Openbay, the online marketplace for auto repair, has launched OpenbayConnect, a first- of-its-kind platform that leverages connected-car technology to remotely diagnose automotive vehicle problems and deliver competitive repair quotes to consumers from local mechanics. The site says consumers benefit with OpenbayConnect and Openbay by the competitive choice and convenience they offer for any automotive repair and maintenance service.

About.com conducted an interview with Rob Infantino, founder and CEO of Openbay. Here is an edited transcript of the Q&A conducted via phone.

Q. At the most basic level, how does OpenbayConnect work? Is it always plugged into your OBD?

A. It depends. There are two options. The first is for the over 200 million cars that have an OBD port. They will be able to leverage the port but no agreements in place yet with outfits like OnStar. We are working with device manufacturers producing cellular based devices.

We will gather consumers interested in participating and take few hundred users. We will give them a device and pay for the hardware. We will provide the data plan. Our goal is to understand the user behavior and the value they are deriving from the product. In the long run we will partner with people to provide the full experience.

Best analogy I can give you is cable TV. Once that connection is made they are selling you services over that wire. Whoever owns the wire to the car is going to be able to sell all types of services over that wire.

It comes down to who owns the wire. Openbay will be one of many different services available over the wire.

In the short term we will focus on Openbay for a couple hundred users to understand the behavior and then hand off to a partner. We don’t want to build the network to support the services.

Q. Is there a cost for the device?

A. It will be free at the beginning. If I was a consumer and I wanted my car connected, I would go through one of my insurance companies. They are providing that device free of charge to track insurance issues.

For consumers with existing device we just need to know. All we care about is integrating with their API.

All we’re doing is making this wireless connection to the vehicle. The big plan is you no longer need a CarMD or to go to AutoZone or buy a scanning device. What we’re doing is removing the human element from diagnosing your vehicle.

We will remotely gather that information for you and interpret and diagnose it on the platform. It will either alert driver and service provide at same time and reply at the same time with an offer. It delivers a complete turnkey solution to the consumer. CarMD will tell you here are the codes and go fix it.

Q. Does the consumer get a warning something is wrong before or after the service facilities are contacted?

A. We anticipate this being real time. Driving down the road, if the check engine light comes on, the info is communicated to shops in real time. Within seconds of the check engine light coming on, you may get offers back.

With cases of multiple codes, the mechanic may have to look at them and suggest the solution. That could take an hour or so. Bottom line is you get an expert looking. You no longer have to bring your car into the shop to get scanned.

One of the issues is you don’t know what you don’t know. When the check engine light comes on it could mean anything.

Wouldn’t it be great to know what that means? If you really want to know the severity level, if you can continue driving as in if a sensor fails. If it’s a critical failure, I would love to know that it could affect my safety and the operation of the vehicle.

Openbay will focus on customers with vehicles seven to 12 years old. They are prone to throwing error codes and will cross reference that in areas with active service providers. Our whole goal is to get people to exercise the platform to see how response is.

We will know your mileage on your vehicle. If you want to start on a maintenance program, we can tell you you’re due for things you need to do - as well as recommended maintenance at various levels.

What we’ve produced in our opinion and our research is we’re the first company to bring this solution to market. Companies are providing bits and pieces of this. Nobody is doing what we’re doing providing this service.

Now you’re taking connected car to a new level. OnStar doesn’t have network of providers like we do. We have this massive network we’ve been working on for the last couple years. Would be difficult for company to come into this space.