I appreciate many of the replies about Fitbits and Apple watches and other watches to my always-on-display-CGM question yesterday! I will ask my kids if they can help with that new tech but probably that is beyond me without my kids help.
Dang, I can’t do pictures anymore. I can’t even include a URL to my picture. But I mocked up a picture of my bg reading out on a dashboard gauge just like RPM or MPH. And that’s what I want.
I wear a receiver, clipped to my pants waistband–easy to see. I also get readings on my watch, but that will go away when I use xDrip with my G6 because xdrip developers broke the code that sends Android Notifications to a Tizen-based watch such as mine. They broke the code in late Aug, 2018. I can’t imagine how any car would receive data from a CGM. I’m having plenty of trouble finding the right vehicle to buy given all the other options!! My wife and I are test driving, reading specs, and finding little “gotchas” with each vehicle. sigh.
It won’t not in the US, while you are driving. If you could, then you could stream DVD’s movies, etc. to your navigation system. There are some countries where you can do that if you want to jailbreak your navigation system, but I don’t see that becoming an option in the US until vehicles are totally self driving.
You could of course mount a tablet to your dashboard and send to the CGM data to the tablet. Many cars now have wifi and internet access and some tablets such as microsoft ProX will take a SIM card and receive data almost anywhere so there are a few options for the diehard.
There is an inelegant and non-tech way of doing this, but it is very easy.
Do you have a standard Dex receiver?
Set your low alert level to the highest possible setting on the receiver, probably would be 100 on the receiver.
Set your high alert level to the lowest possible setting on the receiver, probably would be 120 on the receiver.
Turn all the repeats to 0 minutes.
Turn the “urgent low soon” warning on.
Turn the rise/fall rates to be the lowest values, 2 mg/dL/min.
Put the Dexcom receiver were you can see it, like on the dashboard or on your visor or something.
As long as you do not press any buttons, your BG will appear every 5 minutes (as long as your BG is not between 100-120).
If your BG is between 100 and 120, it will not appear, but so what? Your value is fine.
But as soon as you get to 99 or 121, it would start popping up and displaying every 5 minutes as long as you do not acknowledge the warning alarm by pressing a button.
This is pretty much a hands-free system. Very low tech but completely functional and very easy to implement. And since most people get a receiver with their initial Dex script, you can probably use the receiver you already have handy.
I know this seems low tech, but if you have a receiver, this setup costs nothing and takes about 2 minutes to setup. Try it sometime.
The key point to repeat - as long as you never acknowledge the alarm, it will keep showing up every 5 minutes for any value other than 100-120, or for any fast rises or falls.
I have a phone holder on my dash. I clip my phone in, turn on android auto (or not) and I can see my phone when I’m driving. Why not just have the phone on the dash, with an xDrip widget with the screen always on. there are apps to keep the screen on. I’m talking Android here, folks. If you have an iPhone it’s a whole other deal, as there is no homescreen widget or even a way to get xDrip on iOS. My sympathies.
Today, while on the freeway I heard my receiver alarm. I was dropping so I whipped out a small vial of Skittles and upended the bottle to ingest about a dozen or so of them. Gotta love CGM’s!
There’s always a car with Apple CarPlay. It puts some info from your iPhone on to the display/navigation screen
I test drove a vehicle yesterday. The salesman was in the passenger seat when I asked about Android Auto. He said,“yes, it has both Apple Car play and Android Auto”. That was the good news. The bad news was he then proceeded to show me a USB connector BURIED behind a panel at the bottom of the dash. I tried and failed several times to push the cable I just happened to have with me (my phone battery is the pits so I had a Jackery Bar in my pocket) into that USB jack, down at the bottom of a deep dark recess with little room for my hand. I gave up and handed it to him.
Moral: when I pick out our vehicle it isn’t going to be one that doesn’t have WIRELESS Android Auto.
We have Apple Car play and there are cons to having to plug in, but I’ve grown used to it and appreciate that my phone is usually always charged because of it. I also long for CGM data to display on that screen. I don’t follow the idea that it will never be allowed bc then movies would be streamable. CGM viewing is closer to movies than seeing music or podcast status where you can rewind and fast forward and pause, etc?
See, I don’t want a video of my cellphone screen on my dashboard. I want an ACTUAL BG GAUGE ON THE DASHBOARD. You know, an actual gauge with red needle that points to the bg number.
I made a mock-up graphic of how this would look on my dashboard but unfortunately I cannot post images to tudiabetes anymore. But think of an actual old-school analog gauge like RPM or MPH.
I have a 1999 Corolla that I just added an analog oil pressure gauge and voltmeter to. It cost $15 from Amazon. I had to cut some holes in the dash and run new tubing and wires to put it in. But ANY grease monkey kid can do this to any old-school car. There ought to be an ability for me to put an actual gauge on my dashboard showing bg.
As an alternative, AND VERY SIMPLE, you could have xDrip speak your numbers at any interval you select. I turn on that feature when hiking or doing hours of yardwork. Beats having to look at my watch, a receiver, or god-forbid, my phone. Who wants to keep pulling their phone out of their pocket when working? I like audio over having to view a small screen when I’m busy.
Then the government would want to know when you dipped into the red and to take away your drivers’ license based on low BG
Well if they wanted that they could confiscate my cellphone or G6 receiver or just use FISA to get the password to my Dexcom Clarity account! No way are they gonna get that out of my 1999 Corolla 
Someone posted a pic of the back of their car with a sticker declaring “Diabetic Driver”. I thought that’s kinda dumb, frankly. You don’t want the police eyeing your every move if they get behind you while driving, looking for signs of impairment. If you lose consciousness in Calif you automatically lose your license if taken to an ER. Doctors have to report episodes of unconsciousness to DMV.
I think a qi wireless car charger with the xdrip screensaver would work fine for you…amazon has many to choose from
Cables cost next to nothing. I leave USB cables attached to my car on a permanent basis. Last week I rented a car and left a USB cable attached the entire time. I also use an app called No Screen Off on my Samsung phone whenever the phone is charging. You may need to turn off Adaptive Brightness. I have the phone display my blood sugar via the Dexcom app. I do this at night, when I charge the phone as well. This is as close as you can get to an on dash display.
You need an arrow to show whether you’re going up or down.
You shouldn’t need a special app for that. It’s one of the additional Android “developer options” in the settings menu. You can Google instructions of how to enable them for your phone/Android version, but it’s usually something like settings>about phone>tap build number repeatedly until it tells you you’ve enabled developer options. There are some other fun things you can play with in there, like changing accent color (like what color you see in the pull down menu).
I wondered if that was what he was talking about. I have a new car with Apple CarPlay, but Dexcom, my com, doesn’t display.
I enabled the developer’s options when Medicare finally allowed their Dexcom users to use their phones. If I recall, the developer’s options only allow the screen to be kept on while charging. The Apps can keep the screen on all of the time, or at least until the battery drain.
At night, I make use of an upright wireless charger. The screen on my phone is set at its dimmest, so as not to disturb my sleep. I can easily see the screen whenever I open my eyes and glance at it. I also keep the alarms active.
