Why did we build the DIMO Macaron?
Making connectivity available for every vehicle in the world.
DIMO Macaron is a first-of-its-kind connected vehicle product that helps any driver or fleet level up their vehicles. It's a gateway to the first open vehicle connectivity network (DIMO), and connects to a global, decentralized network (Helium IoT). It comes from a world class manufacturing partner, JDI. Nice facts, but why did we build the DIMO Macaron?
Great digital experiences and personal data ownership shouldn’t be gated by high prices or complicated interfaces. Technology should make saving time and money and improving our everyday lives seamless and easy, and automotive technology has lagged behind every other gadget in the home.
Besides how you listen to music and follow directions, the digital toolkit for your car hasn’t changed in decades. Your dashboard is no longer analog, but the information it provides is nothing new. Your ability to access your car’s data or integrate it with other applications remotely is either non-existent or stuck behind a subscription. DIMO is changing that with a mobile app that users love and now, a growing number of ways to connect any kind of vehicle.
Cars are the second highest cost center for most people after housing. The average cost to own and operate a new car in the US is nearly $900 a month.1 Maintaining your vehicle can be a source of anxiety, pride, or both. DIMO makes it easy to track and use your car’s data to maximize your car’s value, performance, and safety. Here’s what sets the DIMO Macaron apart:
Data, Rewards, Marketplace
Error code reader meets GPS tracker meets Fitbit meets marketplace meets airline reward point for your car…
Coupled with the DIMO Mobile app and the DIMO Marketplace, drivers and fleets can connect and track their vehicle(s), understand the health of the car, and find time and money savings for maintenance, insurance, roadside assistance, fuel, and more, all in one place without spending hundreds of dollars or getting locked into a subscription.
Even better, anyone using the device can tap into the DIMO Rewards system, earning rewards for sharing aggregated, anonymized data with network partners like CoverageCritic and taking care of their vehicles with approved service providers.
The DIMO Platform allows 3rd-party developers to build features and apps for DIMO Macaron users, serving like an “app store” that works with any car. These 3rd-party services will continue to enrich the DIMO Macaron experience, which already includes GPS, error code reading, vehicle valuation tracking, a digital glovebox, and the ability to book services through the DIMO Marketplace.
As DIMO adds features, users will see an expanded set of vehicle capabilities — it’s like opening up your car to upgrades.
The Cheapest Connection for your Car
There is no cost-effective, and easy connected car experience for 99% of cars on the road today. Tens of millions of households have equipped smart home devices, use wearables every day, and can tap into a digital experience for almost anything in their life. But the most complicated and expensive machine they own is still dumb — unable to tap into the universe of digital services to solve its own problems.
The DIMO Macaron is the cheapest way to turn your non-connected, non-IoT car into a connected, IoT-enabled car. By using Helium’s LoRaWAN network and Bluetooth (coming after release) we’ve reduced the connectivity costs to a fraction of the overall cost of the device. Existing connected vehicle technology will cost $8-$15 per month in connectivity, and some automakers charge more! — $99 with the Macaron covers the hardware and 3 years of connectivity.
This is the most affordable way to have an always-on vehicle health monitoring, trip-tracking, and service-booking digital experience for your car. Whether you’re paying for the app your car maker can provide or have an older car without that option and use 3rd party hardware, the DIMO Macaron is cheaper, especially over the long run as subscription fees add up. It’s a huge win for drivers and fleets.
Building DePIN
If you’ve been paying attention in web3 lately, you may have seen a new term: Decentralized Physical Infrastructure, or DePIN. In our view, DePIN is about building the bridge between real world and great digital experiences (some are calling this “phygital”.) For all the emphasis on the metaverse these days, we still live in the physical world and spend most of our lives and money in it. DePIN is an extension of the web3 principles — digitally created trust, incentive structures, and user ownership — to more realms beyond the financial.
The DIMO Macaron gives web3 enthusiasts and regular people around the world the best opportunity to try a new class of crypto application: a DePIN app. In fact, by leveraging the Helium IoT network, you’ll really be using the first composable building blocks in DePIN. We know how much web3 folks like to be early, and now is your chance.
You can now pre-order the Macaron for delivery in November. See you on DIMO.
Alex Rawitz has spent 10 years in and around startups in the crypto and IoT world, and is always looking to put these technologies to work making people’s lives better. Prior to DIMO, Alex worked with exchanges, defi protocols, and fintechs at Chainalysis. Before that he worked in sales at Servato, an IoT company in the telecom space. He started his career at a startup accelerator, The Idea Village, in New Orleans.