Revenue and data.
Why I like Android Auto:
- I can plan my route on my phone at home and see the map on the big screen instead the little phone ui, or worse putting in the adress manually with the keyboard wheel in Korean instead of copy and pasting it from the Element chat
- I already have all my music on my phone, I don’t want to copy and organize it again for hours in my car
- I already have integration with many apps on my phone, I don’t want to set everything up again on the car, especially I can’t copy and paste my long ass passwords from my KeePassXC into the car and need to painstakingly put in every password with their clunky keyboard, if they even have a keyboard.
I could go on forever. But as link as I can connect bluetooth and set up my phone somewhere so I can see the map while driving I’ll be OK. The worst part, at work what I do is car infotainment system software, but it never has any of the features I would want from a car.
Plus if I rent a car that also has Android Auto I only have to pair it and all my stuff is there.
GM are saying that their customers want a more seamless integration. Shareholders are slavering at the idea of owners collared to their subscription system. Buyers need to stop buying cars with stupid subscriptions. My 2nd hand BMW has a heated steering wheel that requires an annual fee to use. Nope, heated gloves are the solution!
I imagine you could wire your own mechanical switch to that steering wheel wheel. Fuck them for doing that though.
As a BMW tech, what car has a subscription for the heated wheel?
2 series hybrid. UK variant
Ah, UK. Makes sense.
I’m surprised you didn’t hear about that, because it was a huge controversy. it was limited to a few countries though (or maybe only the UK?)
I heard of the heated seat subscription, just not the heated wheel option. We don’t have that in Canada.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62142208
https://bimmerlife.com/2022/07/18/dont-panic-bmws-subscription-model-explained/
I can’t find a list of models, but they still use the same system for other subscriptions
Ever since the start of internet connected vehicles this has been on the table, before it wasn’t really possible to manage subscriptions like this, now it is as easy as changing $SUBSCR_INF_ACP from a 0 to a 1 on your account to enable CarPlay, once you have paid.
Though, to be fair, I would like better integration with the onboard systems, something like Carplay lite.
It would basically present the content on the phone, music, podcasts, audiobooks, maps, etc. to the onboard infotainment system.
Apps with audio media would appear as audio sources, inside the audio sources, any menu would be presented in a standard UI.
Basically, the phone would simply send something like an XML file of how the menu should be displayed, and the infotainment has a rendering engine to render the UI in a style that is integrated with the car’s UI.
That would solve one of the biggest issues with CarPlay/AA, the forced touchscreen.
In my 2021 Seat Leon FR PHEV hatchback, I have a fantastic steeringwheel, it has plenty of excellent controls, regarding media, I have a volume wheel by my left thumb, I can also press it to pause the media, on the right side of the steering wheel I have buttons for skip/previous.
If I could interact with the menus in CarPlay using the thumbwheel and a separate back button, that would be amazing.
The wheel clicks when moving it, so if you could simply have it move the selection on the menu with every click it would be brilliant.
Though I would need another thumbwheel to set the volume…
My point is that if deeper integration of phone media in the infotainment system could enable a UI less dependent on a a touchscreen, I would love to try it.
I don’t drive. But if I did. And I bought a new car. The first fuckin thing I’m doing is shielding any wireless internal components or outright depleting the SIM card from wherever the fuck they put it.
Nothing about what these companies are doing is okay.
Because GM sucks.
People aren’t asking for much. People just want their phone navigation and music controls displayed onto the infotainment. Won’t consider any car that cannot afford me this tiny bit of convenience for the sake of nickel and diming me.
And if every car manufacturer starts forcing me to adopt their own stupid software I’ll just buy a fucking phone holder.
And GM has shitty reliability anyways.
I don’t own a car but I rent them a lot. Part of my “go bag” includes blue tack. A semi sticky putty that doesn’t leave a residue. I use this to stick my phone to the surface of whatever screen is in the car. This puts it right where I can see it and interact with it easily. Then I don’t have to learn a new system in every different car I drive.
I really really dislike the UX. Sorry, but I just want my phone to Bluetooth for sound/calls and bonus if I can get a charge via wireless charging.
Android converting my elegant display into something that looks like it was built on Window 95? Nah, keep it.
I didn’t know it was a thing until about two years ago, but my experience with it has made me want to take a tac-hammer to the center console in the vehicles its been integrated into. It hijacks my phone and crashes the apps that were already running but if you try to turn it off while keeping the phone connected it just keeps restarting.
I hate techno feudalism so much.
I won’t buy a car without CarPlay.
My current car has it and I love it. So I imagine Android users feel the same way.
If there is truly no option, then my phone is getting the window/airvent mount option.
I’ll never subscribe to their bs.
My car is from the 2010s.
