Time for a change
By Lauren Bartlett,
From left: Carly Ross, Daniel Adams, Aaron Wilson, Jason Hoe and Carly Soo. Photograph by nz-sublime.com
The Warrant of Fitness gets a student service
When five Pukekohe High students came up with an idea for a school project, it soon led to a deal worth around $60,000 with the Automobile Association. That’s better than an ‘A’ grade.
The Autotrig is from the I-wish-I’d-thought-of-it-first file: a simple, cheap electronic tag to alert drivers when their warrant of fitness is due to expire.
The students—from left, Carly Ross, Daniel Adams, Aaron Wilson, Jason Hoe and Carly Soo—are producing the device with help from Christchurch-based electronics company AEC. The Autotrig sits on a car windscreen below the warrant of fitness; five months and 20 days after the car receives its warrant, the Autotrig label changes colour and flashes LED lights to let the driver know it’s time for the six-monthly inspection.
“We were thinking of an idea for our Young Enterprise project in the car, and we just came up with it,” says Ross. That enterprise, Nverse, has now sold 10,000 units to the AA for a trial, due to start in January 2008.
On the AA’s advice, the group has redesigned the label to last for four six-month warrant cycles rather than being discarded. The cost will be between $6 and $8 per car, Ross says.
And what does the AA make of it? “It’s innovative, absolutely,” says business development manager Paul Gribble. “I wish I’d thought of it.”
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