Straight Talk is launching a brand new series of products called Connected Life to help you and your family stay connected to your car and home while away, especially with all of the summer vacations happening right now!

So, what are they all about?

Straight Talk’s Remote Alert System (currently $129.99) is a standalone, non-monitored device that has a built-in wireless module that can send an SMS message or place a phone call to up to eight pre-assigned numbers when a sensor is triggered. The basic kit comes with the wireless controller and a motion sensor. Straight Talk also offers three accessories to help enhance your basic kit: additional motion sensors, magnetic door/window sensors and a remote key fob. You will need a Straight Talk 30 Service Plan or a 1 Year Service Plan to activate this once purchased. The Remote Alert System is not a monitored home security system, but it does help you stay connected to your home while away and it does help you control your Remote Alert System remotely. 

Straight Talk’s Safe Driver Car Connection (currently $139.99) is awesome for parents of teenage drivers! It comes equipped with a GPS chip and wireless data transmitter and it easily fits into your car’s OBD-II port.

Some of the things you can do with this device:

• Track where your vehicle is, or where it is heading, online and with your smartphone in real-time, which can be really helpful in a crowded mall or sports venue parking lot!
• Receive notifications if your car has been towed or moved.
• Assign vehicle geo-fences, which allow you to know when and where your car goes and will send an alert when a boundary is crossed.
• Receive a driver score report to monitor anyone’s vehicle use and driving habits
• Help maintain vehicle health and fuel performance.
• Connect to your smartphone, tablet or laptop to receive alerts
• Restrict text messages and phone usage while driving (third-party ZoomSafer app required; which is now available on Android, Blackberry, and iOS platforms!)

So, I actually got sent the Safe Driver Car Connection to test out and tell you all about it. Hubby’s car is too old to have on OBD-II port on it, so I had to take one for the team, and connect it to my van. I knew this was going to give some good laughs, but then again, maybe it would give me the information I could really show off for this post… Let’s just say that everything I did, I did on purpose for the post.. Yeah… That’s it!

Let’s start off with setting this thing up.

Easy!

Go to the Straight Talk website and connect the device to the cellular service, just like when we activated my phone.

Next, head over to the My Car Connection website to activate the device.

 

Locate your OBD-II Port and plug the device into your car:

If you can’t find the OBD-II port it in your car, no worries. Just enter your vehicle make and model into this Straight Talk website and it will tell you where the port is located so you can plug it in.

Once you have it all activated, connected, etc…  put the Audiovox Car Connection app on your phone and log in!

I’ve used the Car Connection for a few weeks now, and here are a few examples of things I can keep track of!

Just driving around, here’s a little drive up in the Raleigh, NC area when we went up to visit some friends.

 

 In the above screen shot, you can see my driving score… I’ll get into that in a bit… my vehicle health, and a map of where we started and where we stopped. Check out the little green check marks below the map. Those mean that everything was good on that drive…

Here’s another map, outlining a drive to the pool one afternoon. Notice, I have a yellow exclamation point where a green check mark should be. That means there is a Driver Warning. Click on the map, and another screen will come up.

Click on the Warnings button, and you’ll see what the warning was, and how many times it happened. In this case, it says I accelerated too much, and it only happened one time. Not that big of a deal. Tap the back arrow in the top left and then click the Vehicle Location button on the bottom menu.

This map shows you the various places where it pinned a GPS location.

Touch any of the pins, and it’ll give you the location the vehicle was in at that point in time.

 

Go back to the Dashboard, and from there, you can also touch the graph at the top for Your Driving Score, and see a graph of how the driving has been for the last 7, 30 or 90 days, including any Driver Warnings. You can also click on the graph for Vehicle Health and see if there’s anything wrong with the car itself.

 From that page, you can touch the Fuel Economy button to see how it’s been going for the last 7, 30 or 90 days.

There are so many more things you can do with the Car Connection Device!
Now… I can see exactly how this would be beneficial for parents with teenagers, and who knows what will be around by the time my 9 year old girls are of driving age. I just laugh every time I look back at MY driving score…

If you have children of driving age, and you’re looking for ways to keep an eye on their driving, or even their whereabouts, this device would be awesome!

Both the Remote Alert System and Safe Driver Car Connection are available at Walmart stores, Walmart.com or directly from Straight Talk, and require the no contract, 30-day $10 service plan (specially designed for Connected Life products).

Quick note: New Devices Available at Straight Talk

Straight Talk also just got some new devices added to their smartphone collection! They now carry the Samsung Galaxy S4 and ALCATEL ONETOUCH Sonic LTE.

Any questions? What do you think about the new Straight Talk Connected Life devices? Who has teenage drivers and would use a device like the Safe Driver Car Connection?