[jbob2000]

Very cool! I'm interested in your thoughts about car manufacturers including them on cars now. In Canada, all new car models must have a backup camera, for example. (Kinda funny how you feature brand new Porsches and Audis in your product demos; both these cars have backup cameras!)

I still think there's a market for the product for older/used/classic vehicles, but wondering what your perspective is on this.

[mrshoe]

Excellent question. It takes decades for new features to fan out to the majority of new cars. After that it then takes decades more for those features to reach saturation of all cars on the road, because only 7% of the car population turns over each year.

The bottom line is it's generally 40 years from the point when features like seat belts, air bags, traction control, and backup cameras are first introduced and when they reach 95% saturation.

Throughout this adoption process, demand for these features among those whose cars don't have them increases significantly!

[Riseed]

Excellent answer. Feature propagation & saturation is also a reason to offer/develop a version that doesn't require an OBD port.

Your customer base consists almost exclusively of those who are both willing to spend $499 on an accessory and who don't already have a reverse cam. Many potential customers won't have an OBD port in their car because OBD-I wasn't around until the '90s. Muscle car enthusiasts and parents (happy to spend $499 to prevent an accident) passing down an older car come to mind.

It would be great to see a second generation version that works without OBD.

[jbob2000]

Thanks for the very informative reply!

[sp332]

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/06/a-team-of-ex-apple-engin... There's a long design cycle, and it only appears in some makes and models; it can take 10 to 20 years to appear across the production line. The other challenge is the technology in new cars is designed to be stagnant, so it stays the same throughout the lifetime of the car, which is over 17 years now.