让你不再忘记把车停在哪里的新装备

    当然，只有驾驶员愿意从细节入手改变驾驶习惯，Automatic才能给他们带来经济上的利益，不过科特并不担心这一点。他表示：“我们认为，这可能是人们每年最容易省下的500-1000美元。人们总是花很多时间省些小钱，比如剪优惠券什么的，但是在开车上，你得不到任何反馈，这就是我们想要纠正的问题。”有些美国人已经采用了这些策略来节省用车开支，还有一些人为了节油采用了某些更加极端的方法。这部分惜油如金的美国人被称做“超级节油者”，他们为了节油不惜改变车子的外观以降低风阻，只要是在可能的情况下就会关闭发动机，甚至跟在大车后面空档滑行（就像骑自行车一样）。Automatic是为普通驾驶员准备的，不是为超级节油者们准备的，但是二者殊途同归，最终的目的都是减少油费。

    科特出生在印度的迈索尔，离班加罗尔有三个小时车程。在他看来，美国的开车成本可以说高得惊人。他大学毕业后的第一份工作是在印孚瑟斯公司(INFY)，年薪只有4000美元。科特今年只有30岁，但早在他上高中的时候，他就梦想着在硅谷成立一家科技创业公司。他把他能弄到手的每一篇保罗•格拉罕姆（著名创业公司孵化器Y Combinator的创始人）的论文都读了一遍。科特说：“如果你真想做一家能对世界产生某种影响的创业公司，你就必须得去硅谷。”科特自己也于2011年夏天加入了Y Combinator。他说：“这就是一切开始的地方。”后来科特在加州大学伯克利分校读研究生时认识了Automatic的另一位创始人，然后他终于如愿以偿了。现在他成了一个不扣不扣的科技企业家，包括拿很少的薪水，在旧金山城区有一间狭小的办公室，以及有一款令人兴奋的产品。

    现如今，许多新车也有了自带屏幕以及能连接到仪表盘的所谓车载资讯娱乐系统，它能提供大部分乃至全部Automatic所能提供的功能。据高德纳公司的分析师吉洛•科斯洛夫斯基预测，到2020年，80%的新车预计都会带有内置的资讯娱乐系统，目前这一比例仍只有40%。对于Automatic来说，这意味着大多数时下生产的汽车仍然是它的潜在顾客。科特表示：“这是一个很好的中间地带。你只要购买Automatic，就能享受信息互联带来的很多好处。”不过我们现在还不知道科特的理论能否成为现实。Automatic的第一批订单预定在今年五月出货（具体数据未披露），第二批订单预计将在七月出货。虽然预见到未来可能面临全球各大汽车厂商的竞争，但这并没有降低这家小公司的预期。科特表示：“想到五六个人坐在一间办公室里，就可以影响几百万人，这让我非常兴奋。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    Of course, benefits only come to drivers who are willing to nickel-and dime their way to savings, but Kote isn't worried about that. "We think it could be the easiest $500-$1,000 people save in a year," says Kote. "People spend so much time optimizing small things like cutting coupons. [With your car] you don't get any feedback, and that's what we're trying to fix." Some Americans have already adopted these strategies -- along with other, more extreme methods -- in order to save money on gas. Known as hypermilers, these drivers often alter their car's appearance to cut down on wind resistance, turn off their engine when possible, and even coast behind larger vehicles to maximize pull (similar to cycling). Automatic is intended for the average driver, not the hypermiler, but the end goal remains the same: cut down on spending.

    For Kote, who was born in Mysore, India, a three-hour drive southwest of Bangalore, the high cost of car ownership in the United States was alarming. His first job out of college with Indian IT giant Infosys (INFY) paid only $4,000 a year. As early as high school, Kote, 30, dreamed of founding a technology startup in Silicon Valley. He read every essay written by Paul Graham (founder of the successful startup incubator Y Combinator) that he could get his hands on. "If you're serious about doing a technology startup that has any kind of impact on the world, you have to come to Silicon Valley," says Kote, who enrolled in Y Combinator himself in summer of 2011. "Here is where it all happens." After Automatic's co-founders met in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, Kote got his wish: He is a tech entrepreneur in every sense of the word, complete with little pay, a small cramped office in downtown San Francisco, and an exciting product.

    Cars with built-in screens and connected dashboards, called infotainment units, may very well accommodate many, if not all, of the features Automatic brings to the table. By 2020 close to 80% of new vehicles are expected to have built-in infotainment units, up from just 40% today, predicts Gartner analyst Thilo Koslowski. To Automatic, those numbers simply mean that the majority of cars manufactured today are still potential customers. "We think this is a good middle ground," says Kote. "You get a lot of the benefits of connectivity just by buying Automatic." It is yet to be determined whether or not Kote's theory will hold true. Automatic is slated to ship its first set of orders in May (figures were not disclosed), with a second batch of orders expected in July. Foreseeing competition from the world's largest automakers hasn't dampened the small company's expectations. "It blows my mind," says Kote, "that half a dozen people can sit in a room and have an impact on millions of people."