Vehicle-tracking devices have gained popularity of late, as they allow owners to monitor their car’s activities remotely, using just a smartphone. If you’ve ever suspected your chauffeur of speeding or need to know when and where your friend took your car, a vehicle-tracking device is an answer. With the tracker, there’s no place to hide. Quikr, the Indian online classifieds platform, has introduced one such vehicle-tracking device called the QuikrScanner; and we did a quick test to see how good it is.
Like other devices available in the market today, this sits in the OBD-II (On-Board Diagnostics) port of the vehicle and shares notifications and updates on the QuikrScanner app, available for Android as well as iOS platforms. Using this device, owners can know the exact location of their cars at all times and can even navigate to them using Google maps. The app is easy to use and throws a plethora of alerts for over-speeding, excessive idling, sudden braking, over-revving and hard acceleration. However, there aren’t any SMS or email notifications that intimate the users on a real-time basis – these alerts are visible only once the app is opened. There’s an ‘anti-theft alarm’ notification that makes your phone vibrate and ring (depending on your setting) when the vehicle is moved or towed during a preset period. It also provides a health report indicating the car’s battery status, engine diagnostics, coolant temperature and emission control.
The device is available for sale on Quikr’s website as of now at an introductory price of Rs 1,499. There isn’t any complicated registration or verification process. A pre-loaded SIM card registered in Quikr’s name, having a one-year prepaid corporate plan with data-only enabled needs to be installed in the device.
The QuikrScanner performs all the tasks expected out of it quite flawlessly and is coupled with an intuitive mobile application. It is actually a bargain when compared to products from competitors like MapMyIndia that offer similar functions but are expensive. Also, since this is a plug-and-play device, there’s no need to splice any wires, hence users don’t need to bother about the warranty of their vehicle being void either. For the price, it’s certainly worth getting one if you want to keep tabs on your car’s whereabouts.
