There is no doubt that replacing your default OEM car radio with a vertical Tesla style screen multimedia unit opens up a whole new world and new features to your old car. Most vehicle manufactures add the most basic features to cars and given that fact that most Ugandans are driving cars made in the early 2000s or older doesn’t help the situation.
The advent of modern open-source Operating systems like Android has opened up doors for old vehicles to support features that their users would only dream of. Thanks to Telsa that has popularized its large screen displays in their cars — companies mainly in China are making it possible for car owners to swap out their radio units with this Tesla Style multimedia system.
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It is basically a Tablet running Android in your car and it brings a different atheistic to the interior. The systems often come with a huge capacitive touch screen with the most expensive having a maximum resolution of 1920*1080 pixels (the cheaper ones have less resolution), 2 or 4 GB of RAM (the higher the better), 32 or 64 GB ROM, Quad-core or Hexa-core chips, FM Transmitter, Built-In Speaker/Microphone, Support Steering Wheel Control for some cars, etc.
The features below are common in most of the high end Tesla style high-end units.
- Built-in DSP to enhance your listening experience
- Built-in wireless CARPLAY for Apple user
- Support Android AUTO
- Support voice control ：English
- HDMI–that is, support for headrests
- Capacitive Multi-touch screen / Resolution HD 1920*1080 IPS Screen
- Bluetooth 5.0 – Supporting three-way calling。Advanced Edition Qualcomm 5.0 Solution Supports NX TX ATTX Lossless Sound Quality
- Support HD 1080P+Support Lossless music
- Built-in Wifi / Support 3G/4G Network
- Support Android App download and Google play store
- Video Support: WMV(VC1 Code)AVI (H.264, MPEG4,Xvid, WMV),MP4 (H.263, H.264, MPEG4), MPG(MPEG-2),M4V(H.264, MPEG4)
Other Add Features supposed by these Tesla Style units
That is not all, you can further pimp up your experience with more hardware monitored by the Telsa style unit on your vehicle to bring more functionality including;
Support for DVR Function: You can Digital Video Recording (DVR) for the front, which will let you record your journey more safely if that is your kind of thing. You can also add an external Digital Audio Broadcasting device (this won’t help much in Uganda). The most mesmerizing is the support for TV on the go. A user will need to purchase a separate DVB-T2/ISDB-T, or DVB-T2/ISDB-T box and connector, for you to enjoy free to air TV channels.
The Tesla Style radio units also have support for the rear-view camera, to help you when you reversing the car by displaying the reversing track as well to assist a user’s parking experience. As if that not enough, you can get an onboard diagnosis (OBD) device to help you diagnose your car at any time and help clear out simple software faults. To detect car tire pressure at any time and ensure one is driving safety a TPMS tire-pressure monitoring system will have to be installed on your tires and will communicate with the unit to give the status of your tires. Did I forget GPS car tracking? The features are endless.
The Android with in
At the core, this Tesla Style Unit is an Android device in your car — so you can install apps to your liking. Using Google Maps for Navigation is a breeze on such devices as it could help track traffic-congested areas to be avoided while driving around Kampala. We recommend you get a unit with the latest Android operating system, the ones we have seen have at least Android 8 and above. These come with more features and support from modern apps in the Google PlayStore.
ALSO READ: How to use the Google Traffic feature to steer you out of Kampala’s jam
The user interface on most of these units has been changed to support car navigation and easy usability while driving. You can play music from your phone, watch movies, stream Netflix or listen to Spotify or Apple Music with a good internet connection from your phone’s hotspot or a dedicated MiFi.
The User interface on most of these Tesla Style Units adds functionality for real-time monitoring of the vehicle’s performance from speed, GPS position, altitude, Climate (also known as AC), adjust volume, etc. as illustrated in the above image.
Pricing, compatibility and Installation challenges
Before you can spend over UGX 1 million to UGX 2 million on these vertical Tesla style screen car multimedia units, its important to ensure that the unit you are buying is compatible with your car make, model, and year of manufacture. I have heard of many cases irregularities after installation for example of AC not working, reverse camera not working, wheel control buttons unresponsive, etc.
For some high version vehicles, these Tesla style units can’t support some original car function, that is not a quality problem of the device but rather it’s just a different country and different version car that has a different configuration. Always ask your dealer to get you the right unit for your car.
We suggest that one takes the unit to a car to find a professional person to install it, because the wrong installation may damage the device and void your warranty. Most manufacturers consider your warranty void in case of Undue wear and tear, dirt, misused, improper installation or operation, neglect, and accident.
We shall surely get our hands-on experience with one of these so-called Vertical Tesla style screen multimedia unit and give a full review.
