£149 Bluetooth tyre pressure monitor introduced

A crowd-funded tyre pressure monitoring system, which links to smartphones via Bluetooth has been launched for £149.

Called FOBO, the system consists of four valve caps, an in-car control module and a phone app available for Apple and Android devices. It will alert if a tyre drops below optimum pressure or becomes dangerously underinflated even if they are away from the car.

To deter theft the sensors are linked to the owner’s account, so cannot be reused with other FOBO systems. The app allows you to monitor up to 19 different cars – useful for families with more than one vehicle or for companies with a fleet of vehicles.

Furthermore up to 100 different smartphone users can monitor the same car – so everyone in the family can receive alerts about a shared car. The in-car module and sensors use batteries and so do not rely on an external power source. Batteries last up to two years.

The FOBO system is available now from Maplin stores.