Tag: automotive

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Automotive Connected Objects Imaging

Fenderhawk keeps an eye out for fender benders

Cars are all too often banged and scratched by other cars even when they are parked. It would be nice for drivers to know when such accidents happen –- and how they happened — when they’re not around.

patent-claimedFenderhawk does exactly that. It’s a smart license plate frame for the front and rear of a vehicle that features a full HD camera with a wide-angle lens, as well as a built-in accelerometer and flash storage. Fenderhawk is controlled via an app on Android and iOS mobile devices. It assists users while parking a car and continues recording video after leaving the vehicle.

If there is a collision, Fenderhawk sends the user video footage recorded on it immediately, according to its Kickstarter campaign. Fenderhawk ships in October at $199.99. Its makers hope to raise $450,000 by Dec. 24.

The device may certainly appeal to some drivers, but its functionality seems somewhat limited when compared to driving assistance devices like CarVi. Avoiding accidents while driving, after all, seems much more important than guarding against fender benders while parked and there’s nobody in the car.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Driver Watchdog’s dual cameras keep watch over your car inside and out for a fee

With the smart home space getting more crowded and connectivity coming to he vehicle, there’s been a growing number of driving assistant and monitoring devices that have sought crowdfunding in recent months.

Driver Watchdog is a wireless plug-and-play device featuring dual HD 175-degree panoramic cameras. The external camera records road conditions and accidents, while its internal camera monitors distracting behavior going on inside the car. The cameras record simultaneously and automatically stream data to the cloud for storage and review at a later time.

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Automotive Connected Objects

SafFone was designed to keep drivers safe while making phone calls

Distracted driving remains one of the largest causes of car accidents in the U.S. The makers of SafFone are out to provide a solution to that problem.

SafFone (pronounced Safe Phone) is a small black device that easily clips onto a vehicle’s driver-side sun visor and allows the user to select any preset phone number at the touch of a button. The device uses Bluetooth low energy technology for RF communication using 2.4 GHz radio frequencies.

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Automotive Connected Objects Imaging

Waylens is the GoPro designed for how cars go

Some car enthusiasts would probably love to capture video footage of what’s happening around them on the road while driving –- especially while racing their vehicles.

Waylens is an action camera that, unlike the popular GoPro and other traditional action cams, was specifically designed to enable drivers to easily capture, edit and share video taken while they’re driving. The camera works in conjunction with a vehicle’s OBD-II on-board diagnostic system port and automatically turns on while driving. By plugging in to the information provided by the port, Waylens can display useful information to the driver while the camera end is capturing video, video that the campaign claims beats those of other action cameras. There’s also the option to overlay these measurements atop the video as we’ve seen from GPS-equipped action cams from Garmin.

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Automotive Cell Phone Accessories Displays

Hudway offers a simple cheap way to look into the future of driving displays

editors-choiceA head-up display (HUD) can be a handy device in a car, especially when facing low visibility conditions. Such devices provide valuable data for drivers and, because they display information on a transparent screen in front of the windshield, drivers don’t have to look away from the road to see that data. However, most HUDs are expensive, whether they’re purchased built into a luxury car or bought separately as an aftermarket product.

patent-claimedHudway Glass is an affordable alternative –- a car accessory that gets placed on a car dashboard and transforms smartphones into HUDs in conjunction with several mobile applications. Users place their smartphone on the accessory’s cradle with the display facing up. Its attached, transparent optical glass reflects the data received from the accompanying Android and iOS smartphone apps, allowing a driver to see road maps and other needed information just by looking straight ahead where the windshield is.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Vinli brings apps, cellular connections to your ride

There have been several onboard diagnostics (OBD) devices for cars introduced already. Some have focused on a single main function. In the case of GoFar, for example, it was fuel efficiency.

Vinli seems a bit more ambitious, coming with a wide range of apps. It’s an OBD-II device that’s been designed to quickly transform any older vehicle into a smart car. The device adds Wi-Fi to a vehicle using T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network, allowing the car to always be connected. Like other OBD-II devices, its maker is stressing how easy it is to set up, saying it takes only seconds to connect it to a car’s data port located under the dashboard. Drivers can then use the connection to stream media and send data.

