me know here, or shoot me a direct email at [email protected] and I’m happy to help out!

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[Smartcar Victor]

How is the data actually collected? That is, does the car log the data, package it, and send it using its mobile connection when pinged 1-4 times per day? Or does this require a paired smartphone which serves to send the data to Recurrent?

No paired phone needed! The car will use its own cellular connection to send Recurrent the requested data

 

[sockmeister]

Hi all! My name is Victor, and I lead the Customer Success team at Smartcar. I thought I’d pop in and help shed some light on who Smartcar is and how we operate.

In short, Smartcar exists because automakers are not great at providing API access for their vehicles. Jonathan and Jon nailed it earlier in the thread - the majority of automakers don’t even provide their own OAuth flows yet, and this is one of the many places where Smartcar is able to provide value for our customers.

We provide our own authentication flow that passes a token to applications using the Smartcar API. This flow always allows you, as the owner of the vehicle, to see exactly which permissions an application is requesting from you. For example, if an application doesn’t request Location access from you, they’ll never be able to see your car’s location without having you go back through the entire flow to grant that access. Billing and other account data are never accessible - you can see a full list of possible permissions here.

As for vehicle data itself, Smartcar never stores any of the data that an application requests - we simply act as the passthrough between folks like Recurrent and vehicle owners like yourselves.

I’d encourage everyone to take a look through our website here to get a feel for our product and the way our customers use us. Specifically take a look through our Privacy Policy and Data Security pages. If you have any questions, let me know here, or shoot me a direct email at [email protected] and I’m happy to help out!

Thanks for stepping in.
This research interests me, both as a tech-minded individual and someone who works in IoT -- this seems like it would be right up my alley.

I am still somewhat interested in participating - it's not the control of permissions granted that bothers me, it's the nature of smartCar's handling of my app credentials, which has to be so because of the admittedly lacking FordPass API which doesn't support OAuth.

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