Cooling The Car Before I Reach It

During a podcast recording with a fellow smart home tinkerer, the talk drifted to one of my simpler routines: the portable air conditioner in the car starts on its own, and the trigger is how far away I still am.

The idea is that arriving should not mean sitting in stale heat for the first few minutes. My phone location is enough of a signal to decide when the unit should switch on.

It came up almost as an aside in that conversation, which is often when the more practical automations surface.