If there’s a young driver in your family, upgrading your vehicle with a telematics system like Drone is a great way to know where they are and how they’re driving. Drone combines high-speed cellular LTE connectivity with an onboard GPS receiver to relay the exact location of the vehicle to your smartphone or the Drone website. You can even configure geofence notifications, so you know when the vehicle arrives at or leaves a specific location. Let’s look at how these features work to help keep parents calm when their kids are driving the family car or truck.

GPS-Based Vehicle Locating

The X1-MAX, X1R and DR-5400 Drone modules include an integrated GPS receiver antenna. Location information is visible within the DroneMobile app on your iOS or Android smartphone or on the Drone website. The GPS locating capability is impressively precise. This accuracy lets you know which side of a driveway you’re parked on or exactly where the car is in a mall parking lot.

If your son or daughter is out with the car, you can check their location and speed while they’re on the move. If you expect them home at 10:30, you can see whether they’ve left their friend’s house or movie theatre, or if they’re just around the corner.

Geofences Deliver Instant Alerts

A lot of families allow their kids to use the family vehicle to go to work at a part-time job. By logging into the Drone website, you can create alerts based on an address or a geographic area on a map. The website allows you to set these warnings (called geofences) based on a radius around the chosen location or using a rectangle or adjustable polygon. Another option is to use the POI (Point of Interest) feature to set an alert. You can enter the address of a business or someone’s house, and the Drone system will let you know when the vehicle arrives at or leaves that location.

As you can see from the above screenshot, this family has configured the system to let them know when their son arrives at the drugstore where he works. This information will also be recorded in the Activity Log so that it can be reviewed later.

Speed Warnings Promote Safety

You can always click on the Location tab, then click on the vehicle icon to see how fast it is traveling. Likewise, you can configure the system to send an alert to your smartphone if the vehicle exceeds a preset speed limit.

The Curfew Alert feature is another way to monitor the use of your vehicle. Once you’ve configured a start and stop time, the system will send a notification if the vehicle moves during that time period. There’s no way to sneak out at night with the car when this is activated.

Drone Reduces Parent Stress

Most of us trust our children to take care of our vehicles. That doesn’t mean that we don’t worry when they’re driving. With Drone on board, we can check their location and speed as often as we want. Visit your local authorized Drone retailer to have the hardware installed in your vehicle, then choose from the Premium, Premium Plus or Ultimate service plan packages. You can learn more about the fantastic features of Drone by visiting their website, Facebook page, Instagram page and Twitter, or their YouTube channel.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Drone from Firstech has made communicating with your vehicle more accessible than ever, thanks to integration with digital assistants like Google Assistant and Apple Siri. Remember when Michael Knight used to talk to KITT using a communicator on his watch? KITT could start the engine and be ready to go in a split-second once Michael arrived on the scene! If you’re feeling like recreating some classic ’80s television or simply want to unlock the doors of your vehicle without having to touch anything, Drone and the DroneMobile App have made this a reality.

DroneMobile and Apple Siri Control

Version 4.3 of the DroneMobile app for iOS adds Siri digital assistant integration using Shortcuts. Shortcuts is a scripting app that acts as a go-between for DroneMobile and Siri so that your voice commands can control your vehicle. Once configured, you can say, “Hey Siri, lock my car.” Siri will confirm the vehicle you want to lock using the name you entered on the Drone web interface. You can say “Yes,” and the vehicle will lock a second or two later. You can tell Siri to start your vehicle just as quickly. Just say, “Start my car.”

Adding the shortcut from DroneMobile to your smartphone is easy. All you have to do is tap on the Add to Siri icon at the top of the Controls Screen. The Shortcut app will pop up and let you customize the command text. You can configure it to recognize any text command you want. If you want the standard “Start my car,” then click Add to Siri. Alternatively, you can enter a custom command string like “Fire up my ride” or “Kitt, it’s time for action.” Other Drone commands that are compatible with Siri and the Shortcuts app are Stop, Lock, Unlock, Trunk, Aux 1 or Aux 2.

DroneMobile and Google Assistant

If you are an Android phone user or have a Google Nest smart speaker in your home or office, then you can integrate the Google Assistant app with DroneMobile to control your vehicle. You’ll need Version 4.4 of the DroneMobile app to make this happen. The Google Assistant and latest DroneMobile apps are, of course, available from the Google Play store.

Drone has added an extra level of safety and security to its Android solution by including a PIN code. You can configure the PIN by logging into the Drone web interface, clicking on Edit Profile, then scrolling down to Unlock PIN.

Voice commands work a little differently on Android. If you want to remote start your vehicle, say, “Hey Google, use DroneMobile to start Kelly’s Truck.” In the background, Google Assistant launches the interface to DroneMobile, then transmits your request to start the vehicle. You’ll be asked to confirm the PIN for starting or unlocking commands. The system works best when you say the pin as a number, rather than a series of digits. So, one-thousand two-hundred and thirty-four trumps one two three four.

Talking To Your Vehicle Is Easy

Giving your engine a few minutes to warm up while you gather your belongings in the morning can dramatically reduce wear on the engine and make the vehicle more comfortable if it’s hot or cold out. Being able to use voice commands with the latest versions of the DroneMobile app means you can multitask. When breakfast is finished, and you’re loading the dishwasher, just say, “Hey Siri, start my car.” All of the functions that work with your phone or smart speaker will also work with an Apple Watch or Android SmartWatch.

If you’d like to be able to use voice commands to control your vehicle, drop by your local authorized Firstech dealer and ask about the Drone telematics interface and a Compustar, Arctic Start, FTX or iDatastart vehicle security or remote starter system. You can find a dealer near you using the dealer finder. Be sure to visit the blog section on the Drone website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube to learn about any new features, products and technologies from Firstech and Drone.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.