Pearl RearVision is a Rear camera for your car. The RearVision unit comes with a dongle that connects with a vehicle’s on-board diagnostic port to help communicate and determine the car’s speed, and battery power isn’t a concern since the device charges using an integrated solar panel.
Bryan Gardner, one of the co-founders of the company, said that one full day of sun equates to an entire week of charge for the device, and the RearVision can store one month of battery in its reserves.
A group of three former Apple engineers, along with around 50 various designers and workers also formerly employed by Apple, have created a new startup in the vehicle accessory market, called Pearl, and today announced pre-orders on their product “RearVision“
The RearVision unibody frame made of painted die cast aluminum alloy, a material the team chose for its durability and all-weather-resistance. Along the top it has two cameras that provide a 180-degree field of view. The brains of the device are in a unit that plugs into your car’s on-board diagnostic, or OBD port, which is standard on all cars built after 1996. The cameras communicate wirelessly with the hub and your smartphone.
You get a live stream of the rear view on your mobile device and can shift between portrait view, with two levels of zoom, and a landscape view. It will sound two different kinds of alerts: one to let you know a vehicle or person is passing behind you, telling you to slow down, and another indicating a stop to avoid a collision.
The National Highway Safety Administration recently put into motion a ruling that will make all new cars launching in 2018 and beyond come with such technology ready for the user, but that still leaves a large swath of used and pre-owned vehicles without the ease-of-mind rear-view cameras can provide.
Price of this device is $500 with an attachable license plate accessory that connects via Bluetooth to an iOS or Android smartphone,displaying a 180-degree rear-view field of vision when backing up your car. The company also says that set-up is simple and doesn’t require anything besides a screwdriver and your smartphone
