The software engineering firm, Eleks, has developed an Apple Watch app that allows controlling and monitoring of the Tesla Model S (and electric car). Functions include monitoring of the battery level/charging status, temperate, mileage/range. Additionally, the user can control the opening/closing of the car, the headlights, the horn, and even the temperature in the car. And maybe most important of all for those who tend to forget where you left your car parked, there is a dedicated screen to show your car is located.
According to the developer’s page, “The app perfectly lines up with the concept of smartwatches, lets the user access critical information about the car and allows managing it quickly without wasting time on taking out and unlocking the phone.” They go on to say, “Apple Watch applications complement your main iOS apps and do not replace them. If you measure the time a user spends in the app in minutes, then interaction with the Apple Watch application can be measured in seconds”
Interestingly, the app developer page also goes into detail about what features they were not able to create because of numerous limitations that currently exist within the Apple developer’s toolkit. For example, as of right now, developers cannot do these things:
1- The smartwatch has an accelerometer and a gyroscope but when developing, you have no access to them. 2- There is Bluetooth but it can only connect to your iPhone and it’s also not available for developers. 3- Apple watch display is touch-sensitive but if you’re developing, only Force Touch, which is used to display the shortcut menu, is available to you. 4- The system of tactile notifications TapTic Engine is, unfortunately, also unavailable. 5- You also don’t have access to the built-in speaker and microphone.
It kind of has GPS but only on your iPhone.
This gives a good idea of what can and cannot be done (right now) with the Apple smartwatch. But, we suspect as with all new products, features will be added as the product life cycle progresses. That said, the functionality of Apple’s first wearable, is looking more impressive by the day. And with the imminent launch of the Apple Watch in April, it will be interesting to see what other apps developers can come up with.
