A 30-second OBD install that turns any normal car into a car that keeps its own records. Automatic IRS-ready mileage logs — the write-off machine for anyone who drives for work — plus health & fault codes, teen & valet mode. No phone needed in the car.
Extra cars are $5/mo each — one account, one app, whole garage. See pricing →
TRACE is the small thing that lives in your OBD port. It has no cameras and no coaching — that's OTTO 1, the full in-car system with pods and a brain under the seat. TRACE exists because most cars don't need all that. They need to remember where they went, what they cost, and what's about to break.
Find the OBD-II port under the dash, push it in, and walk away. ~22 mm deep — clear of your knees. No wiring, no trim removal, no install appointment.
Any OBD-II car — roughly 1996 and newer. The daily, the truck, the project car, your partner's SUV. Not just enthusiast platforms.
GNSS chip antenna on the top face works under the dash; IMU, CAN and a supercap inside. It records whether or not your phone came along — then hard-sleeps when you park, with a low-voltage cutoff protecting the battery.
| TRACE | OTTO 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | OBD-II dongle | Camera pods + sealed box under the seat |
| Install | 30 seconds | An afternoon (or the installer network) |
| Mileage log, fault codes, trip history | Yes | Yes |
| Valet & teen mode | Yes | Yes |
| Cameras / dashcam | — | Yes |
| Live voice coaching & drift scoring | — | Yes |
| Price | $179 + $9/mo | From $6,000 |
Want cameras and a co-driver that talks? That's OTTO 1 →
If you drive for work, the miles you forget to write down are money you hand back. TRACE logs every trip automatically, to the vehicle, whether or not your phone came along — then you classify each one business or personal with one tap and export a printable tax sheet at the end of the year. Built for 1099 crews. Open the owner app demo and click through the full mileage log →
All of it runs off the OBD port and the app — nothing to mount, nothing to charge, nothing to remember.
GNSS chip antenna on the top face that works under the dash. ESP32 with BLE to your phone, an IMU, the CAN connection, a buck converter and a supercap. Status light you can read from the footwell. ~22 mm deep, clear of your knees.
Target positioning; final pricing set after the first production run.
Buy an OTTO 1 kit and every additional dongle is $30 off — plus $5/mo per car. Mileage, health and codes on the daily, the truck, the project car. One account, one app, whole garage.
Same brain either way — the difference is where it rides and who it's working for.
Renting your cars out? That's TRACE · Fleet: live GPS and geofences, evidence-grade trip reports for damage disputes, overdue-return flags, mileage & fuel verification, fleet health — and an optional remote start-block for the car that isn't coming back.
Want cameras and coaching? OTTO 1 is the full in-car system: camera pods, a sealed brain under the seat, dual-antenna GNSS. Dashcam every day, live lap coaching, drift scoring, Sentry when it's parked.
Quick-release race kit that moves between cars. Live coaching on test days, silent record-only on race day, LTE video and timing to the pit wall.
The performance timer and the OBD dongle ship before the flagship exists — so you can have Otto in your car early. No deposit, no card. Just tell us what you drive.
Founding names are full price and first in line — what they come with is access, not a discount. And the list genuinely shapes what gets built: the launch chassis for the platform kits is picked by demand.
Your rate is held even as the product gets more capable — and it will. No mid-build increases.
You talk to the person building it. Feature requests from founding cars go to the top of the list.
Tell us the chassis. Enough interest in one car moves it to the front of the queue.
One account covers every car you put a dongle in — $5/mo each after the first.
Where it stands: the free app and TRACE are the first things out the door. Car zero — a 2018 M2 — is being built right now, and it's all getting filmed.
No deposit, no card. Tell us what you drive — the launch chassis is decided by who's on the list.