Carfix Application Literature Review

Carfix Application Literature Review

As much as motor vehicle manufacturing industries are trying their best to produce vehicles that are loaded with technology meant to keep motorists on the road, most of them are still finding themselves on the breakdown lane. As researched by the American Automobile Association, the use of technology in maintenance reminders, as well as motor system alerts, is not helping much. Despite all the attempts, there is an increasing number of stranded drivers on the road. This is making towing services a booming business to set up. In 2015, AAA rescued about 32 million drivers who were stranded. Most of these had problems such as flat tire, low battery among others. It actually insinuated that technology could be the reason why there was an increase in those being stranded.

There are many factors that are contributing to the challenges that motorists are facing currently. To begin with, the sleek low-profile tires that most of the vehicles are driving on are susceptible to damage. The roads have remained to be the same over the years and the best that the authorities are doing is repairing them. A repaired road is not a newly constructed road and, therefore, the experience driving on these roads proves to be tough for the new range of tires. Secondly, we have witnessed the evolution of motor vehicle engines and currently, there are electronic key-less ignition engines. These are efficient but they come with their own challenges (Iqbal, et al., 2011). They are subject to the car battery to a faster drain and which leads to shorter battery life. Having system alerts for these vehicles is not much of a solution as shown by the research which found out that over half a million drivers were stranded after running out of gas. This implies there are failures in these system alerts in keeping track of gas levels among other car metrics as time goes by.

One other fact to consider for mishaps that drivers are facing is the replacement of spare tires with tire inflators. This implementation came to light around the year 2006. The aim of getting rid of the spare tire was an attempt at reducing vehicle weight and increasing fuel economy (MacKenzie, et al., 2014). There are several cars on the road that have this implementation and automakers are producing more of them into the market. It is also worth noting that the keyless ignition systems also experience failure. For instance, a very considerate number of drivers have reported that cars with these implementations have locked them out especially when they are left with the engine running and the lock keys close to the car.

Scope of the project

The main aim of this project is to come up with a mobile application that motorists can use to locate and contact nearest car towing service companies. This will be achieved by having the application filter its search to a radius of 6 miles. This will, therefore, mean that the data that the motorist will get is for a car towing company that is reachable in the shortest time possible. The other advantage the application will have is the ability to provide other crucial data such as nearby hospitals, police station and gas stations. These are important for motorists as most of them get stuck on the road either due to accidents, running out of fuel or as a result of other road challenges.

Review and justification for the project

The CarFix application is developed solely out of need. It is evident that there are plenty of car towing companies and the industry is growing day by day. Motorists are also available and the chances of getting stranded on the road are eminent due to several reasons as discussed above. Quite a number of motorists have acknowledged that they have had to get assistance from other motorists in getting genuine car towing service companies or even had to rely on the information given by other road users like pedestrians and those living in the neighborhood they have got stuck in. the greatest risk with this is that the motorists do not have a way of verifying whether this data that they are getting is trustworthy or they are being guided into a waiting trap.

To solve this, CarFix application comes in handy. It is the link between the stranded motorists and genuine car towing service companies. It also provides a variety of the available companies giving the stranded motorist a chance to make a choice on whom to serve them. In addition to this, the nearby places component of the application provides the motorist with the most crucial help that they may need in scenarios where they are stranded. Hospitals will provide places where they may get emergency medical services in the event they are stranded and are involved in an accident. The gas stations will offer them the nearby stations where they can refuel or get their tires fixed. In most cases, they may also access a mechanic at these gas stations. The police are there to maintain law and order and for this reason, they are availed to offer safety to both the motorists as well as their vehicles whenever they are stranded.