There's a lot of great technology in cars today, but unfortunately they end up becoming inaccessible to the modern consumer because of the expensiveness of buying a new car. We asked ourselves the question, what kind of features can we add to a car with just a modern smart phone? How can we make it more safe?
Heads Up Display (HUD)
It's easy to take your eyes off the road when driving. The latest and greatest cars (in the $40,000+ range) have an integrated heads up display to aid with this. Using a smartphone mount, velcro, location/accelerometer data, and mirrored text, we enabled the use of any smartphone as a windshield HUD, to help drivers keep their eyes on the road. Many of the features of FutureCar revolve around the HUD.
Automated Crash Reporting
The difference between the time of a crash and a bystander calling emergency services is approximately 5 minutes. Using accelerometer and speed data, FutureCar can infer that a crash has occurred by calculating impulse through both data sources (for multiple redundancy). Using Twilio, FutureCar can instantly send a crash notification alert to a friend (or in the future, authorities), with crash information, time, and location. This technology could potentially save many lives by decreasing the response time to a car accident.
Modern Media and Navigation
Most new cars now have modern media players and maps systems, while many old cars don't. FutureCar adds music and map systems onto the HUD using MapKit, the system media player, and mirrored/enlarged layouts.
Instantaneous Fuel Efficiency
By taking the derivative of speed and comparing that to a fuel efficiency curve, FutureCar calculates how much fuel you are using on a relative basis and plots it as a bar indicator on the HUD. Many new cars have this feature, but FutureCar allows any driver to get instantaneous response on how fuel efficiently they are driving, potentially saving expensive gasoline by allowing a driver to optimize.
Distracted Driving Prevention
Every year, 8000+ people die from car accidents directly related to cell phone distractions. Using our FutureCar system ensures that users won't be distracted by notifications and text messages until after the drive.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.