12 items and and 6 apps that will change the way you drive

Turn your hatchback into a home entertainment theatre, renovate your sedan into the kitchen you’ve always dreamed of and keep your car on speed dial for these tricky situations. There are endless add-ons for you vehicle, some plain dangerous, others pure genius but all round upgrades is a must have if you want to survive traffic in the 21st century.

You should probably divide these ventures up into apps or downloads that will help you communicate and keep updated with your car.

The other section is the whimsical side – where fantasy meets reality on four wheels.

Let’s begin on a more serious note, the applications:

Apps

1.  Fuel consumption

When you have no money left for the month and you have told all your friends that you are broke, you will still have to put in petrol. Gas Cubby is a good place to start. A free to use app, you can monitor your fuel  consumption as well as customize your maintenance and service reminders. The really handy part is backing up all of your recorded information on the Cubby data base, helping you keep track of every oil change and any other serial number you car may have. Some apps don’t cover all countries, so if you are South African, perhaps go for FillApp.

2. Repairs and fixes

If you own a car you know how betrayed you feel when something goes wrong and recognise the helplessness that mishaps manifest within you. So have a helping hand on speed dial, something like RepairPal is a good knight in shining armour for those motoring malfunctions. The individual car companies also provide trusted support, if you download the Toyota app, you get news updates, roadside assistance and a few more handy hands. There is also the Automatic, which is a device that fits onto your car and feeds information to it through an app.

3. Parking

If you have ever been in a rush and landed up behind the slowest and biggest truck possible, you are familiar with Murphy’s Law. The best way to beat Murphy is to be a step ahead of him, best done with mapping and navigation of traffic and routes. Working together to share information about the ever-changing road is the name of the game here, Waze is where that’s done best. iTunes also has the AfriGIS navigator, which helps with voice commands and can leverage the unique settings of your handset.

4. Traffic

Getting to your destination can take a lot of effort but finding a parking can take even more. thankfully there are apps in development all over the place that will help you find available spaces city wide. Helping you compare availability and costs of parkades, you will be able to plan Sadly because we don’t have a global parking system, only certain cities and countries will have these apps available to them. Parkme is a winner, perhaps Parkwhizz might catch your fancy but be sure to get the app that operates in your city.

5.  Alternative fuels

Fossil fuels are dead, pollution is so yesterday and electrically powered cars may be the future. This would mean we all need to start finding charging spots and places to plug in, BMW seems to already be taking the lead by using street lamps. The way of the future perhaps, for now, Chargepoint seems to be taking the lead with the charge station app.

6. Augmented Reality

Situational awareness is something that every driver needs; having eyes everywhere and being able to read other car’s behaviour can mean life or death. Through the cameras on smartphones, we can attach our devices to view what we view out the windscreen, which then reads the road better than you could imagine. Monitor lane changing, maintain following distances and stay alerted to all that is around you when on the road with the iOnroad app.

Whimsical upgrades

1. Jumpstarter kit

A dead battery is a surprise most of us enjoy as much as finding our pet used your bed as a toilet. The smallest light left on will spell disaster and if you are in the middle of nowhere, your problems have only just begun. Avoid this cringe of a moment with a R2D2 type of gadget in the form of a battery pack,which comes with charge points, lights, jumper cables, compressors, cables and all the other bits a car’s medical kit would need.

The PowerAll PBJS12000R Rosso Portable Power Bank and Car Jump Starter is a multi-tool for these exact moments, available on Amazon and it comes with peace of mind. Of course, the choices are rather vast, follow this link to browse some of 2015’s top battery packs.

2. Digital Tyre Gauge

A little bit pedantic but when your tyre seems to be acting out, you’ll be thankful to have everything you need right there with you. Of course this isn’t the most technical pieces of equipment, so versions come too hot and too cold but finding the right one is really up to you.

Incorrect tyre pressure can cause your tyres to be eroded faster than usual, excess damage to your rims and even your fuel consumption can go up. Looking at the Halford Advanced Digital Tyre Pressure Gauge, one can see the standard features are a light up digital display and multiple settings for different cars and pressures.

