My Driving Pal is your next 3D Printed smart tracker

Posted By Jess Hedstrom on Jun 3, 2015 | 0 comments

My Driving Pal is a versatile smart tracker that protects your

privacy and provides peace of mind…

Here at Sculpteo we love to share your success stories with the community because it’s the easiest way to share tips, tricks and tools with new designers and entrepreneurs within the community. So let’s get started.

Today we’re featuring Shahram Rezaei! I had the opportunity to chat with him last week and he let me know about all the great things he and his team were up to. Shahram is the Founder of My Driving Pal which is a multi-purpose Device-App solution that delivers a suite of security, monitoring, and tracking applications. From delivering remote push notification on parent’s phone if the interior temperature of car gets too hot with a child (or pet) alone in it, to automatically tracking bike, car, drone if it’s ever stolen; the multi-use functionality and affordability of My Driving Pal has added to it’s popularity on Kickstarter.

The MDP device is accompanied by an App, which can be used to track anything bikes and drones to children and pets, and Shahram let me know all about how this product took shape.

The team at My Driving Pal considered injection molding to manufacture their prototypes but it was way too expensive (with prices soaring over $10,000); after speaking with a friend Shahram learned about Sculpteo and our additive manufacturing process; to learn more about the process click here. Shahram’s background is in software developement and luckily he knew someone who had used our services before and could share with him exactly what 3D printing is, and how it could help his budding business.

Like most people in our community, once Sharhram learned that the additive manufacturing process was less expensive than injection molding for the quantity he wanted to print, he decided to utilize our services. The team at My Driving Pal knew that they wanted to offer their device in many different customizable options. For example, customers can select the color and size of their device, and they can do that because Shahram and his team are using our plastic material which come in 11 different colors and 3 possible finishes.

While talking to Shahram I learned that this was a very important breakthrough because it allowed his customers to choose the perfect My Driving Pal device for their needs. If customers wanted a bright color so that they wouldn’t lose the device, they have that option, or if the device needed to be a bit smaller to keep the heft and weight low well… customers have that option too.

Creating hardware can be difficult and if you’re not careful it can be extremely expensive as well…

Something to consider when you’re creating a customizable product for your customers is the iteration process that needs to take place. There are very few products that are successful without going through an iteration process. This is the process of making tweaks to the model (and sometimes to the idea itself), it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with the original idea, in fact it generally means that you’re closer to giving your customers the perfect product for them.

When Shahram and his team ran into a minor design issue during the prototyping phase of their product they were able to quickly correct it without the fix taking too much time or money (both of which are extremely important for an up and coming business). Shahram was surprised to learn during the prototyping phase that the case was a bit lose. There was a super tiny piece of the case that wasn’t closing Shahram let me know that it needed a correction of about 1-2mm for it to close. That’s it 1-2mm! He was even more surprised to learn that using this technology he could fix that minor issue and that the process was quite simple and wasn’t expensive at all.

 My Driving Pal is still in the prototyping process but it can be pre-ordered on their Kickstarter website! Or visit their Facebook or Twitter for more information.

When starting your new venture it’s important to ask… What problem am I solving?

It’s always important to start with the WHY. Why am I creating this product and why am I using this technology to create it? For My Driving Pal they have many why’s but one of the reasons that Shahram brought to my attention is the fact that this product can even help preventing vehicular #heatstroke by issuing alert on user’s phone, when interior temperature of car get too hot. MDP device measures the temperature via its built-in temperature sensor and it detects presence of child or pet via its sound detection sensor. MDP App issues an alert on user’s phone, when he/she is not with the range of the car. Each year, in the United States an average of 37 children lose their lives in this way, or about one every 9 days. This tragedy also happens to pets at perhaps even a higher rate. MDP product is capable of preventing this. The applications are as vast as your imagination. And it’s important to think of the product you create as a solution to someone else’s problem, beginning with that thought process will help you save time and money as you going through the process of building your business.

If you’d like to share your Sculpteo Success Story with the community please reach out to me at [email protected] and I’d be more than happy to chat with you!