Introduction

The Miles Plug is a privacy-focused OBD-II device that tracks location, driving habits, and crash response without selling your data, offering an alternative for drivers who want vehicle insights without compromising personal information.

What Happened

After setting up the Miles Plug in my 2014 Toyota Highlander, the app instantly recognized the vehicle when plugged into the OBD-II port. The companion app logged each trip with route, distance, and time, and displayed a home card showing engine status, fuel level, and battery voltage. Alerts popped up for hard braking and hard acceleration events, and the Miles Mechanic chatbot provided plain-English maintenance advice, suggesting a cabin air filter replacement and oil change based on mileage. The interface remained clean and easy to navigate, making it simple to review trip summaries and vehicle status at a glance.

Why This Matters

Many modern vehicles and insurance apps collect and sell driving data, but Miles positions the user as the customer, not the product. The company guarantees it will never sell vehicle, trip, or location data, with all sensitive information encrypted and tied to the car rather than a phone. Founders Matt McGovren and Kit Klein, veterans from Wink, Ring, and Ubiquiti, built the business model around upfront membership fees to avoid the monetize-later fate that ended competitors like Automatic, which shut down in 2020. A 60-day money-back guarantee and a vision for open-car-data integration further distinguish the offering, positioning the car as a data source the owner controls.

Key Takeaways

  • One-time $99 hardware cost plus $180 annual membership (or $11/month for a three-year plan that includes the plug)
  • Never sells user data; all trip, location, and vehicle data is encrypted and end-to-end protected
  • Compatible with most gas and hybrid cars from 2008 onward, with some EV support via a compatibility checker
  • App features trip logs, hard-braking alerts, a vehicle health summary, and an AI Mechanic chatbot
  • 60-day money-back guarantee and no auto-renewal on subscription plans

Conclusion

Miles Plug offers a privacy-focused alternative for drivers who want detailed vehicle insights without handing their data over to advertisers or automakers. It’s especially appealing for teen drivers, older cars, and anyone wary of data-tracking ecosystems. With upfront pricing, strong encryption, and a money-back guarantee, it presents a compelling option, though long-term reliability and the promised open-data integrations remain to be seen.