Short Summary
My name is Dionysios Mylonas. I hold an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MBA from the Imperial College, London and a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. My specialization as an engineer is in Fuels' Technology and as a financier in Investment Banking. You may find my detailed bio here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dionyssis-mylonas-88051156/
My present campaign is the first start-up I am attempting. It is based on personal work I have commenced, on a part-time basis since 2009, and on a nearly full-time basis since February 2018 trying to find an accurate method for measuring horsepower not at the wheels, but at the internal combustion engine's crankshaft or the electric motor's rotor shaft. The result of this work is two approved patents I hold, namely GR1008172 and GR1009319 as well as a US Patent Application for which I expect first USPTO action in the next months (pls see below sections). Finally, I have already personally funded patenting expenses and, most importantly, a fully functional Android working prototype of the mobile app that implements this patenting work, elaborated by the developers' team I have hired. This project has Arrow Certified Technology, meaning Arrow has reviewed the design and deemed it feasible for manufacturing.
A prospect contributor may think, "isn't this field, i.e. Automotive Technology, a rather specialized one? Will it have broad appeal?". The answer is yes, it is indeed specialized, but this is exactly the reason it requires someone qualified for scientifically proven, accurate and reliable results. As detailed in the Impact and FAQ sections below, the present project will still appeal to no less than 45 million existing users of competing mobile apps commercially launched, but not based on patents and, imho, giving inaccurate results despite the fact that some are quite expensive.
What The Car Addict Team Need & What You Get
My detailed budget, as formulated following necessary input by my developers, has as follows:
As one can see, the first two tasks are necessary for the automatization of the horsepower and torque measurement phase. This phase is fundamentally complete, as, for example, we have measured crankshaft horsepower of my tuned Audi S3 MKII at 299 +/-1.5% ps. In fact, all measurements were between 295 and 303 ps, of course after (manual, for the time being) correction for the prevailing ambient conditions. I believe it's noteworthy that this horsepower turned out to be slightly higher when I replaced the malfunctioning wastegate valve, as shown in the three related YouTube videos associated with this campaign. It has to be pointed out that two different chassis dynos have tested this Audi S3 at 278 ps and 306 ps, with much lower repeatability ("reliability" in statistics' jargon). To be fully transparent, the above difference of 28 ps, or 10%, has given me the final push to try to find a more accurate and reliable horsepower measurement method. Above chassis dynos' results are available to anyone interested. Returning to the measurements with our app, we found similar to the Audi S3's tests reliability on tests of cars like the Maserati Gransport that is shown as one of this campaign's card images, as well as on less powerful cars such as a Mazda MX-5 Miata 2.0lt and a Volkswagen E-Golf, owned by friends of mine who volunteered to offer them to me for testing.
The next tasks, as explained from Row 3 and below of the above table, do not require any mechanical engineering inventiveness, but IT work tasks of the specific costs outlined above. The most important part, allow me to repeat, is complete and has verified the three (two approved and one pending) patents' claims, as well as certain additional claims that will be filed via a CIP (Continuation In Part) Patent Application upon receipt of first USPTO action.
An important query I believe I have to address, is what will happen to the funds collected if I don't reach my total goal of USD 9,700, calculated in the above listed table. The answer is clear: such funds will go towards implementing as many tasks of said table as possible. In other words, I will continue following my goal to launch and commercialize Car Addict, by directing all available funds towards further upgrading this mobile app. I will be available to prove this, by delivering the Current Mobile App featuring Arrow Certified Technology to any backer who claims it after the end of this campaign, whereas the Enhanced Mobile App per above budget and the Upgraded Mobile App are currently hidden perks, to be offered at a higher than 50% discount during the course of my campaign. The Upgraded Mobile app will incorporate other performance measurements such as accelerations, as well as certain functions that will enhance ease and safety of its use. Development of the iOS version of Car Addict will be the next and final step.
As regards the abovementioned perks I, of course, realize that they do not translate to a significant monetary equivalent, but hopefully contributors will find some value in this. However, allow me to stress out at this point that, as beta testing is one of the next steps for which I seek your funding, we will have to be extremely careful as regards the Android smartphone to which the contributor will download the Current Mobile App, as not all accelerometers embedded in such smartphones always give accurate signals; Car Addict is based on such signals to measure horsepower and, in the near future, other car performance figures.
Finally, I will offer my personal acknowledgement in the form of an Electronic Certificate to every single contributor, and if this campaign proves successful I will be more than grateful to see them become members of the Car Addict blog to be formed.
