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| Mark Ingram, in high school, with the AutoAttendant, aka AutoBot 1.0. Credit: Mavizon Technologies |
In 2009, Ingram, a born inventor who started collecting venture capital interest while still in high school, and Hamman, his business-savvy shield from predatory venture capital contracts, only knew two things about the product at this point: the AutoBot successfully allowed people to warm up their cars using their cell phones, and that investors were willing to pay for it.
A year later, AutoBot is a social networking insurgent ready to challenge the General Motors-backed automotive computing service OnStar. Mavizon Technologies, the company founded by Ingram and Hamman with Samtec's money, recently won the Consumer Electronics Association’s iStage competition, nabbing the company $40,000 and a featured spot at the world’s largest gadget trade event, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
"[AutoBot] is OnStar in a box. There are no monthly fees, and it’s leveraging the Twitter integration, the Facebook integration, that our generation already asks for," Ingram told TechNewsDaily. "This is the first time you get to see this kind of technology in a consumer electronics device. You've seen Google do it, and Facebook do it, but this is unique."
Today, AutoBot is a small box that attaches to a car's diagnostic port. Once installed, it allows users to track the car's location, receive discounts from local mechanics and decode the mystery of the "check engine" light, all through the user's phone. Additionally, if an accident occurs, AutoBot automatically texts, tweets at and Facebook messages a pre-set contact list of friends, family and emergency services for help, detailing the type and severity of the event. Tech News Daily
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