Aussie start-up flying the green flag

A small Australian firm headed by an aerospace engineer selected for NASA's space camp is making a splash for its innovative driver-assist technology.

The company, named GoFar, has won four international entrepreneur awards and is supported by Greenfleet.

At the core of GoFar's critical success is RAY, a device that educates drivers when they're braking or accelerating harshly – and thus consuming excess fuel. It's technology that already exists in hybrids like the Toyota Prius, but the GoFar device can be fitted to conventional cars for the same purpose. The system is compatible with virtually all cars built since 2008, and most since 2000.

"You take RAY out for a short spin, we'll analyse your drive, tell you where you might be going wrong and put a dollar value on it," says Danny Adams, he of NASA fame and GoFar founder.

"People don't see costs when they drive, so we drive as though it's free and end up wasting a lot of money.  We want to fix that."

The system employs three elements: a dongle that plugs into your car's OBD (on-board diagnostic) port, 'RAY' and an app for your smartphone. Your driving style produces data collected by the dongle and farmed out to RAY, which provides you with instant feedback about your driving on the fly. It also sends the data to your mobile device, where the app collates and displays the data in an infographic style. RAY sits on the dash above the instrument shroud – or anywhere else it can be mounted and you can watch it without taking eyes off the road – to convey the data in a visual format using LEDs.

GoFar claims that its system can teach drivers to save as much as 20 per cent of the fuel currently consumed during daily commutes. As the driver becomes more adept at saving fuel, the system ups the stakes and challenges the driver to do better still. And as the system builds up a database of trips, it can even advise drivers the best time of day to leave home or work to save fuel.

The phone app is for iOS initially, but GoFar plans to have an Android version available in due course.

Currently, the company is raising funds and has launched a Kickstarter campaign as a prelude to marketing and producing the system commercially.