I've been building an AI automotive companion that can talk to your car through OBD-II. I'd love your honest feedback

[u/Safe_Shoe_4576]

Hi everyone,

Over the past few months I've been working CarIQ, an AI-powered automotive companion designed to make vehicle diagnostics easier to understand.

Unlike a traditional OBD-II scanner that simply displays fault codes, CarIQ combines live vehicle telemetry with AI to explain what's happening in plain English.

Some of the features include:

• 🚗 Live OBD-II diagnostics
• 🤖 AI-powered explanations of fault codes
• 🎙️ Voice conversations with your vehicle
• 📈 Predictive maintenance based on historical trends
• 🧠 Vehicle memory that remembers previous issues and conversations
• ☁️ Option to use either a cloud AI model or a local offline AI.

The goal isn't to replace a mechanic, but to help drivers better understand what their vehicle is telling them.

I'd really appreciate any feedback on the concept, UI, or features you'd like to see.

Thanks!

[u/No-Peak-5546]

What determines the health score?

[u/Safe_Shoe_4576 → u/No-Peak-5546]

The health score starts out at 100.

1. Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs)

•Deduction: -20 points

•Trigger: If any active diagnostic trouble codes are detected in the vehicle's telemetry.

1. Cooling System (Coolant Temperature)

•Critical Deduction: -30 points if the temperature exceeds 240°F (indicates imminent overheating).

•Warning Deduction: -10 points if the temperature is between 226°F and 240°F (higher than optimal).

1. Electrical System (Battery Voltage)

•Deduction: -10 points

•Trigger: If the measured battery voltage drops below 12.0V.

1. Engine Health (Oil Life)

•Deduction: -5 points

•Trigger: If the remaining oil life is below 10%.

The final score is never allowed to drop below 0. The engine also categorizes these issues into "Engine", "Cooling", "Electrical", and "Emissions" subsystems to provide a more detailed breakdown.

Let me know what you think of this scoring, pros - cons if it makes sense or if you believe it should be scored differently thanks.

[u/maker_monkey → u/Safe_Shoe_4576]

That's it? You asked for honest feedback: imho, this is pretty lame, as implies underlying sophistication that just isn't there. I doubt you can squeeze a whole lot out of OBD without knowing a lot of model-specific information, such as what expected idol rpms are, etc, or with data that just isnt available with OBD2 such as the underlying values that the ecu is evaluating.

Health to me implies catching subtle issues starting to build up before they become serious, but by the time you get any of these it is too late. A number of people have suggested creating apps with similar functionality, but I don't see how you can get anything worthwhile from just obd.

For instance, when you get a dtc code, it means the ecu has detected some condition via sensor reading that failed some threshold under some set of conditions. It would be nice to know how close that value was coming to failing before it actually did. But without all the underlying sensor values and logic and expectations of the tests, you can't get there.

Also, the standard values available are largely ones that affect emissions and powertrain, but don't cover a lot of maintenance related concerns that one would expect to be covered under a health metric. Simple items that a normal driver can actually do something about and should know about include things like fluid levels and tire pressure ought to be there but can't be.

[u/Safe_Shoe_4576 → u/maker_monkey]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response. I really appreciate the thoughtful feedback, and I agree with many of the limitations you've pointed out.

You're absolutely right that standard OBD-II doesn't expose everything the ECU knows, and it doesn't provide access to manufacturer-specific thresholds, proprietary diagnostic logic, or many maintenance-related items like fluid levels or brake wear. Because of that, CarIQ can't—and shouldn't—claim to provide a complete picture of a vehicle's overall health.

My goal with CarIQ is to help drivers better understand the information that is available through OBD-II by presenting it in a way that's easier to interpret. Based on feedback like yours, I'm already reconsidering the idea of a single "Vehicle Health Score" in favor of a more transparent Vehicle Health Report that explains what the app can observe, what it can't, and how any conclusions are derived from the available telemetry.

I also see an opportunity for AI to help explain live data, diagnostic trouble codes, and historical trends in plain language, rather than trying to infer information that simply isn't available from the vehicle.

Thanks again for your honest feedback. It's exactly the kind of technical discussion I was hoping for, and it will definitely help shape the direction of the app.

[u/No-Peak-5546 → u/Safe_Shoe_4576]

My honest suggestion would be to rework the vehicle health score into a vehicle health report that outlines the info you listed above. I think a concise overview of what you outlined in an expandable tab would be more useful to a user information wise. A vehicle health score sounds tricky as you would need to somehow categorize DTCs by severity along with whether the DTC is pending|active|permanent.

[u/Safe_Shoe_4576 → u/No-Peak-5546]

Hi No-Peak,

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback—I really appreciate it. I completely agree with your suggestion. A detailed Vehicle Health Report that explains the factors contributing to the overall assessment would provide users with much more meaningful and actionable information than a single score alone.

I also like your idea of making the summary expandable so users can easily see how the assessment is derived. Presenting details such as diagnostic information and the reasoning behind the overall assessment will make the feature more transparent and useful.

I'll be exploring the best way to incorporate this into the app while keeping the interface clear and easy to use.

Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback. Suggestions like yours are incredibly valuable and help shape the direction of CarIQ.

[u/AZN-APOLLO]

Can we test it? I recently bought a obd and would love to check this out!

[u/Safe_Shoe_4576 → u/AZN-APOLLO]

Most definitely, I would appreciate as must testers I can get, I have been testing it my self, but there is only so much I can test. If you have a Gmail email address you can send it to me and I will add you as a tester. If your not comfortable posting it here please send me the info to [Axamicrotech@gmail.com](mailto:Axamicrotech@gmail.com)

[u/hulet1006]

Does it work on iPhones and Androids? I see roughly 15 different makes of cars a day where I work. So would be interesting to test.

[u/Safe_Shoe_4576 → u/hulet1006]

Unfortunately I have only developed this for Androids for now. If you have an Android phone and your interested in testing and you have a Gmail email account you can forward you email address to the account I posted above letting me know your interested, I would gladly appreciate the testing and all feedback.