The Impact
This product, i.e. the mobile app I have named Car Addict, appeals to a specific target market: car enthusiasts. It does not appeal to the family man who drives a Honda Odyssey or to the housewife who drives a Toyota Camry. So, is the audience for such a product large enough? The answer is definitely yes. By the end of 2013, according to published data (www.prioridata.com), there were already 8.9 million active users of only iOS mobile apps competitive to Car Addict. Assuming that the ratio of Android/ iOS users of such apps was then proportional to the ratio of Android/ iOS users for all apps (i.e. 1.95x), this leads to a total number of 26.3 million users of relevant apps as of 2013 year end. The Compounded Annual Growth Rate, CAGR of global expense for mobile apps is estimated at 19.2% yoy for the period 2016-2023 (https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALL...https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa...). Assuming, for conservatism purposes, a significantly lower CAGR of 10% for mobile apps of the Car Addict category, we end up to a projected figure of 46.6 million active users by 2019 year end, i.e. practically now. I, nevertheless, strongly believe that the figure is much higher than the above, as Android users are currently 7 times as many as iOS ones.
Therefore, this product is a specialized one, but still the audience and the relative need are substantial, to say the least. Users of such apps tend to buy more than one in order to compare the one against the other. Key market is the US and especially SoCal, where it is rumored that about half of the world's supercars are located. Indeed, car enthusiasts love to measure their car performance and power frequently, e.g. before and after service checks, or before and after tuning, in order to share and compare their results with fellow car enthusiasts. Responding to this need, there exist thousands of mobile apps broadly related to cars, as well as numerous YouTube channels addressed to the car addict.
One might definitely ask, "There exist chassis dynos, as they are called, costing dozens of thousands of dolars, since decades ago. What are, therefore, the benefits of a cheap mobile app measuring horsepower, as compared to this costly equipment?". Apart from what I have written in the previous section, the three major advantages of Car Addict are:
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Convenience: You can measure horsepower with Car Addict as you drive, using your chosen gear and your desired speed range (start and finish). There is no need to book an appointment at a dyno center in advance and spend half a day. It is, nevertheless, strongly recommended that use of Car Addict, if it is at high (illegal) speeds, be made in tracks/ circuits built for this purpose.
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Cost: Dyno center costs vary from $70-100 per measurement, whereas Car Addict can be downloaded at an est. $4.95 and used infinitely. For rough comparison purposes, the two most expensive competitive current Android apps are priced at 27.99 and 12.99 euros.
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Reliability and Accuracy: Car Addict helps avoid engine fatigue and overheating that are usual in dyno measurements. The main reason for this fatigue is that chassis dynos exert a much greater resistance to the rolling of car's wheels than the resistance encountered in real road conditions, i.e. on the asphalt concrete. I have seen a car engine of mine switching to "safe mode" during a dyno run due to the intervention of the Engine Control Unit, ECU in order to protect the engine. I have witnessed a supercar's engine (I cannot reveal the brand, for obvious reasons) burst during a dyno run and I have also seen a similar video on YouTube.
Therefore, Car Addict is a more convenient, inexpensive, reliable and accurate alternative to traditional chassis dynos and competitive mobile apps. For more info on comparison with competing apps, pls read the following section.
And, it goes without saying, if you still don't trust me, I believe that the first paragraphs of the next section will appease your concerns.
Risks & Challenges
It is important for a prospect contributor to know who the creator of this project is and what qualifies him to undertake it. As noted above, I am a Chemical Engineer MSc (UCLA), and my specialization is in Fuels' Technology. The reason I took this specialization is simply that I am a car addict myself, so I tried to combine my hobby with my studies. My Bachelor's project at the National Technical University of Athens was a combination of Organic Chemistry and Automotive Engineering: I was developing new gasoline/ petrol additives and testing them on a standard engine with variable compression ratio: the well known CFR engine. Subsequently, my Master's thesis at UCLA was dealing with specific aspects of pollution in the LA basin, which was mainly caused by, what else, automobiles. My thesis was briefly presented as a paper published in one of the major scientific journals in the field, namely Atmospheric Environment:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/096016869190211O
I have also worked as an Associate Researcher for the Fuels and Lubricants Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens. I participated in a project of utmost importance for the Greek State's Fuel Policy: a cost-benefit project for the separation of Diesel Fuel in Greece in two types, heating and motor. Project's recommendations were immediately implemented by the Government and since then Diesel fuel consumed in Greece is separated in the above two types, making the country, allow me to say, a more "modern" one to this respect.
Finally, although I followed for many years a banker's career, capitalizing on my MBA from the Imperial College (after all, we do many things in our lives just for money!), I never stopped researching and keeping up with all developments in the automotive field. I therefore developed two Greek patents, GR1008172 and GR1009319 and filed for a US Patent Application, of which the first page is shown below (I have erased some details for confidentiality purposes, as the patent application is published but first USPTO office action is pending):
In addition, the fully functional Android working prototype of Car Addict has Arrow Certified Technology as of September 13, 2019.