3. Proximity sensors

Everyone loves park distance control, turning your car into a hypochondriac with severe personal space issues, seems like the safest way to go. Available on Amazon and open for customization, try adding lights to your proximity meter with the Metra TE-8PSK Parking Kit.

4. Radar Detector

Taking the law into your own hands sounds like a vigilante’s Monday morning but this is just a step up from your average GPS traffic camera network. Alerting you when you are under surveillance sounds like a dream when cruising the open roads, even change modes to detect emergency vehicles on fast approach.

The Cobra ESD7570 9-Bland Performance 360 model has all of the perks and none of the issues one would have when keeping an eye out for the law, readily available and of course, one of many options out there.

5. GPS

If you thought there was a fair amount of choice with the previous products, choosing a GPS is going to strain you. prepare to get into a technological threesome, between Garmin, Totom and Magellan.

There are of course other brands out there but the key to good car upgrades is to concentrate on  the biggest names and work your way down. The Garmin Nüvi series is a group worth getting to know; of which the Nüvicam manages to take the cake.

The mounted camera gives your augmented reality updates to avoid collisions and give real-time updates to the road ahead of you. The next problem is your GPS isn’t attached to your car, so leaving it around, damage or theft is a serious worry. So why not insert your GPS into your dashboard and change your entire front loader for your car. Pioneer or Kenwood touch screen in-dash units are the first two you may encounter; the Pioneer Avic8100NEX is in the spotlight, being Apple and Android compatible it is you radio, GPS and TV all in one.

6. Hero4 Session

If a dashcam is what you are after, why not get one in style, with the GoPro Hero4 Session. Obviously you can take your pick from the GoPro family, choosing the exact quality and ability of your footage. Mentioned in the previous Nüvicam, a mounted dashcam helps you see the things you may miss, especially when your insurance may come knocking at your door.

7. Rear camera

Putting a screen or a in-dash GPS into your car means that you can now hook up another item only found in the expensive and lavish cars of today. It is like having eyes in the back of your head but better, a camera mounted on your boot that helps your see what is behind you when you reverse. VW is even taking the lead in this and adding rear-view cameras to more and more models. The best part is once again, you have a family of brands to take a choice from and a series of suppliers to use.

8. In-car 4G

Turning your car into a mobile wifi hotspot seems better and more useful than sliced bread; you can slice your own bread but you can’t generate your own wifi, until now. The EE pay as you go Buzzard car Wi-Fi with 2GB 4GEE Data is an adaptor that fits into your car’s lighter. There is even a Buzzard 2 which has some slick designer upgrades and can support up to 10 devices.

9. Pivoting vacuum

We are all aware of how messy the inside of a car can get, small things build up and spills occur. Why not be as prepared as a parent, with a personal miniature vacuum. Preferably you will want a foldable one so that fits nicely into your boot or under a seat, for example, the Black+Decker Auto Pivot Vac which plugs into your car’s 12v adaptor with a 16 ft extension cord.

10. Heated car cushion and massager

Once again we find all the expensive and top of the range cars getting all the good stuff and 007 gadgets. Not anymore with personal massager and heated seat cushions, for example, the FS8812 10-MOTOR MASSAGE SEAT or even the Relaxzen 6. The glorious part is that we are spoiled for choice once again, so why not kit out every seat differently so each passenger can enjoy their own masseuse? Put that in your exhaust and smoke it, Mr Bentley-Royce-Range-Jaguar.

11. Self driving car

Why should Google have all the fun with self-driving vehicles? Now you can enjoy autopilot for you highway driving, with the  Cruise RP-1, a mounted camera system handles your acceleration, braking, steering and remaining safely within your lane.  Your robotic chauffeur comes with its own app that lets you see and think everything that your car does, it better considering it is is a wallet shattering US$10 000.

12. Portable pizza oven

Seeing as you can now have your car drive itself, why not make yourself useful and make a pizza for your passengers. Plugging into your car lighter, with dual heated elements to cook both sides, your RoadPro RPSC-900 12V portable pizza oven will turn your car into everything you have ever wanted.

Image: Peter Bonnet via Flickr