Smartphone Dashboard?

[Pluto]

I just realized this... As a Model S owner, I’ve found that the Tesla app is extremely precise and updates in almost real-time (within half a second from what I remember). It shows the current speed of your car as well as other information. This could be used to turn your smartphone into a dashboard, which would be especially useful for some Model 3 drivers.

I believe someone could easily set up a bumper to prop up their smartphone behind the steering wheel in front of the AC slot. Then they’d need a slightly customized app to let the app rotate horizontally and probably completely change the view just for driving.

I honestly bet that would do it. Obviously losing your data connection is something that could happen from time to time, but this could provide a lot of convenience. What do you guys think? Anyone want to give it a shot of what a smartphone would look like propped up like that?

 

[nvx1977]

With a bit of programming savvy, you can easily build an app (either web or native) that acts as a speedometer. The APIs that the phone app uses has been documented. This is the one you'd use to get speed:

Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary

The output of that call gets you current speed, drive mode (P, R, D, etc), regen amount, GPS coordinates.

For this to work well, you'd want to call this API endpoint frequently, though if every Model 3 was doing this at the same time, the server would slow to a crawl. So responsibly, you wouldn't want to spam this too frequently. At the same time, if you don't refresh frequently enough, you won't capture sudden speed changes.

Also, if you're in an area of poor reception, the response times will suffer and result in laggy information. You see this sometimes already when watching real time location on the tesla app. And of course if you enter a no-data area, you'll lose all updates to speed.

With the APIs I linked to, you can get all the functionality of the Tesla app as well as some information that the app doesn't currently show.

 

[nvx1977]

ok, decided to mock up something. I believe everything I put on the screen is data that is available via the API calls I mentioned above. Here are the API calls needed for all the information shown:

Speed, regen, heading, shift state:
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary
(doc is outdated; verified regen kW is available with an actual call to my Model S)

Units (mph):
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary

Battery charge, remaining distance:
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary

Preconditioning, EAP status:
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary
(doc is outdated; verified this info is available with an actual call to my Model S)
You could even do door/trunk open/close if you have the corresponding images to show. Makes sense to use a 3/4 aerial view of the car so you can visualize all doors/trunks.

Mockup shows everything on at once. The regen bar obviously wouldn't look like that in real-time.

sharable link:
Model 3 Binnacle App Mockup - novox77

 

[NCAviator]

There are several Heads Up products that allow you to use any APP and your smartphone. Why don't you design for heads up since everyone seems to want that. Don't know if the APIs support, but the GPS/Trip data would be another great add on. Maybe several different screen designs the user could choose from.

This was one, but I think they have some funding issues now: The Best Head-Up Display For Your Car | Navdy Here is another: Smartphone Heads Up Display. Not recommending any one. Just saying they exist.

 

[nvx1977]

There are several Heads Up products that allow you to use any APP and your smartphone. Why don't you design for heads up since everyone seems to want that. Don't know if the APIs support, but the GPS/Trip data would be another great add on. Maybe several different screen designs the user could choose from.

This was one, but I think they have some funding issues now: The Best Head-Up Display For Your Car | Navdy Here is another: Smartphone Heads Up Display. Not recommending any one. Just saying they exist.

Yeah that works too. TBH, I don't particularly feel like I need a binnacle companion app or a HUD. Just figured I'd throw out some inspiration for people who feel like they need that supplementation.

 

[Dave B]

Mockup shows everything on at once. The regen bar obviously wouldn't look like that in real-time.

It looks cool, but with the 3's cell chargers positioned so that the phone would be in portrait mode while charging, you may want to orient your app to be in portrait mode. I like the landscape layout, but I know if I had the choice of cool landscape layout and no charging, or portrait mode and phone staying charged - I'm going to go with portrait mode and phone staying charged.

 

[nvx1977]

It looks cool, but with the 3's cell chargers positioned so that the phone would be in portrait mode while charging, you may want to orient your app to be in portrait mode. I like the landscape layout, but I know if I had the choice of cool landscape layout and no charging, or portrait mode and phone staying charged - I'm going to go with portrait mode and phone staying charged.

Oh, this was intended for someone who wanted to see their speed in the traditional binnacle location (thru the steering wheel). See OP's post. It would require some special mount, or the 3rd party HUD unit. But my assumption was that if someone was going thru all that trouble to mount something there, they'd prefer landscape. This app idea would be pointless if the phone was docked way down in the center console

 

[Pluto]

It looks cool, but with the 3's cell chargers positioned so that the phone would be in portrait mode while charging, you may want to orient your app to be in portrait mode. I like the landscape layout, but I know if I had the choice of cool landscape layout and no charging, or portrait mode and phone staying charged - I'm going to go with portrait mode and phone staying charged.