 

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Automotive Connected Objects

GoFar smart driving device keeps you in the fuel efficiency zone

Drivers typically spend thousands of dollars on fuel for their cars each year. And much of that money is wasted because of the amount of time spent in traffic and inefficient driving styles that don’t take into account each vehicle’s unique engine.

patent-claimedGoFar is a connected onboard diagnostics (OBD) device that can be easily installed by attaching a dongle to a vehicle’s computer using the car’s OBD-II port. The dongle gets attached to the device’s base unit — a small sleek enclosure of LED lights called the Ray — which is placed on the dashboard. When driving efficiently, the base unit glows blue, and, when not driving inefficiently, it glows red. The device then gets paired with an iOS (and later Android) app, which is used to keep track of fuel used, dollars spent on it, and other key driving data. The device cost $149 and will ship in November. Its maker set a Kickstarter goal of receiving $50,000 by June 2.

The device should appeal to a wide variety of consumers, including anybody who uses their car every day and environment-conscious people who want to reduce the size of their carbon footprints. The device faces competition from several OBD-II devices, including Automatic and Fuel Book, but offers enough unique features for it to stand out, including the stylish and useful design of the base unit.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Fuel Book piles on the features to make your car a smarter ride

One of the biggest fears of drivers is running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere and not having any idea where the nearest gas station is.

patent-claimedFuel Book is a small, white plug-and-play on-board diagnostics device that alerts users when they are low on fuel and tells them where the nearest gas stations are. In conjunction with an Android, iOS and Windows Phone app, Fuel Book creates a smart environment through the diagnostic port of a car. The device costs $169 and will ship in November. Its maker is trying to raise $50,000 by June 21 to use towards production tooling, Bluetooth certification and large-scale production,

The device faces competition from several OBD-II devices, including Automatic. But Fuel Book has a few features that help it stand out from the pack, including park tracking that will enable users to find their car if they forgot where they left it in a huge parking lot.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Loxet locks up the car based on your proximity to it

When drivers mistakenly think they’ve locked their car, or perhaps forget about doing so altogether, the result can be costly. While having one’s car towed can be frustrating, having it stolen is an entirely different and more aggravating experience.

Because preventing a car from being stolen is much easier than recovering a stolen car, the Loxet is a device worth checking out. Loxet is a smartphone-controlled proximity lock and anti-theft device for cars that should help drivers breath a bit more easily. Loxet works with Android 4.3+ smartphones and iPhones equipped with Bluetooth 4.0. Once installed, the device automatically unlocks a car as its owner approaches and locks the door right as the owner begins leaving the vicinity. The device prevents anybody from driving the car who isn’t either a) the owner or b) an individual who has been granted access via a setting on the accompanying app. Loxet costs $69 and is scheduled to ship in August. Its maker is looking to raise $25,000 by May 15.

Loxet certainly has potential. One potential barrier towards widespread adoption, however, is the setup process. While the device itself can be mounted in any car equipped with central locking, it will take a mechanic 45-90 minutes to install it, this according to the company’s Kickstarter campaign. Loxet can also be installed by the purchaser via an instruction manual, but if it takes more than an hour for a mechanic to install it, it’s likely too complicated for the average consumer to set up in the first place. Turning to a mechanic will, of course, add some cost to the device.

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Automotive Connected Objects Imaging Safety

CarVi driving assistant lets you keep more eyes on the road

editors-choiceMany folks have been tempted by the high-tech safety features in newer cars, but wish there was a way to get them into their existing vehicles economically.

That is the goal of the makers of CarVi, a small, circular black driving assistance device that attaches easily via a bracket onto the windshield of just about any car. The device adds an extra set of eyes, monitoring a driver’s position in a lane and the location of the car in front of it. CarVi warns drivers if they are too close to the car in front, and if it senses any potential trouble will issue audible and visual warnings.

The device comes equipped with a camera capturing 720p HD video that CarVi analyzes in real time. Owners can set it to record 40-second to one-minute video onto a memory card whenever certain events occur, such as tailgating incidents. The user can then transfer that video to an Android or iOS smartphone for viewing later. Alternatively, CarVi can function as a full-time recorder if the driver desires. CarVi can also provide suggestions via the accompanying app on how to improve driver skills after the car is turned off. CarVi will cost $299 when it ships in August. Its makers are hoping to raise $100,000 by March 20.

The device holds some promise, especially for elderly drivers and the parents of new drivers. But similar products, such as Truvolo and Zubie, have already offered the same kind of functionality with varying degrees of success. While the warnings could indeed help drivers avoid accidents, it remains to be seen if many drivers will actually be willing to hear tips about how to improve their driving once they turn the engine off.