If you’re a journalist covering Glass, looking for The Next Big Thing in white-collar terror and moral panic, you’ve thought about driving with Glass. The distraction! The avoidable crashes! What a goldmine of terrifying link-bait headlines, ready to wrap around a shoddily-researched article!
I present Voidstar AutoHud, a Glass app designed to be used behind the wheel, that makes the driver safer.
Voidstar AutoHud is a unique piece of Glassware, as it’s actually a combination of hardware and software. You plug a cheap OBD-II dongle into a port under your dashboard, hit Connect, and bam, you’ve got your speed, RPM, MPG, and fuel live in front of your eyes.
AutoHud is compatible with every vehicle sold in the US since 1996 (that’s when OBD-II was mandated) and can update as fast as your dashboard. It’s open-source and compatible with open hardware, so you can enforce that your driving data is yours alone.
This app was developed to prove a point – that you can be safer with a wearable than without one. While I’m wearing Glass and running AutoHud, I don’t take my eyes off the road – my dashboard is in the sky above the asphalt everywhere I look.
You, on the other hand, take your eyes off the road every ten seconds or more to check the dials. That’s just unsafe. You also take your eyes off the road to check your phone and GPS, which makes me fear for my own safety.
While AutoHud is running, it actually makes it harder to do distracting things on Glass. Like every Glass app that uses a Live Card, AutoHud blocks the wearer from using voice commands and checking notifications while active. If you cover Glass and didn’t know this, I recommend doing some research before your next big scare piece.
AutoHud is easy to install and use, and requires a car, an OBD dongle, and Google Glass. View the source and instructions at my GitHub, or just download the ready-to-install APK.
Right now, AutoHud displays the most important data on your dashboard – RPM, speed, instantaneous MPG, and remaining fuel. By popular demand, the next feature package will be a performance HUD with engine torque, engine load, throttle, and shifter position. Future updates will add an overspeed warning that knows the road’s speed limit, a post-trip report with cost of gas and performance summary, and automatic GPS logging to find your car.
Zack Freedman 
I liked your AutoHud example as I was struggling working out how to access the SPP functionality of Glass, I have created a VitalsHud from your source that interfaces to our HXM (heart rate monitor) device and displays Heart Rate, and Speed. Planning on adding cadence, strides, distance and calories.
I will be at the WearableDevCon next week and i can show you.
Cheers Jon
Awesome, man! Love to hear new hardware/Glassware projects. One thing I didn’t add is automatic pairing, which is a requirement for a production app.
Get in touch at the conference, I’m flying in tomorrow. You can find me on everything by my real name.
Got the dongle you recommended, installed Settings.apk as well as BluetoothManager. I can pair the dongle, but AutoHud does not seem to be able to connect to it… I can connect to the dongle using the Torque app on my phone, so I guess the dongle is OK.
One thing I noticed is that I don’t have to provide a code when pairing – but that also applies to my phone. Is this maybe an issue with XE12?
Yeah, I have to update the code for XE12. Non-SSP devices are now a little more challenging to pair and connect.
Would be great to see the app working on XE12 😊
This would be very useful! I would love to see an updated version. (17.3)
Is it possible just to use a SPP connection with Glass? Or does it require a hands free profile as well?
Great question. You can use the Android Bluetooth API to easily open an RFCOMM port with any SPP device. This is exactly how I built this demo.