Hansen
A new company called Pearl has been working on a product called RearVision, a stealthy backup camera disguised as a license plate frame. The $500.00 preorder price tag consists of the license plate frame equipped with two cameras (one for daytime and an infrared camera for the nighttime), an OBDII adapter, a phone mount and a mobile app. This means your 20 year old beater can be as modern as your neighbor’s new Lexus with the backup camera.
The license plate frame has an integrated battery and solar power panel, removing the need to do any wiring work to power the device. Arstechnica spoke to the cofounder and CEO of the company, Bryson Gardner, who previously worked for Apple:
“At Apple we loved taking the very latest technology and getting it into the hands of the consumer as quickly as possible,” Gardner told Ars. “We wanted to find something that was infused with technology but ripe for change—we started looking at how technology gets into cars, and it’s quite an extended timeline. 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.”
After talking to lots of drivers, Gardner and his colleagues saw their opportunity. “We didn’t want to generate demand but fulfill it,” he told us.
Pearl currently doesn’t have support for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto just yet, but it seems like that would be the natural next step for a product like this. We are just curious as to what the product’s limitations are, such as how long before the license plate frame runs out of juice? Or how can you securely fasten the frame to the vehicle so it’s less prone to thefts?
(Source: Pearl & Arstechnica)
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