Where are the killer apps?

[David Pugmire]

I've been digging into OpenXC in general, looking at the site, at github repositories and activities, digging through this google group a bit to see what is current.  But I can't quite pinpoint what exactly OpenXC is for.

What I was HOPING is that this is all about tapping into our vehicles and getting otherwise "locked" data to use for consumer and business scenarios.  But what I see (in general) is that this is pretty much a Ford thing and I don't see any real scenarios where this is in practice (in apps, sites, etc).

I'm super technical, I can dig into bit pushing and code, but I'm also a marketing and user experience champ.  It's nice to have "cool tech", but in order for OpenXC to really take off (and that is what I am rooting for) it really needs some killer apps to show how practical and useful it is in peoples hands.  Please steer me there if I missed something.  I'm seeing pretty low level stuff, but what apps really exist and are in use? How widely?

What I would like to do is:

-automate odometer readings through my Android into a cloud logger

-automate engine code readings likewise, into a logger

-use IFTTT to read logs, and send me alerts (like, "hey dummy, time to change the oil".  or "dude, your cylinder is knocking!")

I may be way off in the weeds, maybe OpenXC is not suited for what I just described.  But what else out there even comes close to being able to do such? IMO, the beauty of open source of this nature is for devs to hack together stuff like I just described/listed.  Is that happening?

[Eric Marsman]

Hello David,

Welcome! You are correct that OpenXC does give you access to (otherwise locked) vehicle data. We support all Ford vehicles with pre-compiled binaries to access our standard data set. It possible to use it for business or commercial scenarios. It is widely used inside Ford. There have been several external projects, but nothing that widely available for purchase. 

All of your example ideas would be pretty straightforward with OpenXC for Ford vehicles. 

Regards,

Eric

[David Yaffe]

Hi David,

I am already doing what you describe with an 2014 F-150 and a 2013 Flex (yes, I know they are both Ford vehicles). 

I use the Android Client to ship logs to a cloud service. Once a day, I use a python script to log into the cloud, copy the data down, and ingest it into Splunk. I can then map out my driving habits, routes, etc in Splunk Dashboards. The process to analyse the data in Elasticsearch would be similar.

The reporting can be found by googling for "Splunk for good" and Ford.

David