Real Agent Cases

Find a mobile mechanic for a dead car battery with Grok

Posted
by @brucevanzyl
Last checked
Method:
How we verify

Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.

Outcome

An X user says that at 8 am his car battery was dead; at 8:15 he asked Grok to find a mobile mechanic, at 8:17 he tapped the phone number, the mechanic arrived at 9 am and the battery was replaced by 9:30 am.

Agent

Grok

Prompt Recreated prompt

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Get someone to come and fix my car where it is, as fast as possible, at a fair price.

Fill in before running:
- Where the car is: [ADDRESS or area]
- What happened: [e.g. clicks but won't start, lights dim]
- Car: [YEAR MAKE MODEL]
- Roadside cover I might have: [insurer, auto club, card benefit, or 'none']
- Latest I can wait: [TIME]

Safety first: anything touching brakes, steering, airbags, fuel lines or lifting the car is a job for a qualified mechanic unless I confirm I have the tools and experience. Say so clearly.

Rules:
- First check if my insurer, auto club or card includes free roadside help, and give me the number.
- Then list 3 mobile mechanics or battery services near me that are open now, with ratings, phone numbers and whether they come out.
- Give me 3 questions to ask on the phone: arrival time, call-out fee, battery price and warranty.
- I make the calls and payments; don't book anything for me.
- If a site asks for a login, a CAPTCHA or payment details, stop and hand control back to me.
- Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A short list: roadside options first, then 3 mobile services with phone, rating, hours and notes.

You'll know it worked when: someone is on the way within the hour and I know the price before they arrive.

Try this in:

This prompt has blanks to fill in, like [YEAR MAKE MODEL]. We'll copy it instead of filling it in, so you can edit it before you send.

Opens in a new tab. We don't see what you send.

These links are only a shortcut. We're not affiliated with OpenAI, Google or xAI, and your results may not match the source.

Optional stronger version

Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Get someone to come and fix my car where it is, as fast as possible, at a fair price.

Fill in before running:
- Where the car is: [ADDRESS or area]
- What happened: [e.g. clicks but won't start, lights dim]
- Car: [YEAR MAKE MODEL]
- Roadside cover I might have: [insurer, auto club, card benefit, or 'none']
- Latest I can wait: [TIME]

Safety first: anything touching brakes, steering, airbags, fuel lines or lifting the car is a job for a qualified mechanic unless I confirm I have the tools and experience. Say so clearly.

Rules:
- First check if my insurer, auto club or card includes free roadside help, and give me the number.
- Then list 3 mobile mechanics or battery services near me that are open now, with ratings, phone numbers and whether they come out.
- Give me 3 questions to ask on the phone: arrival time, call-out fee, battery price and warranty.
- I make the calls and payments; don't book anything for me.
- If a site asks for a login, a CAPTCHA or payment details, stop and hand control back to me.
- Ask for my OK before you pay, book, send, submit or cancel anything.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.
- If it might not be the battery (no clicks, warning lights), tell me what to tell the mechanic.

Output: A short list: roadside options first, then 3 mobile services with phone, rating, hours and notes.

You'll know it worked when: someone is on the way within the hour and I know the price before they arrive.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://x.com/brucevanzyl/status/1895309490272248091

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