This Must Be the Coolest Way to Deal with Tailgaters, All Using Voice Commands

Called CarWink, this innovative device attaches to your windshield or rear window and, using an integrated display, can show a series of emoticons that you can control using voice commands or touch input.

The whole thing works extremely simple. CarWink is secured in place with a suction cup and then connects to a mobile app that runs on Android and iPhone. Users control what’s showing on the display for other drivers to see with the help of the app’s UI or with a voice command.

The supported emoji include things like too close, which is super-useful when trying to deal with tailgaters, pedestrian crossing, thank you, party time, road trip, existing freeway, need fixing, police ahead, traffic jam, and others. The parent company says they’re already working on adding more emoji in the coming updates.

CarWink gets its power through a USB connection, but at the same time, it also comes with solar charging support, so you can install it and then forget it’s there. It connects to the phone using a Bluetooth connection and features a simple 8-bit LED RGB display that really doesn’t eat a lot of juice from the 3,000 mAh li-ion battery that features an anti-explosive treatment (it’s funny the parent company had to mention this, so thank you, Samsung, for changing how we handle batteries forever!).

CarWink raised nearly $120,000 on Indiegogo, and although the device was already supposed to be in the hands of those who donated for the project, its creator explained a few days ago that the manufacturing process hit a series of roadblocks. Some of them concern the suction cup design, so additional time is needed to deal with all these problems before CarWink is shipped.