As seen in Honor’s CO2 reduction article, here we will look at a practical example of recycling of materials against planned obsolescenceas well as making your car smart.
Maybe your car is a bit old, you have a radio that has at most a CD, AM, FM player and the legendary Aux cable and would you like to have a smarter interface too?
No fear it will be that cable that will save your life, and transform the car into something more “smart”: now you will find out how.
Making the car interface smarter: preparations
Arm yourself with patience, with sites like eBay or Amazon (but above all eBay and Subito if we are talking about recycled material), but above all check carefully what you have at home. Who knows? Maybe you have an old tablet that you thought you should throw away …
Among the things you will need to become the “smarter” car you will need:
- a recovery Android tablet, even if not recent (you can also use a smartphone, but seeing the maps on a 5 ″ is a bit inconvenient …
- a male-male AUX (Auxiliary) cable to attach to the radio, to its AUX output
- a power cable (Type-B or Type-C depending on the device you have chosen to use)
- a USB adapter to charge your tablet or phone with the cigarette lighter
Things that are not essential but can be useful (I put them as extras because they are more difficult to do with recycled material):
- at your convenience car parking sensor (available in any shop)
- if you want, there are also car camera systems
- even here, if you want, you can even use a 4G router with a separate telephone SIM, which is also feasible with an old phone
Before starting with the actual guide I reiterate that this is alone one some possible ways to “smart” the interface of your car (for example, if you want you can also buy an Android radio), but it is important to understand that planned obsolescence can be defeated and must!
What to do to have this “smart radio” in your car
The first thing to do is to stick the phone (or tablet) holder on the dashboard or on the glass (depending on how you feel best), the holder, however it must be solid enough not to fall due to the shaking of the road or the holes, or due to high temperatures (some supports, in fact, come off for this reason).
Your tablet (or old phone) won’t work on its own. To get it going, you have two options: use the hotspot function of your phone or stand-alone devices such as a 4G router or an old phone used for this purpose.
If the tablet then owns the compartment for the SIM card, so much the better, it will do itself from Wi-Fi.
To hear the audio well, the male-to-male AUX cable will have one end attached to the headphone output of your tablet (or phone), while the other end will attach to the auxiliary output of your car stereo.
Also remember that the tablet (or phone) you have chosen sooner or later it discharges, remember to keep the devices on charge when necessary, however, you do not need to keep them permanently in charge (that’s why there was an adapter in the list of preparations).
There are, however, myriad guides on how to upload smartphone correctly.
Car with smart interface: various and possible
As you read, I put the possibility of putting cameras, proximity sensors, etc.
This too will depend a lot on your creativity! However, there are cameras on the market, the so called dash camsnot essential, but can still please.
But for a smart car you also need apps …
Well, via Bluetooth exactly as you do with the very common smart radio, you can connect safely via Bluetooth.
Some applications like Wazeavailable for Android And iOSallow to use the exact same functions of a real smart radio, by connecting via Android Auto and similar services.
But beware that if you want to unblock 100% of this service (but there are others), you have to pay either a subscription or a fixed price for life. This, however, will depend a lot on your wallet and needs.
However, already with the tablet attached as described above you can:
- listen to music, whatever you want through services such as Spotify or YouTube Music
- Having a comfortable navigation system, which will allow you not to get distracted while driving
- Have a really comfortable hands-free system, without having to take out the phone as it is connected to the tablet (for example via Bluetooth)
And much more.
Now I have used some very simple tricks and within everyone’s reach to make your car “smart”: all while managing to use materials that more or less all of us have in our homes.
This is just one of the ways in which programmed obsolescence can be combated, but as already mentioned, a lot depends on your creativity. This guide is not intended to be “absolute”, but an idea on how to have a “smart” interface on your car, capable of acting as a navigator, internet radio and all those “car” services that today require a connection.
In the future we will see how to “transform” other commonly used and apparently obsolete objects into something more “smart”.
#car #interface #smarter