Well, it finally happened….we launched our Blue Eclipse BluCare app about two weeks ago in the iOS App and Google Play stores! I’m really proud of the software development team for the crazy amount of effort and late nights and weekends they put into pulling this off. Just for a bit of review, at the start of this year, there wasn’t even a plan for a standalone BluCare app, but the features were planned to be included with our launch of our connected car product, BluRemote Auto at about this time. However, the COVID lockdown put a wrench into the works and we had to pause the BluRemote build and test program, but that didn’t affect our software team. One morning it struck me that we could launch a standalone app with features of smart, assisted car care (and later home care) which wouldn’t depend upon the readiness of BluRemote…thus was born BluCare, everyone’s “go-to” app.
After spending the last few months focusing on building the BluCare vision, now I’m kicking myself for not planning this earlier. My long-term vision for BluCare is so compelling and universal that literally anyone who owns a car or home can find usefulness in it. Granted, our first app launch is just the start with a minimum set of features, but we’re going to continue to invest and build out the BluCare vision with subsequent app updates. Below is just a sample of the typical questions I’ve heard before about people’s cars (similarly for homes) and which I want to address as part of BluCare’s vision:
- This is my first car, what should I know to keep it running and not spend a lot of money?
- Where can I keep all of my car maintenance records so they’re organized and available when I sell my car?
- What is my car costing me each month or year and what did I spend money on?
- I have an issue involving my car. What is causing that strange noise? What does that check engine light mean? Who can repair it for me?
- Can I get reminders when my car needs to have maintenance done, annual registrations or required inspections?
- Where can I find out about tips to get the best performance or fuel economy from my car?
- How many trips did I take last month or last year? How much was personal and business mileage?
Take a look at some of the screenshots below from the current BluCare app to show how easy and intuitive it is to use. One of my favorite features is the 2-click Tutorial Videos section on just about any topic specific to your vehicle. If you want to learn more, go to BluCare or go to the App store and search on Blue Eclipse BluCare.
Now for an update many have been waiting for about BluRemote Auto, our universal vehicle access product which had to be delayed by several months. If you don’t know about that, you can read all about it at BluRemote. Over the summer we had all of our components fabricated to build up our beta and pilot test units. Take a look at these photos of all the custom molded parts we had to order to build up our test samples…really impressive quality with these parts.
Now that we have product samples and the team has launched the BluCare app, the software developers are returning to working on the software for beta and pilot testing BluRemote Auto. They’ve already completed much of the work on the machine learning algorithm for keyfob image recognition. The algorithm will train the BluRemote robotic system for the keyfob’s individual button functions and locations. I’m really impressed with what they’ve accomplished so quickly and I think our customers will be too. We’re also putting the finishing touches on the product firmware so we can get all of the app communications working properly when we add this to the existing BluCare app so that it will also support BluRemote Auto features.
I hope to be starting up our testing in the next 2-3 weeks and using that to make final tweaks in the software and hardware designs before we commit to the final production design. Stay tuned for further updates on our progress and new announcements.
All the Best!
Craig