Pairing a modern iPad tablet with an old-school, first generation Opel Vectra may look like an impossible thing to do for most people. We’re not talking about fitting the iPad into the Vectra’s dashboard, but controlling the car via an iPad app.
For a group of Russian men with a passion for technology and car tinkering, this seemed like an interesting challenge. Motivated by their desire to replicate the scene from the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, where the secret agent controls a BMW 750iL with his mobile phone, they set out to make it work.
The big challenge was pairing the app’s electronic inputs with the car’s analog systems. They did that using their engineering skills and by improvising new motors to steer the car, an actuator for the brakes and a rod that pushes or pulls the gearshift lever to put the car into drive, neutral or reverse.
Obviously, the guys have some more fine-tuning to do, as you’ll notice in the video below, since the app cannot precisely control the amount of pressure applied throttle and braking. Hence the car’s sudden movements. But it works, although in the end there’s some smoke coming out from beneath the hood. Apparently, that’s because the engine overheated from the abuse it took…
By Dan Mihalascu
Story References: AOL UK
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