It didn’t take long for us to get a few bright ideas with the NissanConnect Services suite of features. You can do some really cool things with the service, whether it’s messing with your friends and family, or checking in to see if the car and its occupants are safe. Here are just some of the cool things you can do with the service, and a few-not-so-cool things that we hope you never have to use.
Unlocking your car with your phone from anywhere
Now, unlocking and locking your car is nothing new. With remote controls, smart keys, and buttons on the door handles, unlocking your car is really nothing new as long as you are in range. If you park your car far from where you’re going to end up, if you’re already relaxing, or if you’re somewhere else entirely, a standard remote will definitely not work.
That’s where the app comes in handy. Let’s say you’ve forgotten to lock your car. Whether it’s because you were stressed, in a hurry, or a bit of both, simply fire up the app from anywhere you have internet access, check if your vehicle is locked or unlocked, and do what you have to do.
Conversely, if someone you know—let’s say a forgetful family member—needs access to the car because their phone or their wallet is inside and you’re not there to hand them the keys, then a few taps is all you need to lock and unlock the car for access.
Remote starting your engine from anywhere
In your many drives around town or around the country’s roads and highways, you’ll inevitably find yourself parked under the sun. For many drivers, getting an open parking slot is a hassle because you eventually need to get back in the car.
Most cars already come with remote start features built into the key fob, but the range thing comes into play again. It also takes most air conditioning systems (yes, even if it is a Nissan) to ramp up and cool the cabin down.
So with NissanConnect Services, you don’t need to get in range of the car with the keyfob. If you know you’re making a beeline to the vehicle, and you know that it’s hot out and you want to get in it as fast as possible, tap on the app, set it up, and start the engine before you head to the vehicle. By the time you get to the car, the cabin will be cool enough for you and your stuff.
Finding your car in the parking lot
Has this ever happened to you? You hurry to a parking slot in a mall or an open lot. You quickly get out but fail to perhaps take a picture or remember the specific location of where you parked. Add a few hundred cars into the mix in the same lot and finding your vehicle will be a challenge.
It happens to the best of us, but for the most part, NissanConnect Services has a feature that clues you in on where your car is located. This feature works best for open car parks where GPS data has a straight shot of your car. Otherwise, if you’ve parked in a mall and don’t know which building your car is at, you can check out the location of it and retrace your steps from there. Truth is, a responsible car driver should know where his or her vehicle is at all times, but the NissanConnect Services find feature is there just in case you have a bit of a lapse.
Paired with the remote horn and lights function, you can also make your car sound off and light up to help you locate it. Even with a roof over its head, as long as their signal, your vehicle can still be found. Don't panic, well, as long as there is signal. The e-SIM in the vehicle still needs good reception to send and receive data after all.
Checking your maintenance and other car information
Apart from forgetting where your car is parked, forgetting maintenance intervals is probably the other thing that most car owners tend to forget. Rather than keeping the interval warning in the car, the car will now push notifications through the NissanConnect Services app directly to your phone, just so you don’t forget.
Apart from that, you can also check your vehicle’s health status which includes metrics like the tire pressure, the airbag status, and also the mileage before your next oil change among other things.
Finding out where the car is, and how fast it's being driven
Now, this is pretty cool. If you’ve ever used one of those tracking features in smartphones, you will know how cool it is to see your historical data. A bunch of us at the office like tracking how far we’ve driven, but the app will also track how fast you’ve driven and other numbers you were able to achieve during a trip.
Once you have this data, you can then brag to your friends with proof that you were able to drive a very long distance with your car. For speed? Humbly brag that you were going the speed limit the whole time and remaining safe on the road. Safety is cool, everyone.
The not-so-cool stuff
Now, here are a few of the things we hope you never have to use. These features serve as hazard deterrents and solutions. They’re nice in their own right, but being tied to accidents and rule-breaking isn’t exactly what we would call, “cool.”
Tracking the car
Sometimes, a tracking feature on a car may be an invasion of one’s privacy, but if you are the owner of the vehicle and you want to know where it is and what it is being used for, this is the feature for you.
No car owner would like their pride and joy to be associated with illegal or just unallowed activities. Whether you’re tracking the car because you’ve lent it out to someone or you’re tracking it because of a certain agreement you’ve had with someone in your family, it’s something that will ensure the safety of the vehicle and whoever is driving in some shape and form.
Setting a curfew
Parenting can be pretty hard, especially if your kids are old enough to drive. Going out late at night isn’t always the safest thing to do. NissanConnect Services has a curfew feature in place that will notify you if the car is being used outside of curfew hours. That means that you will be notified when your vehicle is being used outside of your allowable hours, even if the key is in the possession of whoever wants to take it out for a spin.
Speed alert
Apart from curfew hours, the app will notify you when a certain speed has been reached. If you’re driving and the alert goes off, that’s on you, but if someone else is driving that may be a different story. The thing is, you can set the speed to whatever you want. So even if the driver was going at 60 km/h, and broke the limit by one kilometer per hour, you will get a notification. It’s up to you to decide how this feature can be used and what speed it triggers, but paired with the location and tracking data, you will get to know the driving habits of you and whoever uses your car.
Location limit
Apart from speed and time, you also have location limits that can be set in place. If you have a new driver who you’ve specifically allowed to drive within Metro Manila only, you can set up a bubble and the app will notify you anytime there is a breach in the perimeter. The key here is to keep the car closer to home just in case something happens or in case going too far may be too much of a challenge for a newer driver.
Finally, we have the least cool-coolest feature of them all. Safety is cool, as stated, but accidents and the need to call for help aren’t. Nobody wants to get into an accident, but getting help when you need it is extremely important. NissanConnect Services will notify the vehicle owner if an accident has been detected. In the car, a button located near the map lights of the car will allow the driver or the passenger to connect to a trained professional who will dispatch the necessary emergency services to the location pinned by NissanConnect Services.
Look, getting into an accident is no laughing matter, and getting help as soon as possible is very important. Notifying the right people is also part of your to-do list, and those precious few seconds to minutes to hours of getting in touch with your family and the necessary emergency services is extremely important and valuable.
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