13 Gifts to Conquer the Commute

Consider this the king of dashboard cams. The Waylens Horizon captures footage in 1080p and makes it easy to share and edit your driving highlight reel. Press the handy button on the steering wheel to start recording—from 30 seconds before you press the button until 30 seconds after. Perfect for documenting a fender bender, or that ridiculous moose crossing the street during the morning commute.

Forget all those frou-frou keychain accessories and give your commuter friend one that really matters. The YubiKey NEO takes two-factor authentication to the next level. Use it along with a username and password to prove your identity and prevent hackers from breaking into your accounts. It’s specially designed to fit on a keychain, which means it goes wherever they (and their car keys) go.

Surprising mom with a subscription to SiriusXM is so last year. Spend the money instead on a streaming service like Spotify Premium, which offers unlimited music, playlists, and podcasts without any ads. Premium also comes with offline privileges for times when she's driving inside tunnels or listening on the subway. The service costs just $10 a month, which means a whole year of streaming music comes out to just $120.

Is your loved one still using Google Maps and a car-mounted phone to get directions? Passé. Navdy sits on the dashboard and projects every turn onto a clear heads-up display. It lets the driver control maps, music, and messages with hand gestures and voice commands. Also, updates and directions appear in the distance within the augmented reality overlay, letting them stay in the loop without taking their eyes off the road.

An Apple Watch might seem like a weird gift for someone who spends a lot of sedentary hours in the car, but listen: The Series 3 comes with built-in LTE connectivity, making it the perfect hands-free calling device. A press of the watchface answers calls, and wearers enjoy crystal-clear connectivity without moving their hands from ten and two. Plus, when they leave the car, this watch will buzz their wrist encouraging them to make healthy choices.

You’re driving over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Oakland when, all of a sudden, your car skids on a slick patch of road and goes barreling over the guard rails. The car plunges into the bay, sinking fast toward the bottom. Meanwhile, your automatic windows and door locks freeze up, leaving you to die a cold, lonely death trapped in your drowned vehicle. You wouldn’t want that to happen to your loved one, would you? Of course not. Do your car commuting friends a favor and get them all this emergency car hammer. It’s specially designed to pierce windows and cut seatbelts in case of emergencies. Nothing else will remind them of their mortality quite as much, and you’ll never regret spending the $6 on it.

There’s nothing worse than rushing out the door and sacrificing that first cup of coffee in order to make it to the office on time. But why should you have to choose? With this espresso machine, you don’t. It plugs into the cigarette lighter in your car to and brews a piping hot espresso right there from the cup holder. Brilliant!

Help them fill a long commute with music, news, and live sports coverage from streaming radio service TuneIn. Sure, there’s a free version, but a premium subscription gets them much more without any of the ads. Do they devour audiobooks? TuneIn Premium has 60,000 of them. How about podcasts? They get 5 million. There are 16 language-learning programs, too, all included in the subscription. Gift one month of premium service for $10, or the whole year for $100.

Everyone deserves a pair of sweet sunnies for the road. Le Specs’ Bandwagon frames look equally good on men and women, they protect against ultraviolet rays, and they have polarized lenses to prevent windshield glare.

Gas station air fresheners are so tacky. Upgrade their ride with this ultra-fancy diffuser from Diptyque, a company known for its luxury candles and perfumes. The diffuser clips onto car vents and puffs out a variety of expensive-sounding scents, like “Baies,” “Ambre,” and “Figuier.” Guaranteed to have the car smelling très chic!

So you really want to splurge? Give the gift of quasi-autonomous driving with Cadillac's Super Cruise. The company's flagship CT6 sedan now comes with the most souped-up autopilot system money can buy: super-accurate GPS, front-facing camera, and a litany of radars and sensors. Of course, that requires investing in a brand new ride. But it's the closest thing to a self-driving car you can buy in 2017.