Basically an android phone without any screen or buttons. This car android dongle will work as external hardware and software with whatever touch screen your car has.
Make sure your car or stereo is compatible with Android Auto, whose main function is to connect a phone to your car with a USB cable or wirelessly and mirror the screen to the dashboard. Really, CarDongle is just using what is already out there and making it more accessible, there is no proprietary technology here except for the looks and feels of the product itself – simple and easy.
At this moment of writing, only tooling and molds are ready. The company estimate that CarDongle should begin shipping out to the general public in early December 2021. Shipping is available to all countries worldwide, delivering your car android dongle from Hong Kong, China.
Car model compatibility can be checked here and stereo compatibility here.
For the CarDongle to actually work, it needs to be connected to a phone’s wifi hotspot. The great benefit of this product is that it can be used for GPS navigation, basically, any android based app that can read a geographic location will do, for example, Google Maps and Waze. It also has a built-in GPS antenna, so just downloading data before going on a trip might be a good idea.
Some cars are just behind with their operating systems and GPS navigation, so this is a great alternative if you do not wish to use a phone. There might be a SIM slot hardware upgrade in the future, depending on the demand.
Specs
The CarDongle is able to run most of the apps available on the google store, including Netflix and some pretty basic games.
How Good Is This Android Car Dongle?
From what I see on their YouTube channel, there has been no focus on the quality of the videos. Looks quite sad, to be honest. For such an interesting product, this could be done better. They say that the quality of the videos is poor because users requested for the product to be launched as soon as possible, so the company did not have much time to have a professional look at the videos.
Looks like their main marketing strategy is sending this android car dongle to YouTubers, so they do not really have to worry about producing high-quality content themselves, at least not for now.
Based on what I see on their forum, there are a lot of problems with the current product as well. Out of 1031 posts, more than half (589) is from a troubleshooting section. For such a low price, it still might be worth a try.
Worth mentioning, there are no refunds. Once the product has been shipped, that’s it. Cross your fingers and hope that it has no issues. Unless the item is faulty because of some manufacturing issues.
See For Yourself
Where Can You Get It?
At the moment you can only buy it through Indiegogo for just $99 (81 EUR). Once it is available to be bought on their website, the price will be higher (about 33%). For me, it looks like they are just testing the market and seeing if it gains traction. Once it does it might be fully launched and more available (as long as they fix the issues they have).
Distributer
There is a chance to make some business here, they are offering companies to become their distributors. Where do you think this will sell the best? P.S. A sign-up form is available here.
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