Announcing CleverDrive - Use Your Phone to Save on Gas Costs

TORONTO, Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- International Kickstarter-Campaign CleverDrive:

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151030/282557

Abelssoft wants to change your driving style and save you up to 30% on fuel consumption!

Ascora has been developing software branded as Abelssoft for over 20 years. Now, the company is venturing into a particularly ambitious project – with a goal of raising $145,000 on Kickstarter.com for an innovative "connected car" concept.

It is based on know-how gained from international research projects with partners like Fiat and IBM. CleverDrive is an intelligent driving analysis system for cars, which consists of a CleverLink adapter and a smartphone app. Its goal is to cut your spending on fuel by as much as 30%.

Modern cars can't be repaired by mechanics anymore, you need a Technician because there's just too many electronics that do the running of your vehicle. Nonetheless, not all the installed sensors are actually used. Instead, car owners drive in much the same way they did 25 years ago: Step on the gas and off you go.

You can save a lot of fuel by using all of the vehicle resources and adjusting your driving style using an intelligent, and computer assisted, driving tutor.  As much as approximately one third of the fuel can be saved using this method. So if you're spending $100 to fill up now, that would be a savings of up to $33 staying in your pocket. Abelssoft intends to exploit this potential by linking the car, and driver, via adapter and smartphone to the digital world that is under your hood.

The driving analysis system for CleverDrive is already developed about 60%. In spring 2016, the first major test phase is planned to take place with final delivery scheduled for late summer 2016. To finance work in the coming months Abelssoft requires $145,000  (130.000 €). This amount will be raised through an international Kickstarter campaign running until 8th November. So CleverDrive is one of the first big Kickstarter projects from Germany. But we want everyone to have the chance to be involved.

What's CleverDriveanywy?

CleverDrive is an intelligent driving analysis system for the car. It obtains information from the car sensors, and environmental information from around the driver. It then combines this information in the smart phone App and provides the driver with advice and hints on how to save fuel as well as further analytics about the trip. The driver themselves has nothing more to do than before: Just get in and drive. The system consists of three components:

-          CleverLinkadapter

This little hardware component is connected directly to the OBD-II interface, which is built into every modern car. The Bluetooth adapter allows access to a lot of information directly from the car and passes it to the CleverDrive App installed on your smartphone.

-          CleverDrive-App

The app will be available for iOS and Android to start. It evaluates the data from the OBD-II interface as well as the sensor-data from the smartphone and then displays the most important data on the screen while driving. The app calculates an Eco-Index, which indicates how fuel-efficient the driver is on the road. Further hints help you optimize your own driving style in order to save up to 30% of fuel use and reduce CO2 emissions

In order not to be distracted while driving, a personal assistant will be available working via speech recognition. This assistant will tell you when it's time to fuel up and if there's a gas station with a discounted price just around the corner. CleverDrive learns – and soon knows to give early warning in the event of accidents and traffic jams ahead. When the car is parked, it can quickly find it again using  the handy "FindMyCar" function.

Thanks to the "CleverProtection" system, you will be alerted immediately in the case of engine trouble or if you are approaching a traffic jam at too high a speed. When encountering a breakdown, the app can call for help. In case of an accident, help will be requested automatically. You can add up to three persons, who will be notified as well. The integrated Black box-feature logs your last drive constantly for potential accident-analysis. This last is not shared with anyone unless you do it.

Note that some geolocation features will depend on local availability of third party data on traffic, fueling locations, and regulations regarding use of automated emergency reporting.

-          CleverDriveWeb-Analysis

A detailed analysis of data can be accessed on the web analytics platform. The system provides a personal analysis and compares to others users and friends. To do so, results from research-project SIMPLI-CITY are included. SIMPLI-CITY has been created by Abelssoft's parent company Ascora along with international specialized partners like IBM, Fiat, and the Technical University Vienna. For three years, experts from the fields of transport psychology, Big Data, speech recognition and more have researched the foundations of information on which CleverDrive is being developed to operate.

The dashboard keeps you updated at any time about current trips, the most important statistics and already issued warnings about engine performance. Detailed analyses are provided for each trip. In addition, the Eco-Contest lets you compete against friends and other users.

Says Dr. Sven Abels, director of Ascora and Abelssoft: "In a modern car so many sensors are installed – and no one uses them. CleverDrive is a useful companion on every drive. It helps us to reach our destination safely, save up to 30% in fuel use, and to learn more about our driving style. CleverDrive deserves to be launched. In order to take the final hurdle, however, we need the help of future users via popular funding. We chose the crowd-financing platform Kickstarter in order to remain in permanent contact with our supporters during the development process and to reward them with a generous supporter's discount on the final product. This makes us one of the first German large-scale projects on Kickstarter. Please help to make CleverDrive possible. You will be encouraging innovation in the German IT sector which will benefit drivers around the globe."

kickstarter Link

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SOURCE CleverDrive

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