To sum it up, our progress on the hardware production has been very slow in the recent months, and most probably the shipping won't start up until the end of December.
In the meantime, we've made a lot on the software side — and have submitted the new versions of both iOS and Android apps for review in App Store and Google Play. We expect them to be released in the beginning of next week — and you will then be able to update the Drive firmware, too.
Hardware productionThe most disappointing thing is that we have just recently finalized the tooling — several sample batches we produced after the previous tooling corrections, were repeatedly failing to ensure the stable contact between the main PCB and the power PCB.
The ongoing Covid outbreaks in China didn't make it easier. We lost October completely — the 10 days of Chinese National Holidays were followed by widened localised restrictions barring the factory personnel from on-site work. Our other production partners reported similar situation and it took much longer than usual for them to respond to our queries.
Living outside of China, we can only sympathize with our Chinese partners and colleagues struggling to maintain their businesses amidst massive curbs for nearly three years.
Upon our conversation earlier today, they're optimistic about the recent news on the curbs starting to being loosened and confirm that we must get the new batch ready for shipping at the end of December of beginning of January.
This has been the moving part that prevented our customer support to give any exact date of resuming the shipping — and up until mid-December we will not be 100% certain on that.
Now, to more positive news — what we've done about the software.
The apps#1. NEW MAPS
We keep digging the navigation side of things — so that the directions you get in the app are correct and helpful.
That's why we’ve added HERE maps with their excellent directions and precise address search. Simply put, it’s like having two engines under the hood: you can switch between them to see which performs better for where you’re driving.
#2. SPEED ADJUSTMENT
Many of our customers told us that the discrepancy between their car speedo readings and those displayed on the HUD looked annoying.
That’s why, we've added a tuner to match the speed on the HUD to that on the car speedo.
#3. SPEED LIMITS AND ALERTS
We’ve added speed limit signs to the speedometer widgets — and here's how they work.
You can turn on automatic limits (we get these from the map engines) posted for the current piece of the route, or set up your own limits (say, you never want to go beyond 50 mph — and you want to be alerted when you do).
When you’re exceeding the limit, the speedometer widget starts to glow prompting you to slow down.
#4. FINER BRIGHTNESS SETTINGS
There are now two modes you can select from — automatic and manual.
With the automatic brightness, you can set the brightness you like, but depending on the ambient light sensor data it will adjust automatically. Pretty much like your phone screen brightness adjusts.
Alternatively, you can disable auto brightness and set the brightness for day and night time. Our algorithms will then switch it to one of these levels based on the time in your location.
#5. NEW ROUTE OPTIONS
Alternative routes are finally here.
On Android, we’ve also added transit points — on iOS it requires yet a bit more work, so you should see it in one of the next updates.
Also, the route line on the map in the app is now highlighted in different colors based on the traffic density.
DRIVE OS (The firmware)This is where loads of work went under the hood — to support the changes made in the app (like speed limit signs and speedo glow) and improve the overall experience.
For example, we’ve reworked how the Drive connects to OBD scanners — more cars are now supported, and there are more chances we get correct data to display on the Drive.
Among the things you will be able to notice are more tightly packed widgets — we kept resizing and moving them and live testing until we were sure they fit beautifully and remain legible.
Finally, notifications now feature messenger icons (just fun). And we also made quite a bit of design updates here and there, based on the feedback we received and on our own experience of driving with the app.
Thank you for reading this. Hope it has shed some light on what was going on behind the scenes all this time.
Any questions or concerns — email us at
support@hudway.co. Polly and Maria are the most trusted source of information about HUDWAY.