Hi, I’m Adam Stolarz, Damien’s brother and carputer hacker cohort. We just got done showing off our restored and computerized Nash at the Maker’s Faire.
So I was in charge of demonstrating the Nash’s computer features and GUI, and quite a few people said they had seen the original Nash blurb page but didn’t feel like they actually learned anything about it (which was a neat trick in that it gave us the element of surprise, but I imagine some people went “Oh old car I get it” and thought nothing more about it).
Our 1950 Nash Ambassador is rigged up with two computers: One for “audiovisual infotainment” as my brother would say-Streetdeck, and its complete in-car media and navigation features (so many demonstrations…)- and one dedicated to Skype video conferencing. It also has two wireless hotspots, pulling down internet over EVDO, one using Sprint, the other using Verizon, which provided us with wireless connectivity and satellite images for our navigation all the way up from Los Angeles. (With impressive speeds, I might add).
There are three screens in the front: two on the dash, one on the windshield. The left one is a touchscreen for controlling the media/nav computer, the right one a smaller ultra-bright screen for video conferencing. Those can be hidden by the original roll-down metal radio cover, leaving just the rearview screen (which mirrors the image on the touchscreen). This was a feature we used on the drive up. Once we had our music playing we turned on the nav screen with a GPS-based speedometer, trip meter, lat/long etc., shut the window, and relied on the rearview monitor. (The speedometer, incidentally, was much preferred over our authentic but woefully inaccurate steering wheel speedometer.)
All in all, the Nash exhibit was a rousing success. Last year we had a similar set-up, only in a hybrid Toyota Highlander. One thing we learned in comparing that year and this year, is that it’s more impressive and eye-catching to have an old restored car rigged with computers than a new hybrid. Even though the Highlander was pretty, it was not as interesting as the Nash with computers run all through it. Also, it gave the wrong impression that we were a custom shop pimping out cars with computer system, as opposed to carputer hackers and makers, there to spread the message of “Yes, you can also do this in your car!”
And, to spread that message, here be some links:
Streetdeck - The software used in our Nash, with it’s in-car loveliness.
The Mp3Car Forums - The biggest carputer community in the tubes that I know of.
Car PC Hacks - Damien’s book, of course, and my reference of choice.
Now that the senseless plugging rampage is over, I’ll bid you all adieu. We had a long exciting six hour drive up, and have another six hour drive back down to LA ahead of us. For all those who saw us at the show and all those simply reading about our car, thanks very much for the interest.
-adam
Technorati Tags: car pc, carputer, cars, in-car computing, infotainment, make, makersfaire, nash, nash ambassador, navigation, streetdeck
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