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Touchscreen dashboards are common in modern vehicles, but the underlying pattern is simple: a computer hosts a UI, and the UI is backed by data sources such as GPS, vehicle networks, and cloud services. A Raspberry Pi-based carputer is a practical way to build that pattern into older vehicles, prototypes, workshop vehicles, or just a personal DIY project where control and experimentation matter more than factory integration.
This article covers a Raspberry Pi carputer dashboard setup built around AutoPi hardware and AutoPi Cloud. The goal is not to replace a vehicle’s OEM infotainment system, and it is not attempting to emulate OEM safety-critical systems. It is a controlled add-on system that reads vehicle data through OBD-II (and optionally CAN) and presents it through a touch UI, with connectivity for remote access and logging.
There are many Raspberry Pi “car dashboard” guides online that focus only on the screen and UI framework. That approach usually breaks down when reliable vehicle power, stable connectivity, or real data access becomes the requirement. A carputer that looks good on the bench still needs predictable boot behavior, a stable power path, and a way to access vehicle signals without turning the project into a wiring job.
Raspberry Pi Carputer Dashboard
A Raspberry Pi carputer dashboard is essentially a small embedded computer mounted in the vehicle that runs a UI optimized for in-car use. Most DIY builds aim for a touch screen interface, basic connectivity, and some form of vehicle data integration. The concept is not new, but the hardware ecosystem has matured enough that it can be built cleanly without custom PCB work.
Many people tend to overcomplicate the installation of a Raspberry Pi carputer dashboard. In practice, it becomes manageable if the project is treated as three separate problems: (1) safe power and mounting, (2) network and positioning, and (3) where the vehicle data actually comes from. Once those are solved, the touchscreen UI becomes “just software”.
Adding a car dashboard touchscreen (a custom car computer) opens a long list of options. Tesla is a well-known reference point here because the touch UI is the central control surface: climate settings, navigation, thermal features such as cabin overheat protection, and service functions are all exposed through software. It is a specific OEM architecture, but it shows where the industry is going: fewer physical buttons and more software-defined control surfaces.
A DIY carputer will not replicate OEM-level integration, but it can cover the parts that are useful in day-to-day driving and development: readouts, logging, mapping, and controlled interaction with vehicle data. The biggest difference between a hobby display and a practical system is stable data and stable power.
Common feature categories in Raspberry Pi carputer builds include:
Touch screen UI: A kiosk-style interface that stays readable in daylight and does not require a keyboard.
4G/LTE connectivity: Useful for remote access, uploading logs, and using online map tiles.
GPS positioning: Used for live maps, route replay, and trip logging.
Vehicle data access: Read ECU data through OBD-II, and in some builds expand into raw CAN data.
Bluetooth audio: Audio output through an existing head unit or Bluetooth speaker system.
Inertial sensors: Accelerometer data for harsh braking, cornering, or basic motion detection.
Wi-Fi hotspot: Local network inside the vehicle for service work or passenger devices.
Dashcam integration: Optional, but common in DIY builds where recording and timestamped GPS data matter.
What you will need for your custom car computer
A Raspberry Pi carputer does not require cutting the dashboard or rewiring the vehicle. The approach in this guide is based on using the OBD-II port for power and diagnostics together with a display mounted in a reversible way. That keeps the project closer to “install and remove” rather than “modify the car”.
It also avoids the most common DIY pitfall: relying on an improvised power supply that causes random reboots, SD card corruption, or brownouts during engine crank. Vehicle power is noisy. Load dumps, crank drops, and transients are normal. If the compute platform is a Raspberry Pi, then the power path becomes a first-class design requirement.
Here is all you need:
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AutoPi TMU device with an OBD-II extension cable. The extension cable is not only for convenience. It also reduces strain on the vehicle’s OBD connector and allows the TMU to be mounted in a stable location.
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Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display . This is a common choice for DIY dashboards because it has known mechanical dimensions and a large community of mounting solutions.
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SmartiPi Touch 2 Case . It provides a clean enclosure with space for HAT boards and cable routing. That matters once the system is mounted in a vehicle where vibration and cable strain are real.
