GOFAR

Design and aesthetic detail were a primary focus in the creation of GOFAR. The form had to fit in, match and even enhance any car interior whilst providing safe, illuminated feedback to the driver. The single contact point on the base can be mounted on any topography within a car's interior whilst the partially spherical top shelters the LED light pipe below, providing protection and contrast for the illuminated LEDs. The design invokes dynamic movement both within the physical component and the illuminated display. The aesthetic and proportional elements of GOFAR were closely considered and engineered, even the sculptural customisation of the cable's strain relief detail at the rear of the head unit.

From the ground up GOFAR was developed to be an easy to use, holistic system, from installation to accessing information within the app. No mechanic required - just plug GOFAR in and download the app. GOFAR directly reads engine data, mapping it against telemetry from the onboard accelerometer & gyroscope, logging every trip without the user lifting a finger. GOFAR objectively scores driving, turning a normal commute into a game, allowing users to beat their best or rank on a group leader board. Regular updates to GOFAR make the car ever smarter, improvements to calibration and firmware on GOFAR can be updated over the air without any complexity for the user. In trials GOFAR has cut fuel use by 15.

GOFAR's feedback improves better road awareness, increasing safety. Safe, real-time feedback is provided to the driver in an intuitive, passive method. It was a paramount concern during design that GOFAR not be a distraction to driving and the LED solution works in peripheral vision with a very low cognitive load. It also removes any need to touch a phone. A discrete light sensor maintains optimal light levels for the display ensuring they adapt automatically to tunnels or bright sunshine so the display glows pleasingly at all times. GOFAR is tested to FCC, CE & C-tick regulations, exceeding safety tests required for electromagnetic emissions, including maturity tests demanded for European markets.

GOFAR and it's packaging is engineered to use minimal components created with recyclable materials, meaning even at the end of GOFAR's life environmental impact is reduced. Disassembly is easy, in fact the device only has 2 screws and the low number of efficiently used components in the device reduces material and manufacturing complexity. There are over 1 billion cars in the world and the number is climbing. GOFAR can be retrofitted to most modern vehicles and GOFAR motivates drivers to cut emissions and in driver tests GOFAR has cut emissions by 15.7%. GOFAR enables a low cost driver behaviour change solution and a huge opportunity to have an impact on emissions output globally.

GOFAR was designed to be a very visible, beautiful consumer electronics device, demanding the finest finish on each part. Each detail needed to be perfect and simple to assemble. The LED display uses high quality, temperature resistant polycarbonate housings giving a premium finish that also withstands the baking heat cars suffer on sunny days. The continuous surface across the junctions of the light pipe was paid special attention ensuring perfect alignment of these faces. The quality finish extended to design and fabrication of the dongle with finely controlled part lines and consideration given to the variety of port locations in thousands of cars to create a highly versatile, adaptable device.

Tests show savings of over 10%. Smoother driving means insurance and maintenance savings too and, with the data to make expense and tax claims easier, GOFAR has a strong ROI, paying back in months. Pre-launch orders already exceed $250,000. The elegant, resolved design ensures GOFAR looks at home in any modern car interior. GOFAR fits the standard OBD port and so works on new cars and can retro fit cars up to 20 years old - 500M cars globally. GOFAR is our first product and the disruptive design stands out in the telematics industry creating very positive press and industry reaction. Industrial Design gave a beautiful form to the functional elements of GOFAR with a smooth transition into production.

GOFAR has been granted 2 US patents and is the first OBD device in the world to map engine performance against telemetry data and provide a realtime efficiency display to the driver. Light pipe design in GOFAR was developed to create a subtle, beautiful glow to effectively communicate real-time driver efficiency without causing distraction to the driver. GOFAR is one of the smallest OBD dongles on the market and has packed a suite of technology into the device including 6 axis motion sensors, BLE, support to cover the 5 OBD protocols as well as a micro-processor and flash memory. The hardware in GOFAR was refined over 3 iterations of R&D platforms prior to the incarnation of this GOFAR dongle and display.