I love my car. I love Apple's CarPlay. But they do not love each other. What's a technologist to do?
My beloved 2004 Acura TL is awesome. Its got 270 horses under the hood, a cockpit that perfectly fits my 6'4" frame, and it's filled with state of the art technology like HD Audio and a beautiful touch screen display. Its got Bluetooth that could connect my old Motorola RAZR, a fantastic iPod mount, and cassette to a adapter for music. Yep. State of the art. For 2004. Sigh.
I won't be replacing my car any time soon, but I wish I could get access to all the new cool stuff. I could use an Android phone where Google delivers Android Auto to their phones. It works really well. But I'm an iPhone user and, sadly, there's no CarPlay in this car. Not even a third-party head unit that's compatible with my beloved car.
But there is Navdy.
HUD is out
Navdy started life a Kickstarter project and it's now shipping for all. In short, it gives almost any car, going as far back as 1996, a modern heads up display — HUD. It delivers accurate mapping, controls for telephony, and messaging as well as audio controls. And it's wicked cool.
I've been using Navdy for the last week or so. It consists of a small, transparent screen that attaches to your dashboard and is powered by the ODB port in your car (almost all cars from 1996 have one). Setting it up took me about an hour. 15 minutes for installation, 45 minutes to tweak the display.
What you get for that small investment of time and money is a heads up display along the lines of what you might see for fighter pilot in a movie. Or for, you know, Tony Stark in the Iron Man armor.
Once Navdy kicks in, Information floats above the hood of your car. Maps, directions, messages, and audio are all there. It's controlled by a small dial that connects to your steering wheel — or by gestures. I found the steering will dial best for use, but gestures are pretty cool.
Future imperfect
Navdy is awesome, but there are some downsides. First, it's not cheap. Second, if it's not calibrated correctly, the display can be a distraction. It's not any more distracting than a phone interface or an integrated car display, but those can be pretty distracting.
Still, it's the best way I've found so far to bring my vintage car the latest in automotive technology. The company is smart and responsive when it comes to support, and the iOS (and Android) app is well designed.
In short, this is an awesome way for cars that can't use CarPlay to take advantage of their iPhones and make their dumb cars a lot smarter.
Reader comments
Navdy: For when your Car won't Play
I will pass for $800
Does the display work with polarized sunglasses?
Its definitely not cheap at $799, but i got the Alpine ILX-007 for $599 back in 2014 for my 2001 Audi A4... I'm sure it will fit a 2004 Acura.
*looks for link in article*
*clicks on youtube link*
*clicks on link to product*
Seriously... Who writes an entire article about a product, and then doesn't add a link for people interested in learning more?
Apologies, links added!
Does the actor in this video have the indy product video market cornered? I remember him from all in one credit card startup. He also does truecar commercials. Just funny to see this guy in all these startup commercials.
Yes. Adam Lisagor I believe. @adamlisagor
Sent from the iMore App
Apple needs to release a Carplay app like Google did for Google Auto. Cheap easy fix.
Seconded!!!
Just curious why it took 45 minutes to tweak the display? What did tweaking the display entail?
Is this the same or very similar to Anker's upcoming Roav? It looks very similar.
Ankers product does not have the Glance feature
I thought Roav was too expensive. This product is way over the top.
WAY too expensive for my purposes. Interesting use of the OBD port, and Bluetooth (I assume) to integrate auto information with the phone and display it on the windscreen. Now if it were $150.....
And where does your iPhone or android go when you are using these options? What happens if you have to interact with the phone? Say you are using the Heads up options listed here and a text or call comes in?
One thing about the NAVDY that is a negative - you only see your next turn when using the HUD navigation, no other options are available - no arrival time - no trip distance remaining. no advanced turning info - like what the second turn option is. NAvdy has to implement this feature. Otherwise yu find that you need to look at your phone or in car navigation. this is a big negative and frankly makes the navigation portion of the device a companion peice to your in car navigation or phone navigation app.
"I love my car. I love Apple's CarPlay. But they do not love each other. " With Navdy it now becomes a three way because Navdy can't operate efficiently without the other two. Phone is needed to input directions. While the Navdy can interact and play sounds through the phone speaker - it's ideally suited to use your in car bluetooth to hear instructions.