You’ve probably come across Autoaid in your search for a consumer or enthusiast-grade OBD scanning tool. Autoaid is a German company that develops a variety of automotive products, including wall box EV chargers, diagnostic tools, and the product we are going to talk about today: their connected car solution. Established in Berlin in 2008, the company says that they’ve gained over 35,000 customers and over 2 million diagnostic reports. 

Autoaid has a range of three diagnostic tools for the consumer and enthusiast user, called the Starter, Pro, and Expert. The starter is the cheapest and offers essential functions for all brands, including the ability to scan all control units, as well as read and delete stored errors. The Pro offers all the features of the Starter, plus an extended function set for all brands that include service reset, checking of sensors and actuators, and other special functions. Moving up to the Expert product grants you true garage-level diagnostics with all the features of Pro, plus more special functions, and premium support. 

One advantage of this ecosystem is that you can choose to upgrade at any time. So, you could start with Starter and upgrade to Pro or Expert at a later stage. These are wired devices that connect to a desktop or laptop computer via its USB interface and connect to your vehicle via a cable to its OBD-II port. The Autoaid Diagnostics+ software is included with your purchase, and a year of free updates is thrown in too, after which updates can be purchased. 

Autoaid also offers a connected car solution with a Bluetooth OBD scanner that plugs into your vehicle’s OBD-II port. However, this device goes beyond a simple Bluetooth OBD scanner, as it has an in-built GSM antenna, GPS module, independent power supply, SIM card, motion sensor, and audio buzzer. This is what sets it apart from regular Bluetooth OBD scanners, as Autoaid’s connected car system can be used for tracking purposes as well as diagnostics. 

Of course, we are not advocating using this product to violate privacy rules or spy on the movements of anyone behind the wheel. Rather, it could be useful to track your driving habits, or if you have a fleet of vehicles, maintain a record of their position. To this end, Autoaid state that they do offer volume prices for B2B customers on request. They also offer a free SIM card and data plan that offers 2MB of data per month, which is ample for this low volume usage scenario.

All Autoaid’s products described here plug into the OBD-II port, which almost every vehicle manufactured since the mid-2000s comes equipped with. In fact, the OBD-II standard started appearing on cars as early as 1996 and is a unified standard, meaning that the port and interface are the same regardless of manufacturer.

Furthermore, there is a set of generic fault codes for the error memory that every manufacturer uses to identify and report significant faults such as those in the powertrain and emissions control systems.

In addition to generic codes, there is a gamut of manufacturer-specific codes which allow manufacturers to incorporate special features pertaining to the specific model. All readers can read generic codes to a great degree, but manufacturer-specific codes are another ballgame. Autoaid claims that their products described here work with 32 brands and over 2,500 models. Their website carries a current vehicle coverage list so you can check if your vehicle is covered before making a purchase.