Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
HOW TO STICK NEW TECH ON AN OLD CAR
THE NEW ERA OF AFTERMARKET GADGETRY.
My sister-in-law just replaced her 2005 Chevy SUV with a new one. Twelve years between them, the mechanical parts are the same: drivetrain, ladder frame under the body, solid axle out back. The electronics, though, are a different story: she went from a CD player to Apple’s Carplay, from a key fob to remote locking via app. In the last five years, in-car electronics have become the biggest difference between new and old. But can you give otherwise functional older cars the best of what’s new? Maybe you could wring a few more years out of the beast, and be safer while you’re at it. To test my theory, I outfitted a friend’s 2002 pick-up and my 2010 sedan with new devices designed to replicate factory-installed modern conveniences. Old cars, meet new tricks.
A REVERSING CAMERA?
Last year, I tested a hard-wired aftermarket reversing camera on my 1993 Ford SUV. When I finished, I ripped it out. The poor resolution and suction-cup display weren’t worth the trouble. The Pearl solves the display issue by using the high-resolution screen we all carry in our pockets. No wiring needed; it runs on solar panels.
The cameras are built into a licence-plate frame, so the pick-up’s plate screws hold the Pearl. Plug in the OBD dongle, affix the dash phone mount (clipped to a vent or with adhesive), download the app, and you’re ready.
Once paired, the system works flawlessly. The two cameras provide stereo vision that allows distance-based object warnings – the edge of the screen glows red and there’s an audible alert when you’re about to hit something – and one of the cameras is optimised for low-light conditions. The app boots quickly and the resolution is better than most factory set-ups I’ve tested. One demerit: the system doesn’t know when you’re in reverse, so you’ve got to activate it manually and wait for it to time out. Pearl says that it’s working on that.
Reversing cameras are so important that they’ll soon be mandatory in new cars. But the Pearl shows that even a 366 000-kilometre pick-up doesn’t have to wait.
A HEAD- UP DISPLAY?
Navdy wants us to stop looking at our phones while we’re driving. The answer: move our texts and navigation up to our field of vision, like the windscreen projector set-ups you’d find in a 2017 BMW or Mercedes.
Affix the Navdy’s base to the dash, and tighten the scroll wheel to the steering wheel with the rubber belt. An inevitable OBD-II dongle provides both power to the display and vehicle information such as speed and r/min.
The design presented an immediate challenge. The old pick-up’s dashboard simply doesn’t have enough distance between the top of the instrument panel and the windscreen, leaving no room for the Navdy. So I stuck the display in the middle of the dash, using the adhesive mount. Not quite as ideal, but still easily visible. I told Louis, the owner, to take it for a drive.
Later that day, he called me. “This thing is awesome,” he said. Besides the maps – which are stored offline, and are thus impervious to cell outages – the Navdy is great for texts. When a notification comes in, you click the centre of the scroll wheel and your phone reads it aloud. Wave your hand left or right in front of the Navdy to go to the next one, or dismiss. It’s the rare case in which the futuristic approach is also the most intuitive. And Louis pointed out another advantage: “I wear reading glasses, but I don’t need them for this,” he said.
Sadly, the demand for Bluetooth and the OBD port means that you can’t use the Pearl and the Navdy at the same time. Get working on that, everyone. I think the pick-up has another 150 000 kilometres in it.