Hacker News Reader

Comment by ppg677 | Hacker News Reader

Cars now last longer than their useful life. Especially for those who don't drive 20k miles/year.

My 2013 car has 35,000 miles on it. Beautiful car (Hyundai Genesis sedan). 8 airbags.

But it lacks a rear-view camera and doesn't have the modern stuff like collision avoidance that pretty much comes standard nowadays.

View on HN

Rear view camera are pretty easy to install with any new CarPlay/Android Auto compatible head unit.

Any head unit new enough to support CarPlay or Android Auto is also probably new enough that it's already in a vehicle with a backup camera...

I do not understand what this means. You can buy standalone CarPlay/android auto head units to install in older cars, and they almost always have a connection available for rear view cameras.

The market for stand alone head units has completely collapsed in the US. This largely comes down to head units in newer cars being tightly integrated with the rest of the vehicle (particularly using non-standard form factors for mounting into the dashboard) and the stock units being "good enough" unless you are deeply into car modding. It would surprise me if even 1% of cars made after the year 2000 (which was 20 years ago, and probably the oldest vehicles anyone would daily drive, at least where I am in the rust belt) had an aftermarket unit installed. From that perspective the age of the head unit is (almost) always equal to the age of the vehicle, with CarPlay and Android Auto not being released until after reverse cameras had already been mandated in new vehicles.

Maybe the very newest cars that already have android auto and CarPlay have no reason for an aftermarket head unit, but there are plenty of options for cars made before CarPlay and android auto became standard, which is almost all cars before the last few years.

https://www.crutchfield.com

This is a bit of an ignorant statement.

I have an older 2005 Honda Element and the double-DIN OEM CD player no longer works. Both rotary encoders for volume and tuning malfunction, and it will eject any CD placed inside it.

So, I have been looking at these on Amazon as a replacement:

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Stereo-CarPlay-ABSOSO-Receiver...

I will probably pay more for a better quality version, but it literally is a double-DIN touchscreen with Carplay support and a backup camera for $118.

There is no shortage of various head-units with backup cameras for cars that did not come factory equipped, and quite affordble.

I looked at installing a backup camera in my 10 year old 4Runner a couple years back after a friend got me one for Christmas. After looking through a bunch of YouTube videos, we returned it. It was going to be a significant project.

As a counterpoint, I installed a Kenwood Carplay unit and backup camera in an F150 a few years ago and was not very difficult at all. It took a couple of evenings (one for the camera one for the head unit).

Crutchfield will sell you a plug and play adapter from your factory radio to the new radio's pin outs. They do the wiring so you don't have to solder anything.

Having navigation and a backup camera definitely made it much nicer to drive.

I installed a Sony CarPlay unit and camera in my 2003 4Runner back in 2016, and I thought it was pretty easy. Took a few hours, but nothing complicated.

I'm sure I could have done it. It just seemed more trouble than it was worth.

Rear view camera is pretty easy to install even with out a head unit, they even make wireless ones that just mount over or under your mirror, or like a GPS unit

My mom's 2006 Honda Fit has less than 34,000 miles on it. Every time I visit home & use it, it feels like a time capsule. Basically the only safety features are the seatbelts & airbags.

That's not even that old. My 2011 4Runner just has those (plus ABS). Toyota didn't add much else until just a few years ago. The vehicle only has 75K miles on it; I'll probably keep it for quite a bit longer.

That list of safety features seems reasonable for a car that is only driven 2300 miles per year

What does “last longer than their useful life” mean? I’d imagine that useful life is ~= how long they last.

It means old cars aren't falling apart and becoming totally unfit to drive as soon anymore. Instead, they're getting replaced because new cars are leaps and bounds better, particularly in terms of safety.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com