How to turn your car’s ashtray into a smartphone dock

Jason Torchinsky of Jalopnik shows how to turn your car’s ashtray into a smartphone dock

I hardly know anyone who still smokes and pretty much everyone I know has a little computer in the form of an iPhone or Android phone that's always with them. That means I should really think about some of the vestigial parts of my dashboard. Like the ashtray. Let's change the ashtray's function from supporting the disgusting habit of the 1970s (smoking) to the disgusting habit of the 2010s (constant smartphone use). Here's how to do it.

Oh, and since this will get pointed out, I may as well say this. After I came up with the ashtray-to-iPhone dock idea, I was feeling so smug I was having some shirts ordered that said "ME ARE A GENIUS." Then I decided to Google the smartphone dock/old ashtray idea. I'm not the first. I'm not even close. I cancelled the shirt order, but this just proves it's a solid idea. So, onward.

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://twitter.com/erg79 Evan G.

But then where can you keep your spare change?
- AlexG55
  
  Maybe you live in a city where you can pay for parking by phone
HektikLyfe

Most people I’ve seen who smoke don’t even use the ashtray anyway. They toss their cigs out of the Window and even dump their ashes out that way ignoring the people behind them and the motorcyclists they cake with their cancer.
- http://www.madziabryll.com Cefeida
  
  Anyone who throws their cigarette butt on the ground is an asshole, whether they do it while driving or not >:(
Susan Carley Oliver

Why do I need spare change? FastPass for the tollbridge, my debit card for the parking meter, and granola bars for the freeway panhandlers.
DirkSJ

I honestly can’t remember the last time I was in a car with an ashtray.
- Donald Petersen
  
  My ’87 Jag XJ6 has several. The backseat passengers each get their own, plus they share a cigar lighter at the back of the front console. Pretty decadent for its day.
  
  But yeah, though my ’04 Sienna still has an ashtray (I think), my ’07 RAV4 doesn’t.
  
  I also have a ’70 Mercury Cougar with side ashtrays for the rear passengers, but the front one is at the extreme front end of the console, practically buried beneath the heater controls, and thus not very useful for any other purpose.
  - bcsizemo
    
    My parents 77 Caprice Classic (2 door coupe…if you can even call a land barge a coupe) had an ashtray on each side of the rear bench seat.
    
    Oh the fond memories of vinyl bench seats in the middle of summer.
  - stuck411
    
    As a youngster in the 1970s I remember every car had an ashtray on each door and one smack in the center of the front console. Don’t miss the ashtrays but I do miss those fantastic triangular, smoker’s windows. Best way to cool off without A/C.
    - AlexG55
      
      Definitely miss vent windows- they went away well before ashtrays, but my ’65 Volvo still has them. You get as much breeze as through an open window, but can direct it like a dashboard air vent…
- bcsizemo
  
  That’s pretty much what I came here to say.
  
  I think it was an option in my 04 Corolla (which I did not get), which basically replaces a flip down compartment where I keep my glasses.
  I can’t remember if the wife’s 01 Rodeo has one or not…
  
  In older cars, or the ones I was around growing up, it seemed like the older the car the more front and center the ashtray was. By the early to mid 90′s they were basically tucking them as far out of the way as possible.
- robuluz
  
  I’ve got a 2007 Kia Sedona (its called a ‘Grand Carnival’ here in Australia. No seriously, it is. Stop laughing.) and that thing has ash trays in the front, middle and back rows.
  
  Apparently, Korea is yet to get the memo.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    its called a ‘Grand Carnival’ here in Australia. No seriously, it is. Stop laughing.
    
