Hacker News Reader

Comment by tzm | Hacker News Reader

Great idea. Why use an OBD port? I suspect this will compete with other OBD-dependent solutions in the future.

Aside from power, we do use the OBD port to detect things like reverse and speed (to stop the video automatically when you hit 10mph).

In general we want to integrate our products into the car and the driving experience as much as possible.

That choice cost you three pre-sales. I have Automatic using the port, as do many people I know with cash to spend on expensive car gadgets and older cars to gadgetize.

I think you understand why Automatic, useful over 10 mph, needs to be more integrated into the driving experience than you do.

What other data will it collect from the port and forward via the link to the phone and futher upstream through the app?

I guess it can be said that the device needs to know when the car is in reverse gear. Personally I hate these rear view cameras that decide for you when you need them and have no way to turned on manually.

I would much prefer more control and less info leakage potential.

I also wonder how frequently would one have to carefully clean the camera lenses and solar panels for it to work, them being situated where they are. What's up with all those devices being designed to operate only on dry sunny days?

Seconded, I use automatic which means to use this I have to pick one or the other.

It needs to know when the car is in reverse.

Consuming the ODB port for autolaunching an app seems like a really pointless addition. It weirds me out that I'm installing an always-on (when driving) computer in my car when it provides no major benefit other than knowing when my car is in reverse -- and since I've got to set up my phone anyways, opening an app is not much more work to save from having an entire separate dongle needed.

The OBD adapter does serve a very important role in the system in that it has a power source and can wake the camera frame when necessary (before you ever launch the app!). All of our vision algorithms also run on the OBD adapter, which is a key aspect of the power model.

Both those things (remote wake and 'vision algorithms') are things that could likely work on the phone, no?

I think the remote wake is based on when the car is put into reverse, which would be challenging to tell from the phone. I imagine that only running the camera when the car is in reverse is a key part of keeping power consumption down in the frame.

I assume it runs in low power mode most of the time, and is woken up by an RF signal from the dongle. It's _possible_ you could accomplish that via BLE from the phone, but maybe not.

Obviously the camera can't be on all the time, as I'm sure they're cutting the power budget pretty close as it is, given the size of the solar panel.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com