Navigation, music, information, alerts — each an integral part of your driving experience. You need a dashboard device that is capable of communicating with your phone, accessing the internet, providing traffic information, offering turn-by-turn navigation, streaming music… and you need it in a seamless, elegant design. You need a smart dashtop tablet.
The Element is a dashtop integration kit that includes a housing for mounting your 2nd generation Nexus 7 Tablet. You can purchase a Nexus 7 with its own data plan, or, with the help of Tasker, you can configure your Android phone to automatically tether its internet when you start the car. Your instruction manual explains how.
With an internet connection, and an Android tablet, your options are limitless. Navigate with real-time traffic updates, stream music from Pandora or Google music, manage phone calls from the in-dash system connected directly to your Google contacts – you’ll see the profile photo of the person calling before you answer – and customize it all with the power of Android.
When combined with a separately purchased in-car microphone, you can issue voice commands to your tablet, bringing you in-dash navigation like you’ve never used before. Tell Android to navigate to the “nearest gas station” or to a new restaurant or to the airport. You don’t need to know the address, and you don’t need to type anything. While your eyes are on the road, Google translates your voice commands and searches for you. If your device is receiving location updates from your friends, you can even navigate to contacts without knowing where they are.
Combining an in-car microphone with your Element truly changes your driving experience. You’ll find yourself exploring unknown roads while your navigation figures out the details.
The Element is designed to allow the tablet to sleep with the display turned off and system locked while the car is parked. When you turn on your car the tablet wakes up and is ready as fast as you are. The tablet charges while the car is running, and uses its internal battery – not the car battery – while the car is parked. When properly configured, the tablet can stay parked for many days without running out of battery.
As sold, the Element is a housing and wiring harness ready to accept a separately purchased 2nd Generation Nexus 7 Tablet. If you configure the system for offline use, you can have music and offline navigation (purchased separately). When you combine this with an internet connection, in-car microphone, and some of the more powerful apps on the market (like Tasker, Tablet Talk, and Torque Pro), the system really comes to life and provides you with a truly unparalleled in-car experience.