How to transform your In-Car digital experience on a budget

One of the key features of Option3 solution is Apple CarPlay. Apple CarPlay takes the things you want to do with your iPhone while driving and puts them right there on your cars built-in display in a safer smarter way. CarPlay features Siri voice control and is specially designed for driving scenarios. The Apple CarPlay you see here is for RHD (Right Hand Drive) where the steering wheel is in on the right-hand-side which is suitable for Australian Market. You can see that the home button and most recently used apps list are on the right-hand-side of the screen.

Apple CarPlay is one of the best infotainment systems experiences in a car if not the best. Unfortunately Blackvue Cloud App doesn't support Apple Car Play. If it is to be supported, you could have your rear Camera (Blackvue not parking Camera) view on the screen which could help you if you have stuff at the back that blocks your rear-mirror view.

Joli V5 iPhone Car Cup Holder is designed by Jorn Munnik (https://joli.design) and produced using 3D Printing Technology. A very light option compared to Land Rover Cup Holder Charger. The docking is firmly placed in your cup holder and stays neatly out of sight when you don't use it. The USB cable from Merryway Head Unit which is connected to Apple CarPlay USB dongle is discretely hidden inside the floor console upper section. The lightening end of the cable comes out of a hole we have drilled at the bottom of the cup holder behind the holding rubber.

With Siri, you can make phone calls, listen to voice mail and return missed call without loosing focus on the road. You can even make conference calls.

Siri can read, reply to and send text messages for you. This way you can remain productive while maintaining a low risk driving. Audio messages gets played as well.

You can ask Siri to play your favourite songs or act as your personal DJ.

Streaming offers a convenient way to access your local radio station anywhere.

Starting from iOS 12, Google Maps is supported on Apple CarPlay Service. This gives you a far better experience (compared to Evoque original navigation system) with multiple alternative routes to the same destination. Google Traffic displays traffic conditions in real time on major roads and highways.

The Evoque version we are working on has a limited charging capabilities. It has one USB port that output 0.5 Amp under the armrest console box. A modern smartphone that supports quick charging would need probably above 2 Amp. If you have a family, you would be looking at a need of at least 3 USB ports that can output 2.4 Amp each. Anker PowerDrive 5, is a family-sized 50 watts/10 amps through five ports charges all your phones, tablets and other devices simultaneously while on the road.

The current Evoque infotainment system would still be accessible from the new Head Unit. The only difference is that there would be no keys and all keys would be replaced by icons on the sides of the screen that you can touch to switch on or off.

• Existing Touch Screen

• New Touch Screen

With this solution, we are keeping all of the existing Evoque infotainment system features, and adding the following new features.

I did team up with Cameron (from http://oldjaguar.com) who is one of the best if not the best in Sydney to do Evoque retrofitting. He helped me in installing the most difficult component of the whole solution which is the Merryway Android based Head Unit/Screen.

The Android based Head Unit is manufactured by Shenzhen Merryway Technology Co. LTD (http://www.sz-mrw.com/eng/). Their Head Units fits quite nicely a particular model of a car to a level where you cant really tell if it was retrofitted or the car was upgraded to an advanced model.

The solution supports Apple CarPlay as well Android Auto whichever you prefer. The CarPlay USB dongle must be the Merryway one. Other CarPlay USB dongles wont work with Merryway Android Head Unit/Screen.

The Merryway Head Unit is tapping into the 40 pin Quadlock connector connected to the AHU-Audio ECU. As part of that, it is connected to the car speakers (refer to my other article here for details). AHU-Audio ECU has a built-in Bluetooth capability which if paired with your iPhone, it can enable you to make calls and listen to music over this bluetooth connection.

With this solution you have 2 options for audio connectivity.

I couldnt find a way to route audio for Apple Maps voice guidance to Bluetooth connection, so I used Google Maps instead. In google maps you can route guidance audio by enabling both "Play Voice over Bluetooth" and "Play as Bluetooth Phone Call".

Regardless of which way you prefer for audio connectivity (Music, Phone, Maps Guidance Voice), the left steering wheel controls would still be working fine for audio control.

To understand the technical details behind the solution, please refer to my other article here about what is CAN bus and why do you need to care.

OBD-II (On-board diagnostics II) port (refer to Controller Area Network Illustration in here), is the vehicle self-diagnostic and reporting capability.

To clear alarms or check whats happening in your car after the upgrade or if you are on the road, the best comprehensive tool I found is the Gap Diagnostic Tool. Easy to use and can tell you a lot about your car. It can also save you a trip to service centre if you just want to clear an alarm after an issue with your car got resolved.