The 1989 replica at ImportFest 2015 car show.
The garage years
Long before there was Brainiac, and long before there was Workshop 12, there was a garage, a dream, and a passion.
Tim Neil spent countless hours in that garage, surrounded by tools, wires, fiberglass, and metal, living with the smell of a project that had completely taken over his life. His mission was ambitious: to build a replica of the 1989 Tim Burton-era Batmobile. He called it the BatBerry, Batman meets BlackBerry, after the company he worked for at the time.
It wasn't the kind of project you finished in a weekend. Day after day, night after night, Tim disappeared into the garage, slowly turning raw materials into something that looked like it had driven straight out of Gotham City.
Tim's garage, mid-build.
The Batmobile taking shape in the garage.
Six years passed, and the Batmobile was finally beginning to take shape.
Making it all work
But building the car was only half the challenge. Now everything he had built into it needed to work, and work together. That is when Rob became essential. Tim and Rob both had long histories in technology, and they had already spent years building prototypes of connected car technology for the Batmobile.
The suspension needed to move. The canopy needed to open. The replica weapons on the hood needed to deploy. Countless mechanical systems had to work as one.
The Batmobile needed a brain.
That is when Brainiac began to come to life. Brainiac was the name Tim gave the car's onboard computer.
Tim and Rob designed a system that could talk to the vehicle and control its functions with a simple tap from a phone. From the start, the plan was Bluetooth commands for the canopy, the gun doors, the engine start, and the air suspension, all from his phone. Later, a gutted PlayBook became the touch display for the unit.
The canopy, up close.
One tap, and the suspension adjusted.
One tap, and the canopy opened.
One tap, and the replica weapons deployed.
Inside the BatBerry: the cockpit with the Brainiac touch display.
The question that started a company
What started as a solution for one extraordinary car quickly became something much bigger. The idea was already there. It just needed the right question.
What if Brainiac wasn't just for the Batmobile?
What if the same technology could be adapted for other vehicles? What if any car could have its own intelligent control system, one that automated functions and brought everything together through a large, integrated screen in the dash?
Suddenly, Brainiac wasn't just a piece of technology built for one car. It could become a platform. An idea. A product. Maybe even a company.
Tim and Rob began exploring what it would take to turn that idea into something real.
The 2015 Kickstarter leap
In 2015, Tim and Rob took the leap. They launched a Kickstarter campaign, hoping to raise enough money to bring their vision to life.
The Brainiac Kickstarter video.
They didn't know exactly where the road would lead, and they didn't have everything figured out. But they had Brainiac, they had an idea, and they had the ambition to see just how far they could take it.
That campaign marked the beginning of what would eventually become Workshop 12.
But before there was a company, there was a Batmobile. And before there was Brainiac, there was a question:
What if we could make a car do more?
Workshop 12 today
That question is still the one we build around.
Today, Workshop 12 is a Canadian automotive brand based in Toronto, selling Premium Tesla-Style Screens: large, all-in-one displays for specific trucks, SUVs, and cars, with wireless CarPlay and Android Auto and full factory integration. Modern technology should not be reserved for six-figure cars, and the screen in your dash should work as well as the car around it.
Everything still runs through our Toronto shop, the same way Brainiac started: run by people who care about the car it goes into.
Every unit is thoroughly tested in-house before it ships, and we do not dropship.
Repairs are done in-house by our own expert technicians in Toronto.
Limited Lifetime Warranty on Workshop 12 products, the only one of its kind in this category.
Complimentary unlimited 1-on-1 video calls and unlimited lifetime support.
Step-by-step install guides and videos for our top sellers.
Quality you expect, service you deserve. That has been our standard since the Batmobile, and it still is.