click saving initiative protocol: because it sucks, but also because it is hostilely proprietary so they cannot monetize on it.
Why Are Cars Getting Rid Of Android Auto?
Submitted 3 weeks ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.bgr.com/2049834/why-cars-getting-rid-android-auto-explained/
Comments
tooLikeTheNope@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
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.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have equally bad experiences with both Android Auto and Apple Carplay. I don’t really want either and am fine with what I’ve got (only 1/3 of the cars I own even has Carplay/Android Auto). I mostly dislike how it’s been implemented with “safety controls” that require the phone to be plugged into the infotainment center in some cars and the requirement that I only connect it while at a stop with the car in park. If someone is driving with me and they want to change to their phone I have to pull over and that’s stupid.
The infotainment centers themselves with their stupid touch screens and lack of buttons are where my real problems start, and the end with the tracking BS and telemetry data. You can keep the new cars. I don’t want them.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
That’s nothing to do with android auto/car play and entirely down to the manufacturer of your car being an asshat.
Is it a Mazda? Mazda is one of the worst about this. I think they’ve gotten better in their latest cars, but that doesn’t fix the existing ones.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s a Honda. But that’s exactly the point I’m trying to make here. With both car play and Android Auto I have issues but they’re down to how the manufacturer chose to implement each. Car manufacturers deliberately hamstrung these features and still didn’t get what they wanted.
ilillilillilillililli@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You just need a wireless Android Auto dongle. I have an older Honda without wireless AA. I got an “AAWireless” adapter that physically plugs in, then I connect my phone via Bluetooth and WiFi while I wireless charge it. The cool part is that it also removes the safety stuff that prevents you from typing while car is in motion and taking “safety breaks” while scrolling on head unit. I highly discourage distracted driving (just don’t be an idiot).
atrielienz@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We have a wireless Android Auto dongle. And it takes an age to auto connect. Not to mention the problems with it still wanting us to pull over and put the car in park to switch, something I thought would be circumvented when I bought it but somehow is not. Usually it’s the person in the passenger seat trying to change something and not being able to. I’m not advocating for distracted driving. I’m pointing out that someone else in the vehicle who’s not driving can’t interact to change certain things even though it’s perfectly safe for them to do so.
Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
stoy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
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.
krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
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.
collapse_already@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
They think they’ll get more money, but they don’t realize that people won’t even consider their cars due to lack of integration. I recently bought a used car for my kid. One of the nicer ones I looked at didn’t work with his phone, so we eliminated it from consideration.
YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Revenue and data.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I tried Android Auto back when it was first coming out and it was such a slow buggy piece of shit that I have always just looked at my phone for directions instead of connect to Android Auto even when the car supports it.
squirrelwithnut@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You should try it again. It’s exponentially better than it was when it first launched almost 11 years ago.
pahlimur@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The slowness was mostly a hardware issue. It’s basically like driving a second monitor, and a lot of the slower phones struggled with it early on.
ghostlychonk@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They still manage to break it a out once a year. I’ve had two updates that made it so audio didn’t work when plugged into USB. It also took them at least two months in each case to bother fixing it.
eightys3v3n@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
I was worried enough about buying a used car in five years, thanks. Nov I have to worry about having the shit infotainment systems that were disappearing on top of having to pay a subscription to release my parking breaks??
DarkAri@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Why buy a new car? It would be cheaper to build your own car at this point. You can also spend money on reliability and strength, instead of surveillance. There is absolutely no way in hell I’d ever buy a new car. The culture has deteriorated too much and the people making cars don’t give a shit if the American economy implodes because no one has a car. America is about to become Cuba.
rekabis@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Why buy a new car? It would be cheaper to build your own car at this point.
Edison Motors (in British Columbia, Canada) can do a full EV conversion on any pre-1995 vehicle (few complex electronics that require futzing with) for $15k-$50k CAD depending on the type of vehicle and its power requirements.
Pick up a late-80s Type II VW Jetta and it’s likely to be at that lower end.
Pick up a late-70s dent side Ford F-350 dually, and it’s likely to be closer to that upper end.
Still, you’re looking at half to a quarter of what a new vehicle costs.
AAA@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Great. If you ignore that you still have a 40-50 years old car at that point. It’s not like EV was the only invention over the past 5 decades.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
I’ll use a 3rd party auxiliary screen if this ends up proliferating to other brands.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
What now, do they want more car-is-a-smartphone or more car-talks-to-your-smartphone instead? Article is confus.
Tharkys@lemmy.wtf 2 weeks ago
Guess I can remove Chevy/GM from my future vehicle short list.