Hi, I'm Jacopo Latrofa (aka fralapo) and today I will show you how to make a car smart by using a tablet as a replacement for the car stereo.

There are several possibilities to make a car smart, the most common is to buy one of the many Android car stereos on sale and install it instead of the original one, but this solution is not suitable for everyone. the circumstances.

  1. To have one that performs well and lasts for years you have to spend 250$ upwards.
  2. They are not suitable for all cars, for example in my 2007 Opel Astra the car radio is located at the bottom, and therefore would be very uncomfortable and dangerous while driving. In addition, by replacing the original car radio, I would have lost the ability to adjust the various settings of the car. So, in this case, using a tablet is the best choice.

Autoradio Opel Astra 2007

— Which tablet did I choose —

Not having unused tablets at home, I bought one and chose the Lenovo Tab M10 for two reasons:

  1. Compared to the rest of the tablets, in addition to the charging port it has side connectors that allow it to be recharged via its charging base.
  2. Plus it can be found new on Amazon for between 200 and 250$, but I managed to buy it used as new for 100$.

— Tablet Setup —

  1. First I disabled the automatic display shutdown from the settings.
  2. As a launcher I have chosen CarWebGuru.
  3. While as an alternative I installed the Android Auto launcher.

— How to connect it to the car —

To connect it to the car speakers I chose an FM transmitter with an internal battery that is recharged via solar panel in such a way as to have the cigar lighter door free, plus this transmitter works both via Bluetooth and via jack audio.

While in order to power the charging base of the tablet I chose a Car Charger that has an extension to be able to have the sockets also in the rear seats.

Thanks for reading this guide.