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Strong double-sided tape. Reversible mounting is a practical design choice for DIY dashboards. It keeps the build non-destructive, and it allows repositioning without leaving permanent marks.
What You Also Can Do with AutoPi
AutoPi is often used as a telematics and data access platform, but it also fits well as the backbone of a DIY carputer dashboard because it handles the parts that are usually difficult in Raspberry Pi projects: in-vehicle power, cellular connectivity, GPS, and the interface to vehicle data.
The AutoPi CAN FD Pro is one of the device options used in projects where CAN and diagnostic access matter. In a Raspberry Pi dashboard context, it becomes the bridge between a touch UI and actual vehicle signals. The UI can show live values, log trips, and expose remote visibility into the vehicle state without building a custom backend from scratch.
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Vehicle health monitoring and live readouts
Vehicle ECUs expose a long list of parameters through OBD-II and OEM diagnostics. Live readouts such as engine coolant temperature, engine load, fuel system parameters, and battery voltage are common starting points. Reading and tracking fault codes is also a practical feature because it keeps the “what happened” history available even after a warning light disappears.
In real installations, the interesting part is consistency: sampling intervals, how values are scaled, and whether the signal is stable across different driving conditions. Some PIDs update slowly, others are noisy, and that influences what makes sense to display on a dashboard.
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Trip tracking and driving data
Trip tracking usually combines GPS position, vehicle speed, and time. For basic dashboards it is mainly used for route replay and mileage. For development builds and prototypes it often grows into “what changed during this run”: acceleration patterns, idle time, and repeatability of a test route.
This is one of the reasons people move from a simple Raspberry Pi UI to a platform approach. Data is only useful if it can be exported, compared, and stored in a predictable format.
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Remote visibility and controlled interaction
Remote interaction does not have to mean remote control of safety-related functions. In many practical projects it means remote status: “is the vehicle online”, “what is the last position”, “what did the voltage look like overnight”, and “did any faults appear during the trip”.
It can also include controlled actions like triggering a data capture session, pushing configuration changes, or selecting which signals are logged. These are the kinds of operations that support development and fleet testing without turning the project into a full OEM integration.
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Logging and exporting vehicle data
Logging is where dashboards become more than a display. When a signal set is logged consistently, it becomes possible to analyze patterns across trips, compare changes after modifications, and correlate symptoms with environmental conditions.
For many builds, export format is what decides whether the data stays useful. CSV is typically the first step because it is easy to post-process in Python, MATLAB, or spreadsheets. More advanced setups move into time series databases or structured storage, but that is a later step.
AutoPi devices are frequently used in projects where a Raspberry Pi UI is only one part of the system. The device provides stable connectivity and vehicle access, and the UI becomes a configurable surface for the data and controls. This is closer to how modern production vehicles are built: data pipelines first, UI second.
The goal of this guide
The goal of this step-by-step guide is to show how a touch-based car computer can be built using a Raspberry Pi display setup combined with AutoPi hardware for connectivity and vehicle data access.
The guide stays away from vehicle-specific dashboard modifications. Mounting differs across cars, and there is no single “best” location. The focus is the repeatable part: wiring, power, connectivity, and software flow.
The AutoPi TMU device together with AutoPi Cloud provides out-of-the-box functions that reduce the amount of custom work required for a dashboard build. It is essentially a ready-to-use base layer for power, vehicle integration, and remote management.
A few relevant capabilities commonly used in DIY dashboard builds include:
Power supply, vehicle diagnostics, and telemetry through the OBD-II port.
4G/LTE connectivity, GPS, accelerometer data, and speaker support depending on device configuration.
GPS-based positioning for maps, route logging, and basic navigation overlays.
Dashboard widgets for live values and status monitoring, suitable for an in-car UI.
In the build examples, the dashboard UI can be configured to show combinations of:
Gauges for speed, RPM, and fuel-related parameters where supported by the vehicle.
Current position on a map with route trace.
Buttons for non-critical control actions, where integration is available.