    What you call a Toyota Tarago, the US calls a Toyota Previa.
    - robuluz
      
      No midwives in that focus group then.
    - Gilbert Wham
      
      We call ‘em that in EnglandLand, too. Though they’re both fucking stupid names. At least ‘Grand Carnival’ is a recognisable thing, and it sounds kinda fun.
http://twitter.com/kryptonight83 Kryptonight83

What’s a car?
- Pedantic Douchebag
  
  It’s like a bicycle, except you can put a dead hooker in the trunk.
AlexG55

I like the fact that the ashtray seems to have the shift pattern of a 3-speed column shifter drawn on it. Very Jalopnik. I wonder if any cars put that there as an aide-memoire?
- http://openid.aliz.es/Vozzitap Vozzitap
  
  The article contains pictures of the actual ashtray. It’s from a 1973 VW Beetle, and is actually the Autostick shift pattern.
  - AlexG55
    
    Thanks! I was wondering what the little squiggle going off to the left between R and L was- now it seems to be P. That makes a lot more sense…
http://twitter.com/manooshi Manel

My Honda Civic didn’t even come with an ashtray! And there was no option to add one, either.
- vonbobo
  
  yup, same with my 2011 Fit (which has a second glove compartment with a usb cable). Honda does offer a round ashtray that fits into any cup holder.
Tribune

When we bought our last car, over a decade ago, I think only one of the cars we looked at still had an ashtray.
http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan

The system I put in my ex’s Maxima has the controller portion of this in the ashtray, with the display mounted up on the dashboard. The iPod lives in the the top portion of the center console arm rest.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ezo5sHWOL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
BillStewart2012

My 85 Chevy Van had an ashtray in the dashboard (which I used for change) and ashtrays in the back seat armrests. It finally died last year, and my current car has a USB jack for the stereo, which I usually use to charge my phone but occasionally to play MP3s from a memory stick, and I don’t think the cigarette lighter socket came with the actual lighter. So I don’t need a phone dock, though I might add something like that to run GPS apps on the phone conveniently.
http://marrickvillian.blogspot.com/ Al Corrupt

I reckon you could sell a few of those ‘Me are a genius’ t-shirts though.
JG

What I never quite understand is who exactly it is that smokes. Almost everyone I know doesn’t smoke… having trouble thinking of anyone who does. Several other people commented this as well, and it’s also in the original article. Yet I see people smoking in cars, outside buildings, etc., fairly often. There are clearly smokers out there. Why is it that I don’t know any?
- hadlockk
  
  They did a study that showed people who have fat friends are more likely to be fat themselves. You’ll note you’ll never see one skinny person riding in a car with three fat people. The same thing probably applies to smokers. Plus they’re always outside hanging out with other smokers rather than doing any real work to make friends with the people inside picking up all the extra slack.
- Gilbert Wham
  
  Cause you’re friends aren’t jerks who come round and demand to smoke in your house, and, worse than that, INDISCRIMINATELY USE BEERCANS AS ASHTRAYS. Full beercans. As ashtrays. I hate people.
Bucket

My car doesn’t have an ashtray, but it does have five cupholders between the two front seats.
- http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan
  
  That’s the corntray.
pccare247

Cool tip. Thanks. :)
http://twitter.com/millenniumHandS Bex W

do cars ever have ashtrays these days?
hadlockk

I took my garage door opener out of it’s case and crammed the remaining bits in to the “push to retract” ash tray in my center console (bmw). The button is big enough it almost looks “factory”…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Katrina-van-Malksvig/100000571611598 Katrina van Malksvig

nice idea, but one problem I could see is that most cars I’ve driven have the ashtray pretty far down on the center console.
not a good place if you want to look at the phone’s GPS screen for example…
http://profiles.google.com/westcarleton Ray Perkins

Hell, I put a 5v regulator in my ashtray years ago to power a cellphone and a gps receiver. Can I do an Apple and file for patent infringement?
IronEdithKidd

A removable ashtray that fits into a drink holder was an option for my 2002 RSX. Perhaps that explains why there are 5 drink holders for that 4 passenger car. My 2010 Prius, I don’t think an ashtray was even an option, but that doesn’t matter too much considering there’s a power outlet and data port in the center console, and another power outlet under the “shifter”.
retepslluerb

People still use smartphones?
Gilbert Wham

I love Torchinsky, he makes new Gawker Jalopnik a happier place.