Over the past few weeks, we’ve made some key improvements to SugarDrive — mostly behind the scenes, but important nonetheless. As we close in on a more stable version, we’re now turning our attention to testing. Thorough testing.

Right now, we’re developing a structured internal test plan to make sure recent changes behave as expected. This includes fixes for reliability at startup, better diagnostics for network issues, and some foundational changes that make future feature development more manageable. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s necessary — and it’s what makes the difference between a useful idea and a reliable product.

Once we’ve completed internal testing, we’ll be looking for people to help us test SugarDrive in real-world driving conditions. If you’re interested in trying it out and giving feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re also updating the setup instructions to reflect some new features and usability improvements. Things have evolved a bit since the last round of testing, and we want to make the process as smooth as possible for anyone setting up a unit.

This next phase is about validating what we’ve built so far — and making sure it’s ready for more hands (and wheels) in the field.

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Interested in helping test SugarDrive?
Send us a message or leave a comment — we’ll follow up as soon as we’re ready for the next round.

Last week, we went on a family trip, and I had planned to use the opportunity to gather more real-world testing hours on SugarDrive. The night before, I set everything up—unit connected, pulling data over my phone’s hotspot, and looking good.

The next morning, we loaded up the car and hit the road. I powered on SugarDrive and… nothing. The display stayed blank. I tried turning the unit off and back on a few times, hoping it was just a glitch. Still nothing. With limited time and other priorities on the trip, I set it aside. No testing happened during the drive.

After we returned home, I connected the unit and checked the diagnostic output. It didn’t take long to find the culprit.

During startup, one function was depending on a value from another function—but that value hadn’t been initialized yet. As a result, the system entered a reset loop: start, fail, restart, repeat. A bug that had never shown up on the bench finally revealed itself in the wild.

I’ve since added logic to make the startup sequence more robust by ensuring dependencies are met before proceeding. It’s a simple fix, but it highlights something critical: you can’t substitute real-world use with lab tests. You need the hours, the environment, the messiness of actual use.

That’s why I’m looking for early testers who are willing to help. You don’t have to be a developer—just someone who’s comfortable with tech and understands the importance of clear feedback. Every hour of testing helps make SugarDrive better and more reliable, especially for people with Type 1 diabetes who depend on situational awareness when driving.

If you’re interested in helping, reach out. I’d love to get you set up with a unit and hear what you think.

During Evelyn’s recent Street Survival driving class, we had the opportunity to test SugarDrive in a real-world setting. Everything worked well—until it didn’t.

When Evelyn left the car for a classroom session, her iPhone (used as a hotspot) quietly shut down its Wi-Fi broadcast, even though the hotspot slider still said “on.” When she returned, SugarDrive appeared to be working—it displayed a blood sugar number—but it wasn’t updating. There was no obvious indication that the connection had been lost.

This experience led us to make a key improvement:
SugarDrive now tells you exactly what went wrong.

These new messages are designed to give clear, real-time feedback when things like Wi-Fi, internet, or Dexcom data access fail. Instead of leaving the user guessing, the display now explains the issue directly.

New Messages Added to SugarDrive:

✅ Normal Operation

The display shows a live blood sugar value and trend direction when everything is working as expected.

📶 Hotspot Not Found

If SugarDrive powers on and doesn’t find the assigned iPhone hotspot, this message appears.

Note: The square box in “Evelyn’s” is due to a curly apostrophe from the iPhone that isn’t supported by SugarDrive.

🌐 Dexcom Fetch Failed (Startup)

If SugarDrive connects to Wi-Fi but cannot reach the Dexcom server (usually because the phone doesn’t have internet), this message appears at boot.

⚠️ Dexcom Fetch Failed (Runtime)

If SugarDrive loses internet access during normal operation, it keeps showing the last known value but flags the issue clearly.

📡 Lost Connection

This was the message we wish we had during the Street Survival event. It appears when the hotspot drops out while SugarDrive is running—such as when the iPhone walks away from the car and quietly disables the hotspot. It clears automatically once the hotspot is re-established.

Conclusion:

Real-world use always uncovers the gaps that lab testing misses. These updates are a direct response to what we learned at the event. Now, SugarDrive gives drivers clearer insight into its connection status—no guessing required.

We’re continuing to evolve SugarDrive with feedback from real use cases like this. If you have thoughts, questions, or ideas, we’d love to hear from you.

At the Tire Rack Street Survival driving school, we had an amazing opportunity to put SugarDrive to the test with real-world driving conditions.
During the event, Evelyn — who lives with Type 1 diabetes — used SugarDrive in her car to monitor her blood sugar while learning critical driving skills.

What we discovered during this event helped make SugarDrive even better.

Evelyn used her iPhone’s personal hotspot to allow SugarDrive to access real-time blood sugar readings. Each time she entered the car, she enabled the hotspot, and SugarDrive connected smoothly.

However, we noticed an unusual pattern:
When Evelyn left the car for a classroom session and returned, SugarDrive was still showing a blood sugar value — but it had stopped updating.

Restarting the iPhone’s hotspot (turning it off and back on) immediately resolved the issue, but we wanted to know why.

Further testing at home revealed the root cause:
Even though the iPhone shows the hotspot slider as “on,” the hotspot itself quietly disables when no active devices are connected.
Once SugarDrive went out of range (while Evelyn was away from the car), the iPhone stopped broadcasting — even though it looked like it hadn’t.

Simply toggling the hotspot off and back on reactivates the connection. In my next post I will describe how SugarDrive firmware features have been added to inform the user of conditions like this. You can see some of Evelyn’s driving exercises in the video below.

Every time we test SugarDrive in real-life conditions, we learn something new that helps us make it even more reliable and user-friendly.
This discovery is a small example of how much thought and care goes into making sure SugarDrive supports people with Type 1 diabetes wherever life takes them — even behind the wheel.