I bought a GPS looking screen for $40 that has android auto and carplay. I already have Bluetooth added onto the radio for audio streaming.
Works perfectly for GPS off of my phone and as a media controller.
Only thing I’m missing is steering wheel controls.
This is the way.
I’m in a country where stuff in the car is not regulated as much as the US.
One of my ride share drivers had basically a 13” android tablet instead of the stock radio in the car 😂
It was all hooked up to the car to act as a legit part of the car.
Yeah this is the kind of shit I was looking forward to when I got into driving in the 2000s. But then car manufacturers started doing thier own non standard radios.
Then the car mod communities made kits to for a dual bay fit.
Then the corpos made radios required to service the car…
No regulations to protect the consumers let them do what they want.
The car part of the car should be completely independent of the entertainment part of the car. Fuckers.
The line can get blurry when you talk about EVs but protections should still be possible.
The third parties would win sueing car makers for requiring the radio for diagnostics. anti-monopoly and warranty laws protect moding you car.
Yeah I gave up on radio customization when I got a car that didn’t have a dual bin and didn’t keep up. Looking at newer cars and barely anything can be swapped/upgraded it seems.
In the us laws from the 1970’s protect third party radios.
Honestly, I think consumers allowing manufacturers to start integrating screens into cars was a mistake.
Knobs and dials are way easier to nevigate blind (whilst focusing on the road like we’re meant to), and none of that stops you plugging in your own third party device for other features, or replacing the headboard yourself.
Giant tablets with complex menus are dangerous to drivers, and only serve to milk the consumer for things they already had access to in their car as standard not 10 years ago.
The consumers did not allow anything. This is the crap they were eventually forced to buy due to lack of any other options. Electro-mechanical-chemical vehicle with a delco radio should be enough. We adopt new tech because it exists, not because we should.
Yes. It needs heavy regulation, physical buttons is all the driver should have access to.
We also need to ban subscription services in vehicles.
Consumers cannot be trusted to spend responsibly and look out for their best interests.
The bigger and more intrusive screens have gotten, the more sales of new cars have flagged. People are sick of them, and lawmakers are starting to catch up on regulating physical controls back into vehicles.
The last time I bought a car one of my stipulations was a car no newer than 2016 because that was the last year that RAV4s had the small screens in the middle of the dashboard instead of mounted practically on the windshield, and the guy at the dealership that I talked to said that practically everybody who came in looking to buy a car had similar sentiments. People generally hate the big, intrusive screens, it’s just that car makers aren’t making any other options and then claim that that’s what people want.
oh sweet jebus i gues i am buying a 1980s car then. screw this crap. I own my car you are not getting any of my money.
Way to make people hate your cars even more.
My take on Android Auto (I’m sure everyone wants to hear)
pros:
- free to choose the maps app you want (OsmAnd, Organic Maps, Google Maps or anything)
- stream music for the app you want
- decent voice control for maps and spotify
- decent integration with some EV charging apps, you can find and initiate chargers from the dashboard
- you can write your own Android Auto apps
cons:
- Android Auto app is very invasive, polluting phone with stupid notifications
- the standard is shit. Android Auto doesn’t work work with Android Go phones but it’s not specified anywhere in the documentation, wireless Android Auto only works with latest android but it’s also not specified anywhere
- it’s controlled by Google and there are no alternative implementations
My solution so far is to use cheap, secondary phone for AA (which was hard to find because of the stupid limitations). If someone would create a open AA client not controlled by Google I would put it on my primary phone. AA should now work with Graphene OS so I may try to set it up in separate profile some day.
On my GrapheneOS phone I have AA set up in a work profile that is paused 90% of the time. It works without any issues. Or at least no more issues than AA ever had.
I used to champion AA because every car just had that shitty apple connection.
Now at least we have AA. But it took so long, that google went from a good company to just as evil as Apple, so we have two asshole giants to chose from.
We need a Linux open source alternative for phones… But I’ve been told it’ll never happen because the hardware is locked down and too different to be able to run custom roms…
I don’t know what the solution is
The real solution would be for the EU to mandate an standardized open source connection platform that all car companies are required to support.
I currently use android auto on my truck. I had to make a bunch settings modifications to make it semi-functional. It took me months to figure out how to get it to do what I wanted, when I wanted it
For usability the solution is using some custom ROM like Graphene OS or iode. They support AA now.
For privacy the solution is to use a very old car with no infotainment. Modern cars have telemetry and always on connectivity you can’t control. Even Linux phones will not help with that. We would need open source cars which will never happen.
We would need open source cars which will never happen.
:'(
I’ll just take a bluetooth battery powered speaker in my car if they keep locking it down
You also have a Bluetooth FM transmitter, so they phone audio becomes just another reason station. You can even get a Bluetooth remote control for common media functions to put on the dash.