Optional UI features inspired by OEM dashboards, such as thermal protection logic in EV-focused projects.
What is a Raspberry Pi custom car computer?
A Raspberry Pi custom car computer (carputer) is a small computer installed in a vehicle to provide a UI and extra functionality that is not part of the OEM system. It is typically based on a Raspberry Pi board (or a compute module variant), combined with a touch screen and an interface to power, connectivity, and vehicle data.
In real-world use, a carputer is most useful when it has a clear job: show live values, act as a logging interface, provide a map view, or serve as a controlled engineering console. Trying to make it “do everything” often creates a fragile setup, especially when the vehicle is used daily.
The Step-By-Step Guide
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Set up your AutoPi TMU device first. The AutoPi guide is available here. This step matters because connectivity, device registration, and basic configuration should be stable before the screen is mounted in the vehicle.
Assemble the Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display and connect it using the included adapter board. Keep cable routing tidy during this step. In a vehicle, loose cables quickly become a reliability issue.
Assemble everything into the SmartiPi Touch 2 case. The case design also allows space for HAT boards or additional electronics on the back, which can be useful if the setup expands later.
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In the car, choose a mounting location for the touch screen. In many vehicles, the center console is the simplest non-destructive option. In the example build, strong double-sided tape is used to keep the mount reversible.
Additional note: the screen can also be mounted near the steering column as a supplement to the instrument cluster. This is not suitable for every vehicle, and visibility and safety considerations should always come first.
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Locate the OBD-II port. It is typically under the dashboard, but placement varies by manufacturer and model year. Some vehicles also place it behind small trim covers.
Insert the OBD-II extension cable into the port and connect the other end to the adapter board on the back of the screen assembly (as used in this example build). The extension cable reduces strain on the vehicle port and makes routing easier.
Install the SmartiPi Touch 2 case and fit the rear cover. The cover space is useful when the build includes a HAT or extra wiring, and it prevents exposed electronics from rubbing against interior trim.
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Once connected, the unit powers up and a short start-up prompt may appear. This is expected because the AutoPi platform is optimized for fast boot and does not ship with a default graphical desktop environment.
A kiosk-style UI can be added, and the system can be configured to boot directly into a dashboard interface. That is usually the cleanest approach for in-car touch setups.
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This step is the technical part: enable a kiosk mode UI on the Raspberry Pi so the touch screen loads the my.autopi.io interface. The end result should be a kiosk-mode Raspberry Pi setup with touch input enabled and the AutoPi UI loaded as the primary interface.
A detail that is often missed in DIY builds is browser behavior after sleep or connectivity changes. Kiosk setups benefit from watchdog-style restarts of the browser process, and stable time synchronization if data logging is enabled.
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If the AutoPi TMU device is online, the installation tasks execute immediately. Progress can be monitored through the screen once the UI is available.
If the device is offline or in sleep mode, the installation will be queued and executed at the next wake-up. This is normal behavior in vehicle installations where ignition state controls the power profile.
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After installation, the my.autopi.io login screen will appear. First-time login is required to access the dashboard and device configuration options.
Once logged in, dashboards and widgets can be configured based on the signals the vehicle supports. Some vehicles expose richer datasets than others, and the dashboard is typically adjusted after a first drive to confirm which values are stable and useful.
Ready to go
After the system is installed, the remaining work is configuration. The dashboard widgets decide what is visible on the screen, and that should reflect the data that is actually useful in the vehicle. Speed, RPM, and basic fuel values are common, but it depends on the car and what it exposes through diagnostics.
The AutoPi dashboard is designed to be customizable. Widgets can be added, removed, and rearranged based on the signal set and the use case. Some builds focus on a minimal instrument cluster. Others focus on logging, mapping, and an engineering-style view of parameters during test drives.
AutoPi add-ons in the cloud platform are used to enable additional capabilities. This can include expanded logging, specific integration features, or workflows for remote access. Not all features make sense in every build. In a vehicle that is used daily, a simple stable dashboard is usually better than a long list of options that are rarely used.
Additional questions and device inquiries can be handled through general inquiries or by visiting autopi.io.
