App keeps close watch

If you ever have had your vehicle dinged by an unknown driver, Intel soon might have a way for you to track down the culprit.

Victor Lortz of Intel developed a mobile application that taps into a vehicle’s onboard cameras and alarm system to transmit information to a consumer’s smartphone or tablet computer. When his/her vehicle is disturbed by, say, an overzealous parallel parker, the vehicle systems send an alert to the consumer’s phone to report the disturbance and perhaps even show real-time video.

The app should alert you immediately if your vehicle is disturbed and help you to find the perpetrator, although Mark Boyadjis, who is an automotive analyst with IHS, says automakers first must consider possible lawsuits if this product encourages a consumer to take justice into his/her own hands and inflict harm on people who damage a vehicle.

Automakers must tackle potential battery drain. Lortz says the cameras could drain the vehicle’s battery if they’re always on but not in use.

Vehicles that have a backup camera, a blind-spot-detection system, a collision-avoidance system and other new safety systems have the most cameras. Boyadjis says it could be “a year or two” before automakers begin to provide the app as an option for consumers, because more automakers first must embrace the multiple-camera concept in their vehicles.

Lortz says the app works on Apple and Android-based devices. He says automakers are interested in the product, but he declined to name any.