How your car could get mechanics bidding to fix it before you know it's broken

As smart as our phones have become, our cars remain dumb. Most older vehicles lack any kind of wireless connectivity, and outside of a few warning lights can't even communicate with their owners about the specifics of any problem. In most vehicles on the road, knowing what's causing a check engine light to switch on requires special scanners, sifting through trouble codes and usually a trip to the repair shop.

Now a Boston-based online auto repair marketplace wants to be the first to make that process more intelligent. By piggybacking on technology from insurance companies, its new service would have mechanics bidding to repair your car minutes after a check engine light comes on.

Openbay currently has some 20,000 auto repair shops bidding on jobs submitted by car owners, many of whom generally know what needs to be fixed. And it's not just tire changes; the average Openbay bid runs between $350 and $400. Rob Infantino, founder and CEO of Openbay, says the new service, called Openbay Connect, will be aimed at buyers who either don't know or don't pay attention to those warning lights.

"There's a group of people who are not that proficient with vehicles...they put gas in and that’s it," said Infantino. "So we figured, 'How about if we proactively manage their cars for them?'"