Viper SmartStart View more photos
Start your car with your iPhone? There's now an ... well, you know.
The Viper SmartStart app works just like your usual remote start system, which starts your car and locks/unlocks it via remote, and it has a virtually unlimited range. Forgot to lock your car in Chicago before catching that flight to Detroit? No problem.
Mike Simmons, executive vice president of California-based vehicle security company DEI Holdings, invented the SmartStart app. A self-proclaimed "iPhone nut," Simmons thought there could be a way to ditch the key fob.
"Everyone is already carrying a cell phone around in their pocket, and iPhone has the ultimate user interface," he said. "Any crazy idea you can come up with -- they kind of built the tools to enable it."
Mitch Zelasko, a supervisor at Best Buy in Bucktown (the only store in Chicago carrying the devices, according to a spokeswoman), said he's already gotten a "bunch of calls" from curious Chicagoans.
The Viper SmartStart system costs $499 at Best Buy, or $299 for those who already have a compatible Viper system (viper.com/smartstart). The service is free for a year and $29.99 per year after that. The new app is not yet available for other phone systems, according to the DEI Web site.
Simmons says the first time he used the beta version was a real eureka moment.
"I was sort of jumping out of my shoes," he said.
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