Vehicle Heads Up Display

[MechAg94]

I simply use voice navigation when I'm driving somewhere. No need to look at the map. Just turn the volume all the way up on my phone and lay it on the passenger seat.

My Ford has the navigator tied in with the stereo.  I had to turn off all sound as it would interrupt my music just to warn me not to take each exit off the interstate, even when my exit was still 40 miles away.  The map is in the display.  I only really need it until I get close normally. 

A map in the heads up display would be really bad.  You think you have idiots driving all unfinished bridges now?  What if there was an electrionic path painted on the windshield telling someone to take a closed exit.  You would have people following that electronic path instead of actually looking at reality outside the window. 

The only heads up display I can see being really useful is some sort of FLIR/proximity radar display that could throw something up pointing out that a vehicle is getting close in heavy rain or fog.  Or like when I play Xwing Alliance, it has the little radar box in the upper right. 

[K Frame]

My Subaru is just old enough that it doesn't have an input jack for the stereo.

[MillCreek]

I would love to have a HUD that automatically locked on to targets and the electronic voice prompt to 'shoot, shoot'.  Just like in my F-15C flight simulator.

[MechAg94]

I would love to have a HUD that automatically locked on to targets and the electronic voice prompt to 'shoot, shoot'.  Just like in my F-15C flight simulator.

Hell, I recall the older very conservative pastor I grew up with mentioned imagining a twin 50 caliber machine gun mount on the front of his car while in traffic.  He was an Army Air Corps officer in WWII.  There was no "lock on" back then. 

[jim in anchorage]

I paid $3.50 for my gas station road map. Works every time.

[mtnbkr]

My Subaru is just old enough that it doesn't have an input jack for the stereo.

There might be an aux input on the back of the stereo.  Our minivan has one, but it takes a $100 adapter to use it for 1/8" stereo input.

Chris

[Boomhauer]

I paid $3.50 for my gas station road map. Works every time.

 

[K Frame]

There might be an aux input on the back of the stereo.  Our minivan has one, but it takes a $100 adapter to use it for 1/8" stereo input.

Chris

$100? Holy crap.

I suspect that there is an auxilliary input, but I'm not that interested in pulling the stereo to see.

The BIG issue is that Subaru did some weird wiring bullshit in my model year, and if you futz with the stereo, you can mess up the climate control system.

http://www.cnet.com/news/adding-an-aux-input-to-a-subaru/

[mtnbkr]

$100? Holy crap.

Which is why it remains unpurchased 5 years after buying the van.  Besides the price, I have to pull the dash apart and find a place to route the cable to so we can use the damn thing.  Not exactly a minor installation for a non-pro.  My Focus, on the other hand, has multiple standard and easy to access inputs (USB, 1/8" stereo, Bluetooth).

Chris

[MechAg94]

I paid $3.50 for my gas station road map. Works every time.

I have a Back Roads of Texas map that works well.  County by County.  The navigator often doesn't do any better anyway.  Tells you that you are there a block or so away and you have to look around. 

[K Frame]

In this area new roads are being built on a regular basis. Friends of mine live on a street that 16 months ago didn't exist. Not certain, but I don't think it's made it to the ADC maps yet.

My navigator updates a couple of times a month with new maps.

[mtnbkr]

Hell, our street wasn't on many maps years after it was built.

Chris

[K Frame]

Hell, our street wasn't on many maps years after it was built.

Chris

That was by design after they realized that you moved in.

[KD5NRH]

Besides the price, I have to pull the dash apart and find a place to route the cable to so we can use the damn thing.

If you're doing that, spend $70-90 on a decent half-DIN stereo with front panel aux and USB, plus MP3 CD capability, and $20-30 on an install kit so it just slides into the slot.  My JVC was about $90 a couple years ago, and for another $20 I could add the JVC Bluetooth adapter if I cared that much.  ($10 bought the aux cable with mic that does the same without having to argue with Bluetooth taking over every time the phone gets within 20 feet of the car.)

[Ben]

If you're doing that, spend $70-90 on a decent half-DIN stereo with front panel aux and USB, plus MP3 CD capability, and $20-30 on an install kit so it just slides into the slot.  My JVC was about $90 a couple years ago, and for another $20 I could add the JVC Bluetooth adapter if I cared that much.  ($10 bought the aux cable with mic that does the same without having to argue with Bluetooth taking over every time the phone gets within 20 feet of the car.)

