[paulbennett]

In its current state this doesn't appear to do more than a bluetooth OBD adapter paired with a cheap tablet can do - its really nothing like a Tesla touch screen at the moment, I guess the blog post title is just marketing.

Their use cases page however does a better job of showing what could be possible: https://www.autopi.io/use-cases/

[djaychela]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm a competent mechanic (owned and fixed more cars than I can remember), and also electronically savvy; obviously modern cars have diagnostics via OBD2, but as you say, that's a world away from a Tesla-level control system.

Having had experience of various systems for more in-depth diagnostics (Ford, Vauxhall and PSA systems that I own, as well as the generic phone/bluetooth OBD code reader and diagnostic real-time display), I can't see that this will be easy to get sorted. Having seen the huge amount of work that a solution such as ForScan needs to get it running (and having spent some time feeding back issues to the creator), let alone something that is going to attempt to control a vehicle in everyday use, I think this will be a fair way away from being a real-world usable system - most cars just don't have the features documented, or even present.

The other thing is that I really don't think that a touchscreen is a good interface to use in a car. I'm a Tesla (and EV generally) fanboy, I guess, but this is one area that I don't get; you have to have your focus away from the road to do anything (which I guess won't matter when autopilot works fully all the time on any road) because you don't have tactile feedback and dedicated controls - you need to see where you're pressing to do something. There's a reason why cars' physical controls work so well, and I think a touchscreen (despite being really cool and futuristic) is the wrong way to go.