Tech Company to Offer Social-Ready Vehicle Telemetry to the Masses

For driving enthusiasts, there aren’t many social media platforms that cater to their interests. Today you can share your time slips, GoPro videos, or lap time you recorded using your iPhone stopwatch, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. A company called Autosport Labs aims to change that with its upcoming RaceCapture telemetry device and Podium social platform.

The Hardware – RaceCapture

The first piece of the puzzle is the RaceCapture unit. The RaceCapture will retail for $199 ($259 if your car was built before 2008 and only has OBD2) and sports a long list of technical features: a high-performance GPS, an accelerometer, gyro, CAN bus/OBD2 data, and a Wi-Fi connection.

What’s that mean for you? For drag racing you can capture precise acceleration data. For drifting you can measure yaw (oversteer/understeer) to see how far out you’re hanging your 240SX. The real fun stuff comes for autocross and road racing fans: lap times, predictive lap times, and precision track mapping. All this data logging means that when you pull in after a few hot laps you can compare your racing line through each lap. During your lap you can see a live update of your predicted lap time, which lets you know right away whether or not a different line through turn 5 is going to help you.

The Social Platform – Podium

Instead of tweeting, snapping, or gramming, Autosport Labs has a different idea for those who like to drive fast: Podium. The new platform will let you share lap times, video (if desired), and telemetry data with your friends. Whether it’s ripping off hot laps at Circuit of the Americas, drag racing in Fontana, or clandestine runs up Glendora Mountain Road, you’ll now have something to show for it. As Autosport Labs likes to say, “Data or it didn’t happen.” With a cellular signal you can even share your runs live with your friends. Podium will also have leaderboards, so you can see how you rank among other users.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing strengths of the whole package is the ability to map out your own tracks with the hardware. Glendora Mountain Road is one example for those in Los Angeles: it’s not a race track, but it’s a well-known place to go for a spirited drive. You can also map out your local autocross to give you a better visualization of the course.

Autosport Labs is currently launching the RaceCapture device and the Podium platform on Kickstarter. Check them out, and let us know in the comments if you would use a platform like Podium.

Source: Autosport Labs

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