As part of AUTO Connected Car News’ Tech CARS Award there are — nominees for the best connected car device that can be added to vehicle to provide connected car features. Here are more details about the devices and what they do. In this category are Pearl Auto Rearvision, Garmin nüviCam HD, Hudway Glass, Navdy and Rand McNally OverDryve.
Pearl Auto Rearvision
Pearl Rearvision system adds a wireless backup camera that uses smartphone as monitor. It’s a rearview camera with parking sensors that acts as backseat driver. It offers drivers the ability to clearly see what’s behind your car with the only wireless backup camera and alert system of its kind. It is theft-resistant and easy-to-install, it upgradesyour car and turns your phone into your rearview screen. The best feature is that requires no drilling, no wires and no professional installation required. Audible and visual alerts. BUY Pearl Rearvision
Garmin nüviCam HD
This updated PND offers navigation Bluetooth, voice, HD Digital Traffic, Collision/Departure Alerts. The Built-in dash cam continuously records your drive and automatically saves files on impact; GPS records where and when events occurred. Forward collusion warning alerts if you drive too close to the car ahead. Lane Departure Warning alerts if you drift off the road or into oncoming traffic. Garmin Real Vision displays camera view when approaching select destinations. The Garmin nüviCam HD offers lifetime map updates including wh
en businesses open and close. New roads are built. Be confident your routes reflect the latest map data available Amazon sells the Garmin nuviCam HD
Hudway HUD Glass with App
The Hudway HUD Glass allows using any head-up display app on any mobile device both in poor visibility and on a clear day. The device turns any smartphone into a head-up display for any car. It reflects any HUD-based app of your cell phone and displays it right in driver’s line of sight. The glass transparency allows for a clear road view so you are not distracted from the actual road.
The “glass” at the core of the device is a sturdy and lightweight plasticlens shaped to enlarge a smartphone’s image by 20 percent, while minimizing aberrations that would distort the view of the road. A coating on the lens also cancels the double image effect you would experience if you were to simply stick your phone on top of the dashboard and let the windshield take care of the reflection.
Users can pick from a number of apps that use their phone’s GPS and accelerometer to provide data like driving speed, location, and turn-by-turn directions. In keeping with the safety theme, Hudway’s own app for Android and iOS (doesn’t visually overwhelm users, but instead focuses on displaying only a few bits of data at a time, making them large, easily readable, and (hopefully) not too distracting. BUY Hudway HUD Glass
Navdy (HARMAN)
HUD, Google Maps, hand gestures and GPS. Navdy which just announced a partnership with HARMAN. Navdy
Navdy incorporates popular Head-Up Display (HUD) technology, primarily offered as a pricey upgrade package in luxury cars, with a groundbreaking UI, and specially developed software, delivering a far richer driving experience at an accessible price. And since avdy is portable, consumers can enjoy the Navdy experience in whatever car they currently drive.
RandMcNally OverDryve
Rand McNally – Overdryve 7 is exclusively available from Best Buy. It featues a voice assistant, dash cam, trip recorder, media player with optional backup camera Rand McNally – Wireless Backup Camera
. The OverDryve was selected as one of Best Buy’s Top Tech Gifts for the 2016 holiday season.
Designed with drivers in mind, OverDryve provides simple and intuitive access to a voice-controlled smart assistant, hands-free calling/texting and music from drivers’ favorite sources. It also provides audible news, weather, traffic and sports, forward collision warnings, dash camera, customizable gauge clusters and vehicle information. Services include award-winning trip planning and navigation as well as wired and wireless connectivity to in-dash radios.
Vote for your favorite connected car device of the Tech CARS Awards.
Apparently very good gadgets. However they all seem to be doing 95% very well of the things that I do very well. That means I still need to watch for the 5% which the gadgets can’t handle. Will I even recognize what those 5% are. I will accept that the backup license plate sounds great. But while I am looking at that screen, how much of the car beside me will I be taking off? Sure there may be alarms that tell me I am too close, but can those alarms handle the 1″ or 2″ clearances that are often required for our tight(ening) parking spot. And when does alarm fatigue set in, and we start to ignore them. Am I skeptical? Yes! It is one more computerized thing on the car that the user (I) can’t fix, and have to run to the store to pay huge prices to get fixed. Why would that be? Because I bet there won’t be ways to fix parts of the last installation, but only replacements, most likely of the whole unit, at another full price. Isn’t that the way the automotive industry has gone. At the risk of being called a nay-sayer, I will predict that accident rates will not go down. And not because these gadgets won’t improve a lot of the current situations. But because people will lean how to push these devices further and further to the limit. At least to the limits where the death rates are acceptable, and then the automotive industry will be pushed into more gadgets, that cost us more money. On old cars you could fix the timing, or the points, or grease the wheel bearings. Small costs. Try that now-a-days. You will need to buy the whole bearing assembly. I am tired of that cycle. The new gadgets, are great, but they are not designed for the whole purpose of making things safe. Unfortunately there exist the marketing side that makes sure the gadgets will make you more dependent on the “shop.” It also makes the user less and less smart about the car. Hey, but more time to spend money in the bar, tavern, pub, etc. And why not, I can use my driverless car to get home.