Automatic Labs shuts down its vehicle-tracking service, citing the COVID-19 pandemic
Automatic has announced that it’ll be abruptly shutting down on May 28th because “the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted our business.” As such, the company is discontinuing its Automatic service and recommending that customers remove the connected car adapters from their vehicles and recycle them.
As the company explains in an FAQ, “with fewer customers purchasing and leasing vehicles and drivers on the road, we unfortunately do not see a path forward for our business.” That’s despite being owned by SiriusXM, which managed to beat its Q1 earnings this week in spite of the global pandemic.
Automatic says that it’ll continue to offer its services for customers until the 28th as usual and will be giving customers the chance to export their data using a portal on its website here through June 28th. After that point, the company says that it’ll be permanently deleting or anonymizing any personal data, outside of what it needs for “legal, accounting or other corporate records.”
Customers who have purchased Automatic’s hardware may be eligible for a rebate for the discontinued service, calculated from how much you’ve used the product since you activated it. For full details, see Automatic’s rebate site here — but note that you’ll have to submit a request before June 15th.
Automatic has announced that it’ll be abruptly shutting down on May 28th because “the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted our business.” As such, the company is discontinuing its Automatic service and recommending that customers remove the connected car adapters from their vehicles and recycle them. As the company explains in…
