The Biggest Month Yet: EU Launch, Mobile App, Native Tesla Support, Rewards
Over the course of the next month the teams working on DIMO will be shipping a ton of new features and cross some major milestones. Among them, we'll begin accepting connections from vehicles in the UK & EU - addressing the biggest request we've received from early users! 🥳
As with all large projects, there will be a phased approach that is meant to promote equity and security for users as well as sanity within engineering and product teams from AutoPi, Digital Infrastructure Inc, and other key contributors to DIMO.
In this post we've laid out a timeline with each step of the rollout - and we also tease some awesome new features that will be coming out for Tesla owners!
For users in still-unsupported countries - we hear you! This a big step towards our mission of allowing any vehicle in the world to connect to DIMO, but we're not done adding geographical coverage 🌍🌏.
Timeline - What's Shipping? ⛴
Here's our aggressive plan for shipping support and doubling the number of vehicles that can connect to DIMO in around 1 month:
First Half of March
- European Vehicle database update - adding makes & models of vehicles sold in the EU + UK
- Global iOS mobile app launch with Tesla connect soft launch, Smartcar connectivity launches for Europe
- March 14: shop.dimo.zone opens for Europeans with dedicated supply
Second Half of March
- Android app launches globally
- AutoPi Bluetooth pairing tests and first shipments
Early April
- Testnet Rewards will be added to the app (rewards are already being tracked now for users who have connected cars!)
As always, we're not going to sacrifice quality for speed, so please be patient if some of these dates aren't exactly right.
For more detail on what this all means - read on ⬇️
European Vehicle Database
When you create an account with DIMO, we recommend adding a car by typing in the model and year and adding it to your garage. European users have pointed out that we don't have their Skoda, Renault, or other country-specific Make or Model. In March we'll push an update that will allow them to find their vehicle, add it, and prepare to connect it soon.
This is a necessary first step so that users can proceed to the right connection option confidently. Users should be able to add their car and see right away what their connection options are. We don't expect to get every make, model, and year in one go, so this will naturally be improved over time.
Global Mobile App & Tesla Launch + EU Support for Smartcar
In the next few weeks we'll also submit the DIMO app to the Apple App store.
Once it is live, DIMO will now offer 3 methods for users to connect cars:
- Pull data from your vehicle's OEM via Smartcar
- Direct Tesla Integration (New with the mobile app!)
- Use the DIMO Data Miner to connect your car directly - pairing it directly with the app
You can read more about those methods here:
Andy Chatham
Smartcar is currently live today for only US and Canadian users. We've already connected 1,000 cars traveling 1,500,000 km on SmartCar alone!
When the first version of the mobile app comes out, it will support both Smartcar and the Tesla integration. Both of these will go live for the UK and EU when the app is launched.
Not all cars can use Smartcar, and you can check the compatibility table to see if your car is eligible — or better yet, just add your car! We'll let you know in the app if your car can use DIMO software-only connection methods, and if it can't we'll prioritize support on our roadmap.
Due to the security model for the Tesla integration - where DIMO never holds your vehicle credentials - users will only be able to set up the native Tesla integration on the mobile app.
The hardware pairing process is still in development and will go live in the mobile App in Late March or April. At this point we will begin shipping out the vast majority of consumer hardware units based on the order they were received.
March 14: DIMO Store Opens for Europe
After allowing for about a week for European users to add their car using the newly updated vehicle database, we will open the DIMO Store.
DIMO has set aside supply of DIMO Data Miners from the “Beta Fleet” for Europe. Right now, we are only planning to sell 1,000 devices to European users, and will target delivery based on the schedule covered in our Hardware Ecosystem Docs.
DIMO Mobile on Android
The Android mobile app will be coming a few weeks after the iOS app launches on the app store.
Prior to this date, European android-users will still have some ways to use DIMO. First, they can add their vehicle on the webapp (March 7) and connect it their via Smartcar (March 10). They will also be able to purchase a DIMO Data Miner (March 12).
The only users who will experience a delay are Android-using Tesla owners. They will be able to add their Tesla on the web app, but they won’t be able to connect their Tesla using our Direct integration until March 22.
AutoPi Bluetooth Pairing and First Shipments
We are working on the final step to providing a complete hardware experience: the ability to pair your DIMO Data Miner with your DIMO account and your car via the DIMO Mobile app.
This functionality will be modeled on the Helium Hotspot setup process, and it should provide a seamless way for users to install their device and begin collecting their vehicle data.
As with all things, we'll test this slowly with a small initial base of users. We expect to send about 20 devices out in March and we'll work closely with those users to test the pairing process before slowly scaling the the shipments.
April: Rewards go live
One of the biggest DIMO milestones is on the horizon for early April: test earnings will go live in the DIMO apps. Here's what that means:
Earnings will be represented in points (not the DIMO token). This will help DIMO ensure that the calculation is working properly across all vehicles, and we expect to devote a lot of time to ensuring the services required to calculate rewards accurately are in order.
We are also announcing a change to the process by which rewards will be calculated, specifically the start date of rewards, for device users. We are going to treat the date a user ordered their DIMO Data Miner as the date their rewards begin. This will give hardware and distribution teams the ability deliver a quality product on time, and our earliest supporters won't miss out on rewards.
There is only one condition to qualify: you will need to connect the device when you receive it and maintain the connection for at least 2 months. After this has occurred, you will receive the test rewards from the original order date to the present day.
Anyone who connected via Smartcar or the Tesla integration will also be eligible for test points. Connect your car today!
For a complete breakdown of token earnings calculations, you can visit this page:
We're really excited to tackle these milestones and bring the DIMO vision closer to life. Thanks for riding along with us! 🚙
Alex Rawitz has spent his career in and around startups in the crypto and IoT world, and is always looking to put these technologies to work making people’s lives better. Prior to DIMO, Alex worked with exchanges, defi protocols, and fintechs at Chainalysis. Before that he worked in sales at Servato, an IoT company in the telecom space. He started his career at a startup accelerator, The Idea Village, in New Orleans.