Autopulse seeks to link vehicle computers with garages

A Fredericton-based company wants to connect the computers in cars with the owner's preferred garage or dealership to make vehicle maintenance easier.

The dream of Autopulsewould let vehicle service centres know exactly when a customer's vehicle developed a problem and what it might be.

Reg Jesso, of the Coyle Auto Group, wondered about that prospect, but says he "knows a lot about cars, a little about women, and nothing about computers."

So he turned to his son Sam, a software engineering student, who is from Saint John.

"Sam actually came up with the idea of'What if we could relay the information from the vehicle's computer, back to the dealership, on a real time basis, so the dealership could actually monitor this information, and be able to stay in touch with the customer,"said Reg Jesso.

"And I think that was when this thing started to steamroll, and we thought we were really on to something, and that is valuable information to any dealership."

The father and son, along with Sam's girlfriend Kristin Killam, who is a business student, teamed up to create the companyAutopulse and a program to tap into the information in vehicle computers and transmit it via the owner's phone.

"You would have the product in the customer's car, and if there is any type of faultdetected in the car, it will go straight to the dealership and it will see it in real time," said Killam.

"So at that point, the dealership will give the customer a call, and say, 'You know your engine light is on, why don't we schedule you an appointment?I'll arrange for you a drive to work.'"

Sam Jesso admits GM's Onstarservice does this, but for a yearly fee, and only on GM products. His Autopulsewould come with the car, and allow the owner to choose the service centre that would get the information.

He admits, it's not the easiest programming project.

"There are so many different types of cars, which means there are so many different ways of the car communicating, so the struggle that I have as a developer is, how do I build this as modular as possible, that it will work with as many cars as I can possibly get it to work with."

Jesso and Killam say they have auto dealerships anxious to test drive the product.

Autopulseis one of the finalists in this year's Breakthru competition put on by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.

The winner will be announced Thursday, March 19.