AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – One particular AI tool saved me a couple hundred dollars at the mechanic.
A minor accident tore the side-view mirror off my truck. No one was hurt, and the damage was cosmetic.
Or so I thought.
The next day, the check-engine light came on, and the A/C quit working. I plugged in a consumer OBD-II scanner and got the error code: P0073, something about an air temperature sensor.
I took it to the shop, and the mechanic said they’d take a look and figure it out.
While I waited, I Googled the code. The results? Dozens of links, videos, forum posts, and ads.
Some talked about wiring, some mentioned the sensors, but none of them gave a clear answer.
Just a long rabbit hole of links.
Then, I entered the code into Perplexity. A fast-growing AI search tool that works differently from Google.
Instead of pointing me to a bunch of websites, it gave me one clear, sourced explanation.
In just seconds, Perplexity found something the mechanic hadn’t considered: The air temperature sensor is often built into the side-view mirror, and since the mirror was ripped off, the error code made perfect sense.
That quick search saved the shop time and saved me nearly $200 in unnecessary labor.
Perplexity didn’t just give me an answer; it gave me, as the mechanic, the right answer.
It might not replace Google for everything, but I learned that using Perplexity for search is like asking your smartest friend for an answer, and they’ve already read the internet.
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