As said above, the patents on which this project is based have been already tested, quite extensively I dare to say, on various automobiles, as the major risk of this project is competition: there already exist on app stores thousands of mobile apps broadly related to cars: speedometers, lap timers, apps for driving assistance, for taxi booking, car trivia etc, as well as quite a few apps that measure performance and power like Car Addict. However, and to the best of my knowledge, none of the apps belonging to the last category is based on patents or is featuring certified technology (and I have searched, downloaded and used a lot of them myself) .
In addition, they all do the same thing: they measure horsepower not at the crankshaft, but at the wheels. Then, in order to calculate horsepower at the crankshaft they assume a certain percentage of transmission loss, which is to a large extent arbitrary, and add it to the measured wheel horsepower. Why do I characterize this assumed percentage as "arbitrary"? To give you a striking example, the two most expensive current Android apps, one priced at 27.99 and the other at 12.99 euros as priorly mentioned, assume that these losses are 9.9% and 17.6% respectively of the crankshaft power of my Audi S3 MKII, an all-wheel-drive car; a difference of 7.7%. Another app assumes a 14% loss for all manual transmission cars, where there exist powerful front-wheel-drive manual gearbox cars with only 5% transmission losses, such as the older European spec Ford Focus developing 305 ps (301 bhp), the Honda Civic Type-R of 310 ps (306 bhp), etc. Car Addict is based on a totally different mechanical engineering approach, whereby powertrain losses, which include engine and/or electric motor(s) and transmission ones, are measured; it does not simply assume a transmission loss percentage as competition does. Therefore, the expected accuracy is within +/- 2% of the real (i.e., measured by the car manufacturer's bench test) horsepower. Car Addict will not give the user a 14% transmission loss when it is only 5%, i.e. a 9% deviation; it will measure this transmission loss with the above quoted accuracy of 2%.
Apart from the above decisive competitive advantage, Car Addict is suitable for the horsepower measurement of electric and hybrid cars, for which regenerative braking can be disabled. Some competitors are developing their codes for being able to measure electric and hybrid cars, but Car Addict is ready to use relative proprietary formulas. In addition, the patented electromechanical engineering method applied unburdens the user of the need to know and enter from the menu a number of parameters such as aerodynamic drag coefficient, frontal area, rolling friction coefficient/ tyres' size, exact engine displacement, gear/ differential ratios, transmission and gearbox type etc. Only car weight and speed per 1,000 rpm are needed -the latter only if you want to plot horsepower and torque Vs rpm-, and if not known, the Enhanced Mobile App will help the user find them.
Finally, Car Addict, has a number of additional advantages. Unlike other applications, it does not require calibration. The user only needs to mount her/ his smartphone on the windscreen and verify that the acceleration values along the three axes are right, as given by numerous free apps, some offered with the smartphone per se. Again, unlike other applications, it does not require to start measurements from a complete stop, provided that the user has entered in advance the correct inputs and has not exceeded the start speed. Lastly, the car performance and safety of use functions offered will be numerous, but cannot be revealed at this stage, for reasons related to competition.
Another challenge I am facing with this project is market positioning. I did my best as regards this aspect also; although my specialization as an MBA holder and banker is Investment Banking/ Structured Finance, I do have some marketing knowledge and quite some relevant experience, dealing with large corporate clients since 1996 (you may wish to see my LinkedIn profile on this point). Furthermore, I have completed an initial marketing survey through SurveyMonkey, testing the waters with respect to the idea, the pricing, the pros and the cons, etc. The cons were addressed during the development of Car Addict. This initial survey indicated that 31 out of 40 people who took the time to respond found the idea to be "interesting" to "great" to "awesome". Survey's results are available, on a confidential basis, to prospect contributors. Therefore, I believe that the marketing elements of this project have been satisfactorily addressed and I am proceeding safely.
A last challenge is time, as competition may offer new features - the underlying engineering method is legally risk free to this respect, as it is secured by the approved patents as well as the filing date of the pending one. I would like to stress the fact that my IT team consists of three qualified developers, all Computer Science graduates - one of them is following his graduate studies concurrently with this project. As one of these three team members has recently moved to London to pursue more lucrative professional opportunities, I will hire two additional ones, if I secure funding, to expedite the procedure. Therefore we will do our best to complete the additional app features the soonest possible in order to be ahead of the competition.
Other Ways You Can Help
I know what I wrote above, "this is the most interesting project I have ever run" sounds trite, but it is true. It is the only project I have created 100% on my own, driven by personal need and curiosity. Usually, modern day projects are run by companies or organizations and, as such, they are run by many qualified people; I have participated in quite a few, some already mentioned above, in both my engineering and banking career. So, this one is what Americans call "my baby", as I have devoted endless hours to its development, especially since February 2018, on both my laptop desk and the field testing various versions of Car Addict on different cars. Therefore, I would be grateful, even if you cannot contribute in monetary terms, if you spread out my campaign by your word of mouth or through the social media you are in. And don't forget to use the Indiegogo share tools to make this more popular! Thank you.