If you had your phone docked then it couldn't exactly be behind the steering wheel, but if you have it behind the steering wheel then another downside of using your phone as a dashboard is battery drain (adding another point of failure).

ok, decided to mock up something. I believe everything I put on the screen is data that is available via the API calls I mentioned above. Here are the API calls needed for all the information shown:

Speed, regen, heading, shift state:
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary
(doc is outdated; verified regen kW is available with an actual call to my Model S)

At least there's a single call for the most frequently updated information! Tbh I don't think there would be too much server strain (at least at this point) because:

• Only Model 3's that are on the road would be querying this information all the time.
• Only Model 3 drivers with the app installed would query for this information. Expanding on this:
  • Only people who know about the app would be able to get the app.
    
  • Only Model 3 drivers who care enough about having this dashboard would get the app.
  • Only Model 3 owners with a mount would be able to use the app (I believe).

About mounting, you can always have your smartphone mounted onto the windshield too. I only originally thought of placing it behind the steering wheel because it's probably the most natural place for drivers.

And about spotty data connections, I'm sure a few special effects like the entire screen fading out/darkening or just the speedo font color slowly fading out/darkening would be helpful to making it obvious when the information is out of date. But unless Tesla does something like update the car to provide this information without going through the Internet, there's no real way to solve the unreliable connectivity problem.

Though that gives me a thought. What if Tesla updated the Model 3 to provide a WiFi hotspot, which acts as a proxy to prevent Internet access while providing real-time updates to (most) Tesla API's and therefore the Tesla app? This would kill two birds in one stone; it allows drivers to effectively use their smartphone as a dashboard and it also allows drivers to effectively remove their smartphone as a point of distraction. Apple's already done something like this in iOS so it isn't unprecedented.

 

[Pkmmte]

There are several Heads Up products that allow you to use any APP and your smartphone. Why don't you design for heads up since everyone seems to want that. Don't know if the APIs support, but the GPS/Trip data would be another great add on. Maybe several different screen designs the user could choose from.

This was one, but I think they have some funding issues now: The Best Head-Up Display For Your Car | Navdy Here is another: Smartphone Heads Up Display. Not recommending any one. Just saying they exist.

Don't those require a OBD port? I don't think the Model 3 has such port...

 

[Pkmmte]

ok, decided to mock up something. I believe everything I put on the screen is data that is available via the API calls I mentioned above. Here are the API calls needed for all the information shown:

Speed, regen, heading, shift state:
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary
(doc is outdated; verified regen kW is available with an actual call to my Model S)

Units (mph):
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary

Battery charge, remaining distance:
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary

Preconditioning, EAP status:
Tesla Model S JSON API · Apiary
(doc is outdated; verified this info is available with an actual call to my Model S)
You could even do door/trunk open/close if you have the corresponding images to show. Makes sense to use a 3/4 aerial view of the car so you can visualize all doors/trunks.

Mockup shows everything on at once. The regen bar obviously wouldn't look like that in real-time.

sharable link:
Model 3 Binnacle App Mockup - novox77

Is this already under development? If not, I'd like permission to use this mock and create it.

 

[nvx1977]

What if Tesla updated the Model 3 to provide a WiFi hotspot, which acts as a proxy to prevent Internet access while providing real-time updates to (most) Tesla API's and therefore the Tesla app? This would kill two birds in one stone; it allows drivers to effectively use their smartphone as a dashboard and it also allows drivers to effectively remove their smartphone as a point of distraction. Apple's already done something like this in iOS so it isn't unprecedented.

The source of that wifi would be the car's data plan with AT&T. If you drive into an area of spotty AT&T coverage, you'd be screwed again. I tend to think that because Tesla is eating the cost of a data plan for each car that they will unlikely support tethering. People will use a ton of data from a data plan that was intended for low usage.

 

[nvx1977]

Is this already under development? If not, I'd like permission to use this mock and create it.

Go for it. keep me in the loop; I'm willing to act as an advisor from a UX standpoint.

 

[CuriousG]

This is covered by Ben Sullins in his latest video:

 

[Pluto]

The source of that wifi would be the car's data plan with AT&T. If you drive into an area of spotty AT&T coverage, you'd be screwed again. I tend to think that because Tesla is eating the cost of a data plan for each car that they will unlikely support tethering. People will use a ton of data from a data plan that was intended for low usage.

I meant that the car would immediately respond to API calls that it knows the answer to (ie. all the information you were talking about displaying on a dashboard app) and the only time there would be any Internet access via tethering is for authentication of the mobile app, downloading map updates, and querying the status of other Tesla products besides the current car. There would be no general Internet access provided by WiFi and by refusing to provide it, this is how distractions would be removed (essentially like turning off mobile data).

Now that I think about it though, if the point of connecting to WiFi in a Model 3 would be to remove distractions and to use the Tesla app as a dashboard, there wouldn't need to be any tethering whatsoever. But I don't really know how this would work with smartphone OS's (I'm sure some smartphones don't like connecting to WiFi networks that don't provide Internet access).

 

[pula]

Go for it. keep me in the loop; I'm willing to act as an advisor from a UX standpoint.

Different person here but I am implementing this for Android right now. I have a bit of work to do before it starts talking to the car but here is my UI copy of your mockup: