A company owned by the RAC says it is aiming to disrupt the garage aftermarket sector with the launch of a cloud-based vehicle diagnostics tool that will replace the need for expensive hand held kit in workshops.

Marketed by Nebula Systems, the product, MECH5 consists of a Bluetooth OBD Vehicle Communications Interface combined with a pay-as-you-go internet subscription to provide the diagnostics system to garages that are part of the RAC Approved Garages network.

On it’s website, the Buckingham based firm describes what it does saying, “We are making vehicle systems and data more accessible – so that a vehicle’s health, status and operation can be monitored, analysed, diagnosed and maintained, faster and more effectively than ever before – anytime and from anywhere.”

Talking about what they are doing, Andrew Steer, CEO of Nebula Systems, said, “We’re enabling the democratisation of diagnostics, making this technology available to everybody from the small independent garage, up to nationwide dealerships. There’s no longer any big outlay required and technicians can also work from any device, even a smart phone if they really want to! Nebula is proud to be part of the RAC which is leveraging the flexibility and reliability of Microsoft’s Azure cloud to support MECH5’s core infrastructure.

Nick Walker, RAC Telematics MD adds, “This solution brings a revolutionary business model to an industry that has moved at a slow pace for years. MECH5 is the first of a range of services that RAC and Nebula Systems will bring to market based on Microsoft technologies.”