There are some people in this world who just aren’t satisfied with the status quo of having a car that’s as dull as all one or two colors. So StickOut takes the boring and transforms it into alluring. Multicolored graphics are splashed across car bodies via a unique interface, as well as images that are printed and cut for a precision fit on nearly any type of car. Something less than a full car wrap and less permanent than paint, he do-it-yourself kit includes all the necessary materials, including a 3M application squeegee and instructions. This trend could very well yield the Fathead of the car industry. Backers can spruce up their cars for as little as $45. Designs are bigger and bolder with larger donations. Expected delivery is August 2014.
Tag: car
The Premise. When driving, sometimes it’s necessary to communicate with other drivers. Whether you want to thank them, flip them off or even flirt with them, one can risk distraction.
The Product. The Drivemotion Animator is a round screen full of LEDs that suctions to the back windshield of a car. It displays messages to drivers behind you. The messages are controlled from a remote that’s attached to the front windshield of the car. The product has pre-programmed messages such as “Thank you”, “Sorry”, and an assortment of smiley or sad faces. An accompanying software program also lets you program in your very own messages and animations.
The Pitch. Drivemotion Animator’s video shows how to use the software program that goes with the product along with the creator’s explanation of why one may want to flirt with other drivers. The rest of the campaign goes through prototypes as well as pledge levels and possible messages to program the Animator with. The Drivemotion Animator hopes to raise a modest $5,000 in a 30-day Kickstarter campaign.
The Perks. For different donation amounts, backers can receive the Drivemotion with different amounts of freedom. The $45 level gets backers the Drivemotion “Pure faces” that comes with a series of emoticon faces. For $59, the Drivemotion EX-version comes with faces that become more intense upon pushing a button repeatedly. To create unique animations, backers must shell out $67 and up. Reward levels have estimated delivery dates of June and July 2014.
The Potential. Where once car passengers had to handwrite signs to other drivers, they can now use the Drivemotion Animator. The use of a simple remote control makes it mostly harmless in navigating parking lots or roads with sparse traffic, one can only imagine what the less courteous on the road might animate. Flirting and road rage messages are especially disruptive and should probably be avoided. All in all, it’s probably a better for drivers to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel than sending a smiley to the cutie they just cut off.
People often travel with valuables in their car, but rarely have peace of mind about the safety of their things unless they use a clunky and heavy safe. Doughnut Safe takes advantage of space you already have in your car by turning your spare tire into a strongbox. The 4” x 12” product is reinforced and made out of steel to ensure that your valuables stay safe. One of these hiding-in-plain-sight products with two keys goes for $180 with an estimated delivery date of November 2014. The Doughnut Safe hopes to raise to raise $9,000 on Kickstarter in its 31-day campaign.
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Most people like to have their phone with them when they are on the go. There are multiple car docks out there for mobiles, but EverDock Go seems to be more universal to the variety of phones that people use. Rather than attaching to the windshield with suction or mounting on the dash, the solid-looking dock is designed to fit in your car’s cup holder — cutting down on dashboard clutter but requiring looking away a bit more for navigation tasks. For $35, backers get one product, which is $15 off of the anticipated retail price. Expected delivery is September 2014.
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Maybe it’s the fact that they have to sit still and be somewhat restrained by a seatbelt, but it seems that if kids are going to nap, that the car is typically the easiest place for it to happen. The only problem is that the often end up slumped over in some odd (but also sometimes funny) position that doesn’t look the least bit comfortable to an adult. Pillo-Guard aims to make those road trips more comfy. A string on each side of the plush device is tied behind the headrest for what looks like quick and easy installing although it does appear as if it can interfere with the seat belt. Additional pillows are available if more neck cushioning is needed. The product works for both kids and adults.There are less cumbersome alternatives, at least for smaller kids For $30, backers get the early bird special of one Pillo-Guard with an expected delivery of July 2014.
Leaning your head back on planes or in cars is apparently out of style. Flopping your slumbering head forward is now all the easier with the redundantly named Forward Front Face Pillow Cushion. Designed to hang from the seat in front of you or sit on a tray table, the pillow comes equipped with security straps, air holes and a fan so you can stay cool while avoiding smothering yourself. The cushion goes for $86, which is a lot compared to the similar Skyrest Travel Pillow at only $30, but it seems quite a bit more portable and versatile. The nap accessory hopes to raise $30,000 in its 33-day Kickstarter campaign.
The Premise. The average lifespan of a car battery is under three years. Most people deal with a battery that won’t hold a charge at some point and for many, the solution is to simply go out and buy a new battery, then throw the old one away.
The Product. The ReVolt 3000 gives consumers another choice. This device allows consumers or businesses to recharge dead or dying batteries and give them at least triple their original life span. Working with multiple battery types (NiCad, NiMH, and Gel-cell, aside from the standard fare), the ReVolt3000 reduces the amount of built up lead sulfate, eliminates short circuits, and gets batteries working like new again. Even some batteries that have been laying around for years in disrepair are able to become marginally useful. Users will only need to give each battery in their home no more than 8 hours of use with the ReVolt3000 every year to stay in top shape.
The Pitch. Inventor Tom Hoops outlines what the ReVolt3000 is, and what its impact can be. He starts by explaining the economic angle of saving a family money in the long-term instead of buying new batteries, but then takes the more philanthropic route of outlining just what kind of waste a discarded battery creates, and how using the ReVolt3000 as an alternative is a smart decision for the planet. There are plenty of pictures of prototype kits to help explain the hard science behind the device. The campaign is looking to raise just $16,000 to begin production and distribution.
