Carwings is
Nissan's system to allow owners to communicate remotely with the
Leaf electric vehicle (EV). Facilities include state of charge check, plugged/unplugged status, start/stop charging & location of charge stations. It is similar to
GM's Onstar for the
Volt.
Apps are available for
Android,
iPhone &
Blackberry, or it can be accessed from a browser on a computer.
More recently it has become apparent that it can be used by
Nissan to check on the status of components of the car, including individual cells in the battery.
At least some of these functions require user permission, similar to the permission smart phone manufacturers require before monitoring use of your smart phone. A difference is that while the data collected from your phone can be "anonymised", i.e. only data which can't be associated with you personally, is collected. In the case of a failing battery pack cell, anonymised data is useless.
Benefits of
Carwings monitoring is obvious in this instance, & user permission is required. How would you feel about enabling it in your vehicle?
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1082848_nissan-leaf-electric-car-reports-own-battery-cell-failure-via-carwings / EV electric vehicle LiIon lithium ion battery charge recharge range General Motors Chevrolet iOS warranty warrantee collect database fuel consumption energy electricity kWh kilowatt hour plug in monitor privacy tracking analysis /
