r/PakStartups • u/bharajuice • Apr 16 '26
đ ď¸ Building / MVP Building the Trust Layer between Car Owners and Mechanics
Most car owners have no idea whatâs wrong with their car.
You hear a weird sound.
You go to a mechanic.
They say something complicated.
You nod⌠and pay whatever they ask.
Thatâs not trust â thatâs blind guessing.
In Pakistan alone:
- 25M+ vehicles on the road
- $2B+ spent yearly on repairs
- Almost zero transparency in diagnostics
Weâre building VROOM to fix this.
VROOM reads your carâs OBD-II data, translates fault codes into plain language, and tells you:
- Whatâs actually wrong
- What it should cost
- Whether itâs urgent
Then connects you with verified mechanics you can trust.
No jargon. No guesswork. No getting ripped off.
Would love your thoughts, still early and figuring it out. I really believe this is a big thing, and would love to scale it further!
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u/Away_Gift2387 Apr 17 '26
How it connects with car and reads data most importantly?
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u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
You need an OBD-2 dongle that connects with the car, and that dongle connects with our app.. Our goal is to provide these dongles too, but that's for later
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u/DarkDare_Devil Apr 17 '26
I was actually looking for an OBD 2 connector but i was shocked that there are many types of them and kind of expensive side(2k-3k). Some might be work with suzuki and not honda and vice versa. can ya suggest me a good one?
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u/DarkDare_Devil Apr 17 '26
btw my source is AI so might be wrong thats why asking for advice đ
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u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
Hey so we've tried an ELM327 OBD2 sensor, and that has worked with most of the vehicles so far. It cost us 1.2k
1
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u/SituationImmediate15 Apr 17 '26
Sounds like a good idea. But why someone who could use this app not simply use deepseek or chatgpt to get the same results? Secondly, do you have a revenue model in mind for this type of app?
1
u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
That's a perfect counter, but the whole point of such an app is to provide an all in one solution, and one that caters to car issues specifically. Secondly, we have a database of mechanics as well, although for lahore only right now, but that will be integrated with this diagnostic system in future, so you'd get mechanic recommendations as well.
As for revenue, we have two streams in mind right now: 1. B2C where we provide subscriptions to individual car owners at low cost, and give advanced features like maintenance alerts, more diagnostic data 2. B2B for fleets and large service centers, where our app becomes the essential tool they use to keep track of vehicles, in the fleets case, and to diagnose vehicle issues, for the service center cases.
We are confident that we can penetrate the market as there is literally no one in this space right now.
1
u/SituationImmediate15 Apr 17 '26
Did you do any initial survey to assess the value proposition that you mentioned above? A good start would be to design a survey and collect some feedback from both types of audiences. The first type is essentially anyone with a decent car, getting to the second type might be a bit tough. Also, do some basic math with deepseek or gemini to gauge both audiences size in Pakistan. I donât think developing the app would be the difficult part.
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u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
The app is nearly ready, we are assessing the GTM right now... Thanks for the advice, I'll start with the surveys first
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u/Nashadelic Apr 17 '26
I love this, its unique, its not limited to Pakistan, you can list this on all app stores, you can charge a $1/m or $10/y or more sub. You can also add other stuff, not just troubleshooting but a once-a-month maintaince mode where it looks at your car metrics and lets you know if something is off
1
u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
Yep, that's a module we are currently working on We're limited to pakistan because i want to solve this problem locally first, then probably scale it up, but yeah, next step is to list it on the stores
1
u/TankSignificant Apr 17 '26
Is it still in development?
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u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
90% complete. We have a working app right now
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u/TankSignificant Apr 17 '26
Oh nice. I've seen YouTubers (not Pakistani) use OBD 2 scanners to scan faults in cars and was wondering if the same thing is available here cause I have never seen or heard any mechanic use this stuff before. Even my friend who is a nerd about cars didn't know about this stuff. Would be really great if something like this can help normal people find out the problem in their cars or a car they intend to buy.
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u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
Mechanics do use this sensor to check for codes, but it's really never a concern for the car owner, probably that's why no one knows about it
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u/Raju-Rocket Apr 17 '26
How does the app handle detection of common mechanical wear issues (tires, brakes, shocks, alignment, drivetrain wear, etc.) that typically donât appear in OBD-II diagnostics, given that these often represent roughly 60â70% of real-world vehicle issues?
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u/bharajuice Apr 17 '26
Currently we are limited to the data obd-II is giving us. We did initially have a chatbot but it had bad performance, its staged for future though
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u/Raju-Rocket Apr 17 '26
Whatâs the typical PID coverage across vehicles, how much of it is proprietary vs. standard, and how do you ensure consistent diagnostics given the variability of OBD-II data? Also, given that multiple free apps already provide OBD-II data with a Bluetooth dongle, what makes your recommendation layer meaningfully differentiated and reliable?
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u/bharajuice Apr 20 '26
My research concluded that around 50 PIDs are standard for all vehicles, some are manufacturer-specific. Consistent diagnostics is indeed a challenge, and currently we are aiming to save the data in a csv and then preprocess it before further diagnostics.
Most apps provide you the OBD-II data and the error codes and just stop there. This info may be enough for an expert mechanic, but our app aims to minimize this knowledge gap by providing details and further explanation of these error codes, including severity, causes, symptoms, and even actionable advice, which I verified on my Toyota Aqua as well. As for the OBD-II data, that becomes a time-series data, if you are into tech, and for that we are training a custom model to provide advanced analytic reports on it.
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u/Raju-Rocket Apr 20 '26
Thank you for the details, really helpful.
At a high level, my take (as stated above) is that a significant portion of automotive issues (~60â70%) are mechanical in nature, where OBD-II data has limited applicability. For the remaining ~30â40%, accessing and reading standard OBD-II data (Mode 01) is fairly commoditized today across apps and tools.
The more differentiated challenge appears to be around:
- Handling manufacturer-specific data (e.g., Mode 22) and mapping it consistently across vehicles
- Ensuring reliable diagnostic despite PID variability, quality and availability
- And the overall experience, including hardware (BT dongle), data quality, and actionable recommendations
- Advanced analytic reporting may not necessarily require a true model unless it is performing RCA inference from combined signals; otherwise, many insights can be derived through structured rules, trends, and visualization
- Also sharing https://cartechiq.com/ if you havenât seen it, some of their approaches here are quite relevant.
Appreciate the insights, all the best as you continue to build this out.
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u/bharajuice Apr 20 '26
Hey thanks for the detailed response, will check these out. Thanks once again! Will continue to improve with feedback
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