Nissan Leaf gets iPhone app that James Bond wouldn't approve of — Autoblog Green "If the vision of James Bond driving the BMW 750il remotely via his cell phone in Tomorrow Never Dies is your idea of a perfect app for a vehicle, than the setup for the Nissan Leaf is sure to disappoint. The Leaf's iPhone app is quite limited and remotely driving the car is certainly not one of the options. In fact, the app does so little that it seems out of place compared to the technological marvels that can be found within the Leaf."
Since remotely driving the car via a cell phone app AIN'T gonna happen, what possible REALISTIC features would folks want the app to have? You don't need to warm up the engine because there isn't one. The app heats or cools the interior, which would have been fabulous when I lived in North Dakota and it was 20 degrees below zero outside. Perhaps telling the charger to start or stop, but if the car allows timed charging you probably don't need remote control of the charger, and the app will tell you the charge, so if you're shopping while it's plugged into the fast charger, you'll know when it has enough charge to get to your nest destination. What else is there? Be realistic please: We're talking about an actual car and an actual phone app, not a sci-fi movie.
Come on daniel use your imagination. It could open doors, turn on headlights, honk, turn on interior lights to name a few.
if you are pluged into a charger at a friends house, or at a mall, it would be nice to find out the SOC (State Of Charge) of the batteries (not just "%100 charge - completed"), so you would have an idea if you have enought to leave NOW.
It takes a TON of junk in the trunk to do it right. Here's a couple pic's I took, couple years ago at an EVent. It's a Prius that some think tank folks converted to run remotely. Roof mounted satelite tracking GPS ... radio transievers ... servos ... the whole shebang: Not only will it not run off an iphone you can be certain the it will void your warranty - .
Presumably the remote key will unlock the doors, and calling on your iPhone app to actually open them would be harder than just opening them yourself. Honking might be useful to find the car in a parking lot, and turning on interior lights might be useful, though typically they turn on when you open a door, and that should be adequate. According to the article, the app WILL tell you how much charge you have, not just whether charging is finished.
I think the app does enough though I would love to see more. Advanced future options: Set charge timing start and stop, IE charge at night and program by phone after connecting up. Download data, such as trip lengths/speeds and charge used. Database charge sessions, how much electricity used.