The Perks. Backers can start recharging their batters at the $250 tier, promising to arrive by July. A 12-month warranty is also included. For $30 more, the limited second batch of ReVolt3000s are being sent out to arrive in June, while the highest tier at $300 gives backers a complete, tested pre-production model sent out by April.
The Potential. Most people think of a battery with no charge that needs a jump-start as a dead battery, but the ReVolt3000 can truly take all manner of non-functioning batteries and bring them back to life, at a method that is accessible to the general public in terms of ease of use and price point. Based on Tom’s own math presented in the video, the ReVolt3000 may not be the best solution for an individual with a single vehicle, but at the very least it is certainly a step towards eco-friendliness.
What do you get when you cross the hobbyist Arduino platform with Bluetooth and the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) port found in every vehicle? Nobody really knows yet, but the developers of Freematics (a portmanteau of “free” and “telematics” aim to find out by opening up the combination to open source developers. One thing’s that certain is that the device can handle a lot of data about your car’s vital statistics such as its speed and engine RPMs. Turning that into something more meaningful for people will be left to developers who will be the main audience for the data collector. Freematics should be available in March 2014 to backers who pledge at least $89 AUD.
The Premise. Technology is fabulous. Alas, we still do not have flying cars, but if we do you can bet they’ll be connected to our smartphones. In the meantime, car manufacturers are focused on connecting gravity-bound automobiles.
The Product. Truvolo is a small device which plugs into your car’s data port along with a smartphone app that collects data from the device and sends it to a secure cloud-based platform. The device, which plugs into a car’s on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) connector can clue you in to problems, help optimize gas mileage, and send alerts for unsafe driving. Being connected, it also provides several car-related services such as regular maintenance reminders, alerts when it’s time to fill the gas tank, alternate routes when traffic is heavy and an organization system which helps account for trips for business and separate them from personal travels.
The Pitch. Jaideep Jain, co-founder and CEO lays out the need for Truvolo in a straightforward video in which he also explains that the project was inspired as his son approached legal driving age. He thinks of Truvolo as “the place to go for everything car-related.” He explains that Truvolo can help make you and a safer driver by providing feedback on driver performance in addition to location information. He claims that in the future, Truvolo will even be able to block texting while driving. Other than the video, the campaign on Indiegogo features a link to the various press Truvolo has garnered to date in addition to some partial screen shots of the app.
The Perks. This project has many, many reward tiers starting at $30 for the most basic level of support with a corresponding reward of a Truvolo tee and letter of thanks. The first 150 people to donate $89 can become either an “early bird” or “beta tester” of the Truvolo device and app, with beta testers receiving the product about two months in advance of other audiences. Other tiers escalate to increasing amounts of product and rewards which include dinner with the founders (transportation excluded) and for $6,000 you can even become a “development partner.” According to the posted project schedule, units will complete beta testing in May and start shipping to Indiegogo supporters in June 2014.
The Potential. While there’s no doubt in the potential for a new connected standard for future vehicles, the concrete benefits to a product like Truvolo remain somewhat unclear for now. Similar products like Zubie and Automatic are already available in the market and it’s difficult to see how Truvolo will differentiate itself. Most people already know how to be safer drivers — slow down, use caution, stop fully at stop signs, etc. But there’s something to be said for hard evidence. If Truvolo can’t leverage that to change driver behavior, it may be seen as just an expensive way to remind yourself to get an oil change.
The Premise. You have a cable connecting your music player to your car’s stereo. The fear that it will somehow manage to electrocute you has become intolerable, yet you refuse to replace it because the amount of dough you’ve coughed up for aux cables has already reached unacceptable levels. No more shall be spent on another just for it to become lost or ruined like those before it! Just jiggle it a little, sound quality be damned!
The Product. The MOS Spring is a high-quality audio cable meant to be a permanent replacement to all those cheap cables. It has woven cotton shrouding, and a coiled metal wire where the cable meets the jack, just like you would find on a pro-grade audio cable. The MOS Menos is a discreet base for keeping your Mos Spring cable safe and at hand. It mounts to your car, and employs strong magnets to keep any wayward cables in check.
The Pitch. The combined practicality of the Spring and MOS Menos are demonstrated with a video depicting the standard cable drama: cable lost in car, guy damages cable while retrieving, guy plugs in his phone to hear music, music rendered inaudible by cable’s crappiness. The day is saved by the Spring, with its woven cotton, anodized aluminum and electroplated steel construction, its black, red, or teal color options, and its lifetime warranty. The MOS Menos lends its super strong neodymium magnet, satin body, and options of permanent adhesive, or semi-permanent suction mountings to the fray. It is also worth mentioning that the MOS Menos is the scaled-down version of the original MOS, which Kickstarted in Winter ’12 and is now selling in Apple stores.
The Perks. The Spring and Mos Menos are slated for availability in late March ‘14. Sold individually, they are moderately priced at 10 dollars, or a mere 15 bucks (just 11 for early backers!) for the combo.
The Potential. While there are other woven cables out there for as little as 99 cents, they can also range as high as $40. Moreover, one is hard pressed to find cables that have the Spring’s coiled wire joint reinforcement. So combined, the Mos Spring and Menos can relieve all your electrical apprehensions, musical frustrations, and organizational headaches, for what you might spend on any other decent-quality cable. Take the Spring’s lifetime warranty into account, and you find a sound audio investment.