The Voyo Controller. Source: Voyomotive
Voyomotive announced the addition of the engine on warning to its lookout alerts, a safety feature in the Voyo app that sends notices to a user’s cell phone. Lookout alerts are issued when a vehicle has been left in a dangerous condition, driven unsafely or experiencing a malfunction.
Keyless ignition systems present a risk for drivers to accidentally leave their vehicles without shutting off the engine. There have been 28 documented deaths and 45 injuries due to carbon monoxide poisoning from drivers who have left their engines on. Currently there is not a federal agency that tracks injuries and deaths for such cases. These figures likely do not reflect the total number of emission-related casualties.
Voyomotive conducted testing and found that over a one-month period, up to 3 percent of cars with keyless ignition had the engine left on by the driver. Because of this, the team developed a new part for the Voyo app that notifies drivers when they walk away from the car without shutting off the engine. Alerts are sent to the driver by SMS, email or within the Voyo app itself. The notifications can also be made available to multiple parties such as family members or fleet managers. The alert data includes the time of the event, the identity of the driver and the vehicle’s location.
Other lookout alerts include warnings on speeding, low tire pressure, hard braking, vehicle swerving and activation of safety systems such as ABS and stability control. Voyomotive plans to add alerts for headlights left on, dome lights left on, door or trunk left open and power accessory mode status.
Voyo is a plug-and-play controller that is connected to the OBD-II port of a vehicle that is present on all cars built in the U.S. since 1996. Voyo can monitor up to 100 advanced parameters on a vehicle and can conduct advanced diagnostic analysis that is equivalent to a professional scan tool. Voyo uses Bluetooth low energy to connect to the Voyo app running on a cell phone, which exchanges information with the Voyomotive cloud. Engine on alerts are issued when the Bluetooth signal is interrupted while Voyo detects that the engine is still running. The Voyo app sends a notification to the Voyomotive cloud, which subsequently sends alerts to recipients assigned by the Voyo account administrator.
To learn more about Voyo, visit the Voyomotive website.
