GoKawiilWhen I became a parent, I wasn't prepared for the stress of cruising down the highway at 65 mph and having my toddler suddenly go quiet. Is she peacefully sleeping, or up to something suspicious? That question usually leads me to contort my body just to get a glimpse of the car seat in the rearview.
There are plenty of supposed solutions for spying on your baby while driving, but they never feel quite right. Car seat mirrors are wobbly and are basically useless after dark. I’ve tried the back seat camera systems with dedicated monitors, but they quickly crowd my dashboard and come with a tangle of wires begging to be yanked by the aforementioned toddler.
Ottocast's Cabin Care Wireless CarPlay Adapter aims to solve these problems. It pairs a wireless CarPlay adapter and a rear-facing cabin camera that streams directly to your car’s existing screen unit. So in theory, a quick glance gives navigation or music and a live feed of the back seat, all without extra monitors or a mess of cords to deal with. After a month of daily driving (from quick Target runs to longer trips across state lines) with a 17-month-old, I can confidently say this product mostly pulls it off.
Plug and Play
Photograph: Nicole Kinning
I tested the system in a 2017 Honda CR-V, and my daughter, who is a year-and-a-half, sits rear-facing in a car seat in the back seat. There are a few requirements up front in order to use the Ottocast Cabin Care. Your car needs factory-wired CarPlay (typically found in vehicles model year 2016 or newer), and it only works with iPhones. If you’re not sure if your car qualifies, Ottocast has a handy compatibility checker on its site.