Honda Connect turns your Honda car into a smart car
When Ford launched EcoSport few years ago, one of the most discussed features is the ‘emergency assist’. EcoSport’s electronics will try to contact emergency help desk when it detects a crash. Premium cars from the likes of Mercedes, BMW etc come with extensive monitoring and safety features that can be accessed from a large screen infotainment system. Extensive car data monitoring was not available for mainstream vehicles till now in India. Honda’s Connect platform is one such innovation from Japan’s top automobile manufacturer, that will bring extensive safety and convenience features to their cars in India. This requires Honda car owners to get the “connected device” module installed in the car. The device will then send updates and take input from Honda Connect application installed on iOS or Android smart phone. The best part is that even the older cars that come with OBD-II port can be turned into Smart Cars.
Safety and Security Features
This is the best part of Honda Connect. Best of these features are sharing current location and trip analysis. Those who are driving a Honda car can share their current location to their loved ones so that their location can be tracked live. Trip Analysis on the other hand gives users detail like sudden acceleration, sudden braking, over speeding etc. This helps a lot when a chaffeur is driving your kids or your parents. If and when there is an impact, the Honda Connect application will send a SOS alert to Honda 121 connect customer care call center. Once alerted, the emergency assist agent will contact the car owner and assist him/her to safety. Another great feature is ‘Locate My Car’ . With a click of a button, you get directions to your car’s location.
Users can also monitor car’s health where in regular updates are provided w.r.t engine health and battery health. You can also send Manual SOS alert to your emergency contacts. We did test most of these features (including the simulated impact alert). We drove a Honda Jazz for couple of hours and the Honda team was able to track how we were driving, where we braked hard and where we did sudden acceleration. We were also able to track the same data on our own.
Convenience
The best and probably the most used feature here would be the ‘Pit Stops’. This feature helps users to find nearest petrol pumps and Honda Service stations. Other great features include ‘Car Calendar’ that keeps track of services, insurance renewal, PUC renewal etc. Service History feature will give clear detail on all past services. The best part is that all the data of services done before getting this service enrolled will be accessible through the application. Users can also book services from the application.
Users can get consolidated data of all car information, connect to the assistance desk, provide valuable feedback to Honda. Users can also have an e-wallet that contains all necessary documentation w.r.t car and license etc, keep a track of fuel expenses and get monthly analysis.
Users can refer a friend who is interested in a Honda car using the application, check what new cars/updates are coming in the future, get detail on models available today (specification, price etc).
Demo and other videos
The following video gives a demo of the application itself while the subsequent videos are TVCs for Honda Connect experience
Price and Availability
Given that that device costs just 2,999/- INR for first 20,000 units and that it just costs 200 rupees per month for subscription, we seriously suggest all Honda car owners to get your car ‘Connected’. Head to their Home Page for more detail on this.
Our Verdict on Honda Connect
We did a test drive of Honda Jazz equipped with the new Connect technology and we were thoroughly impressed. At one point, we had to find a petrol bunk and our co-driver opened the application and using the pit stop feature, found the nearest petrol bunk. During the whole trip, he was able to monitor my driving (speed, braking, acceleration etc). At one point of time, we were asked to reach a service station for further demo and we were able to setup navigation by using the application.
Imagine that you had put your trust in chauffeur or your got a new Honda car for your teen kid. The monitoring and reporting features will help extremely well and you know that you can always find where your kid or chauffeur are with your vehicle. Once we reached Honda showroom, the engineer removed a sensor in the car that made the car electronics think that there is an impact and few minutes later, the engineer received a call from Honda 121 customer care.
You may say that there are applications that can do all of this. You cannot find a single application that have all these features and work in perfect unison with the car like Honda Connect (for Honda cars). In short, this application is as useful as a Swiss army knife.
