At a recent hack-a-thon event, [Al Linke] tapped into a vehicle’s OBD port with an OpenXC vehicle interface and hacked an LED screen in the rear window to display data based on events. If you haven’t heard of OpenXC, you can expect to read more about it here at Hackaday in the near future. For now, all you need to know is that OpenXC is Ford’s open source API for real-time data from your vehicle: specifically 2010 and newer model Ford vehicles (for now).
[Al] connected the OpenXC interface to his Android phone over Bluetooth, transmitting data from the OBD port to the phone in real time. From here, the Android can do some really cool stuff. It can use text to speech to announce how much your lead foot cost you, add sound effects for different car events, and even interact with additional devices. Although he managed all of those features, [Al’s] primary goal was to add an LED screen that displayed messages on the vehicle’s back window.
When the phone detected a braking event from the car, it directed the LEDs to light up with a “braking” image, adding some flavor to the process of stopping. He could also change the image to a “Thank You” sign with a waving hand, or—for less courteous drivers—an “F U” image with a slightly different hand gesture. You’ll want to check your local and/or national laws before attempting to strap any additional lighting to your vehicle, but you can watch [Al’s] car light up in the video below. For a more detailed look under the hood, he’s also provided an Instructables page. If OpenXC catches on, the number of vehicle hacks such as the Remote Controlled Car may skyrocket.
I admire someone for hacking/creating new things but there are already enough distractions for drivers, we don’t need to add more confusion into the mix.
Most of it is definitely a distraction; but I would love if vehicles had a “deceleration meter” in the brake lights. It would make it so much easier to tell if the person 200 feet ahead is feathering their brakes, or slamming on them. Would also be useful for the same reason in bumper to bumper traffic.
what a deceleration meter wouldn’t tell you is how fast you are going.
people take that into account themselves when they judge how fast they are approaching a car.
it could possibly even make tailback traffic worse as people over-anticipate.
Some cars already feature this. Or at least were going to feature this. The only place I’ve actually seen it was on some massive trucks. Basically the breaklights would flash at a rate proportional to how hard you put your foot down. Feather the break and the breaklights would come on. Flash the breaks and they would blink in a seizure inducing fury.
This is actually useful in multiple ways since we are terrible bags of water for judging a stationary visual queue. Humans fair very well with changing scene i.e. blinking lights.
Stop trying to make openXC happen Ford. Release an actual open platform and not some shitty half assed open platform.
I am considering buying a Ford, so OpenXC was somewhat interesting. Can you explain the half-openness? Looks like they supply binaries, are they busted or something?
I’m guessing he’s referring to the fact that the firmware is closed? They don’t publish the CAN IDs and other data necessary to build your own firmware.
it’s an API, nothing open about the firmware itself
Nothing open? I think you might have missed that all of the source code is open source – https://github.com/openxc/vi-firmware – the only part that’s closed is the exact CAN message definitions, but I’d argue that isn’t really interesting if you can get the data contained in the signals.
Check you states laws as some states like Tennessee Don’t allow signs or animations to be displayed on a cars.
THK! The correct spelling is ‘Thank you’
Thank you for reading this message and crashing into the back of this car.
Not THK but THX, and since you can’t read do you need whole sentences anyway?
There’s a good reason why this is illegal in some places and should be illegal in all places: If someone is distracted by your sign and then proceeds to hit something, you are gonna be in some deep doo doo. The novelty factor alone is enough to pull eyes away from the road.
What makes this any different from people reading bumper stickers or even LCD advertisements on the side of the road?
Nobody reads those unless they are in the parking lot or in a jam and people have been staring at nothing for 15 minutes.
I have always wanted a dimmin dammit or back off message option. Want to talk about distraction? I once followed a van that had porn on the headrest display.
arduino with a remote switch to display diff messages. you can detect breaks via breaking light plug. good thing is you can do this for any car.
you can even do this via a simple light sensor too.
I had a dimmit dammit that works great. Servo motor with a mirror. it flips up to reflect their headlights back at them. Made them turn off their brights faster than anything else.
Will it cause an interrupt for braking news?
Dat uncensored plate number.
It’s a manufacturer plate.. not going to learn much from that.
frankly, you could just hook up a dumb light to breaking light itself. no need for OpenXC. you can’t do F U though.
And is completely useless in the daytime. his display is barely readable inside, in the back window it will be invisible to the driver behind.
and honestly, that is a good thing. There is a reason many states have laws against these things and scrolling text ,etc…