If you want to have an accurate journal of your driving expeditions, a device like the Driving Activity Reporter may be of interest to you. You know how Starfleet guys from Star Trek find derelict ships from time to time, and they transfer the log on the Enterprise and they study the wrecked ship's log to see where it went and what happened to it? Well, this is what the Driving Activity Reporter does; it's like a ship's log. (Not that your car will ever become derelict, that was just a gauche example.)

What this auto gadget actually does is to monitor what you do with your car, that is, the places you drive to, the routes you take to reach them and in how much of a hurry you are to get there. The Driving Activity Reporter does all this with a 16-channel GPS receiver and attaches to your car with an integrated magnet (you can place it inside or outside the car). Its storage space is large enough to remember what happens in a maximum of 100 hours of driving.

When you want to study your “ship's log,” you just remove the device from the car and connect it via USB to your computer. The Reporter features a software package of its own showing you the locations you visited, the date and time you got there, and the speed while driving. The device uses animated digital maps to display all this, but you can also examine the data it provides with Google Earth (which, as you may know, is a free application) if you want to see your routes on a satellite map.

The Driving Activity Reporter is by no means frail, as it's supposed to work attached to the exterior of your car as well. It's water resistant, quite sturdy and able to withstand temperatures between -15 to 185 deg F (-26 to 85 deg C). Two AAA lithium batteries give it a three-week autonomy period; if it doesn't sense any car movement for two minutes, the device enters sleep mode. The Driving Activity Reporter costs $229.95.  


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