That's actually not a bad way to go to "modernize" older vehicles (though it sounds like it might not work for Mike due to the connectivity to other systems). I did that with my old Trooper after the non-MP3 CD changer went out in it. I found a killer deal on a discontinued Blaupunkt at Best Buy. For I think around $150, got a great stereo / MP3 player, USB slot, and audio jack. I think even the cheapest stereos also come with Bluetooth now, so the audio jack becomes moot for most people.

[KD5NRH]

For I think around $150, got a great stereo / MP3 player, USB slot, and audio jack. I think even the cheapest stereos also come with Bluetooth now, so the audio jack becomes moot for most people.

Bluetooth can be problematic, though, since you never know when you might want to have a conversation that your passengers can only hear half of, and apparently something in the standard requires that turning BT on or off be at least a ten second process requiring both hands, a chant in an arcane language and a carefully timed long press of something on each device.

[mtnbkr]

If you're doing that, spend $70-90 on a decent half-DIN stereo with front panel aux and USB, plus MP3 CD capability, and $20-30 on an install kit so it just slides into the slot.  My JVC was about $90 a couple years ago, and for another $20 I could add the JVC Bluetooth adapter if I cared that much.  ($10 bought the aux cable with mic that does the same without having to argue with Bluetooth taking over every time the phone gets within 20 feet of the car.)

I haven't seen an aftermarket stereo that looked "right" in a modern car.  There are too many curves sculptings and such in dashes.  Also, it's really only an issue to me as my wife, the primary driver, is happy with CDs (unit is an in-dash changer) and radio.  So, I'm not spending the money for something that only benefits me part of the time and looks out of place all of the time.

Chris

[mtnbkr]

Bluetooth can be problematic, though, since you never know when you might want to have a conversation that your passengers can only hear half of, and apparently something in the standard requires that turning BT on or off be at least a ten second process requiring both hands, a chant in an arcane language and a carefully timed long press of something on each device.

On my phone, I just tap the headset icon and it turns off (or on if it was already off). 

Chris

[K Frame]

The Subaru stereo/sound system is actually pretty nice, barring the fact that it doesn't have the extras. I'm not missing them, so I'm not interested in exploring them, really.

[Ben]

The Subaru stereo/sound system is actually pretty nice, barring the fact that it doesn't have the extras. I'm not missing them, so I'm not interested in exploring them, really.

The Subarus I've been in have all had a really nice setup. My Isuzu's was really nice too, and I wouldn't have put the after-market in save for the fact that I lost the CD changer and there was no way to plug any external device into the stock system.

Well except through the cassette deck, but I've used those adapters in a previous vehicle and thought they sucked. Same with the FM transmitters that you plug into the cigarette lighter. Every time I'd drive more than 20 miles in any direction I'd start getting bleed over from active radio stations.

[Marnoot]

I haven't seen an aftermarket stereo that looked "right" in a modern car.  There are too many curves sculptings and such in dashes.

This is more and more an issue with newer cars. It would be outright impossible for me to put an aftermarket stereo in my Mazda3, for instance, without it either looking outrageously out of place or spending big bucks on some custom fabrication work.



The screen is the thing poking out the top like a tablet glued to the dash, and the controls are the knob and buttons in between the gear shift and the parking brake. No DIN anything.

Even my van, which has a double-DIN-ish stereo, would look odd with an aftermarket stereo. I'm not hankering to replace the stereo in the Mazda as it's fine, but the one in the van, despite being a 2011, has MP3-playing functionality on par with an MP3 player from 1997. . .

[KD5NRH]

This is more and more an issue with newer cars. It would be outright impossible for me to put an aftermarket stereo in my Mazda3, for instance, without it either looking outrageously out of place or spending big bucks on some custom fabrication work.

Give me 15 minutes with a hammer, prybar and box cutter, and I can update that styling to where nothing will look out of place.   

[K Frame]

My Focus, on the other hand, has multiple standard and easy to access inputs (USB, 1/8" stereo, Bluetooth).

Chris

It even has an outlet for your EZBake Oven...

[K Frame]

The Top Gear episode with the Mercedes IR camera was on this evening. Series 8 Episode 4  I think.