[ScorpiusWireless]

Hi Guys,
New Scorpius Driver Interface App coming soon.

   

[ScorpiusWireless]

    Hi Guys.
    Soon, if you have a spare Scorpius Wireless dongle, you can drive your Scorpius car from your phone, operate lights, get car telemetry, penalty notifications, see fuel and tyre levels, write and store custom throttle curves, run a ghost car and more.

[woodcote]

Having used the Scalextric Spark Plug app a few times, I am pretty sure that driving a slot car with a smart phone (or tablet) is not something I would choose to do - especially racing digital. Fun it was, serious it was not. Personally, I like the feedback of a sprung throttle trigger and being able to press physical buttons for brake, lane changing and navigating pit menus. I also like watching my car and the track when I'm driving and limit my use of a big, eye-level monitor to a very occasional peek. I would also be concerned about battery life and the danger of a call or notification popping up on the screen exactly where I was about to press a button. It happens...

My initial reaction to the Scorpius Driver Interface app was "Eeek!" - and not in a good way. However, giving it more thought, it might have a non-driving role in my idea of digital racing - which so far has been limited to SSD and oXigen - and my preference for full-on simulations.

What an app could add to the digital experience is as a pit crew / team communication aid or simulation. A lot of our racing at WHO/digital is team or pairs formats where data and instructions are fed to the driver by team mates and it works really well. An app could simulate this - for example custom-defining an audible pit call to a set percentage for fuel and/or tyres.

It could also aid a human team mate to change settings on the car - perhaps lights on/off, change throttle profile on the fly, choose a specific compound of tyres or a pre-defined amount of fuel prior to a pit stop and then use the app to action the pit work, rather than the driver toggling through a menu with the controller buttons. A single driver would also pick up the app to action the pit work rather than using the controller.

An app could also give lap time data, position in the race (gap to car in front, gap to car behind). There could even be an estimate of fuel consumption or tyre wear in terms of laps left based on current driving style. Most of that would be distracting to a driver, but might be superb for a team mate to digest and feed into the team strategy? The potential might be there one day for a voice-activated AI to respond to the driver's questions "Scorpius, how many laps until my next pit stop?".

[Scuderia_Turini]

Picking up Andy's well thought comments, I agree that its unlikely that control via a portable device and app can not compete in fast action racing but currently has potential as an add-on to the driver facilities. 
The package could essentially be a virtual team, advising on personal performance and regarding competitors. Imagine the app telling you that the  car behind is not running at a pace that will catch you when there are just a few laps to go, or the opposite that it will catch you - so its "hammer time", or even that you need to lap only 0.5 second faster to catch the car in front in five laps.

Leo

[dvd3500]

Is the idea that you slide your thumb on the "throttle" bar up and down?
Or do you tap it or hold it?

I just am not sure how this would work well n the real world.