Your Security System Can Watch Your Car, Too
Most people think about their security system as something that protects the house. Doors. Windows. Cameras. Smoke detectors.
But what about the car sitting in the driveway?
Alarm.com has a feature called Connected Car that extends part of your security system beyond the walls of your home. A small device connects to a compatible vehicle and brings information about that vehicle into the same Alarm.com app you already use for your home.
You can see where the vehicle is, get alerts when it leaves or arrives at a location, and receive information about things happening with the vehicle.
That can be useful for obvious reasons. Maybe you have a new teenage driver. Maybe an elderly parent is still driving. Maybe you simply want to know that a vehicle that's supposed to be sitting in your driveway is, in fact, still sitting in your driveway.
What I like about it is something simpler.
We spend a lot of time trying to make technology in a home simpler, not more complicated. Another device with another app and another login isn't particularly interesting to me.
But your security system already knows whether you're home. It knows when the garage door opens. It can control your locks, thermostat and lights. Your cameras can see what's happening around the house.
Adding the vehicle to that same system makes sense.
Connected Car isn't something everyone needs, and it's probably never going to be the reason someone buys a security system.
It's just one of those features that makes people say, “I didn't know it could do that.”
And that's why I thought it was worth a Field Note.
— The SmartShield Team