10 ms·

Why would I pay hundreds of $currency for a new head unit or thousands for a new car, if I'm already walking around with a device capable doing all that? Andro

by tdkl 10y ago

Why would I pay hundreds of $currency for a new head unit or thousands for a new car, if I'm already walking around with a device capable doing all that? Android Auto/Car play should just run as a dedicated mode on the phone.

masklinn 10y ago
> Why would I pay hundreds of $currency for a new head unit or thousands for a new car Larger display and physical buttons are really quite a good idea when you're driving 2 tons of steel at 60mph.
- hughes 10y ago
  I think display placement is much more important than size. Using a phone for nav that's sitting in your cupholder is terribly dangerous, but using one clipped to your dash inside your field of view seems okay.
- tdkl 10y ago
  > Larger display and physical buttons GPS units like Garmin use touchscreen instead of physical buttons and are safe, road legal. Tesla ships cars with a huge touchscreen console - safe and road legal. That's a pretty weak excuse. We could also debate that things that hinder concentration while handling "2 tones of steel" are : - listening to the radio, - talking to the passenger(s), - singing.
  - dexterdog 10y ago
    Looking at billboards
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
mikeryan 10y ago
Because for the most part in the US its actually illegal to use that capable device while you're driving your car.
- alex_anglin 10y ago
  Not if you're using an interface such as Siri, I believe.
  - mikeryan 10y ago
    Siri's okay - Google Maps Voice is Okay but honestly whenever I have to enter an address in Google Maps I'm still plugging it in by hand.
- tdkl 10y ago
  That's a regulation issue. Is it illegal to handle radio, car head units (Android Auto/Car Play being of those) and GPS devices ? Common sense would also advise to enter the destination, set music etc. before starting to drive.
jimwalsh 10y ago
Agreed. I got the cheaper model of my car when I custom ordered it to not have the NAV addon because I knew I'd use my phone and didn't want to pay $2500 USD extra for my car.
- imglorp 10y ago
  My car needed the nav feature in order to get the backup camera, which is essential in cars with a poor rear view.
  - tracker1 10y ago
    As someone who had a 2012 Challenger, and recently went to a 2016 Challenger, have to agree... the backup camera, and moreso the blind spot indicators have been great improvements.
  - sangnoir 10y ago
    What is it about American cars[1] and tiny rear view windows? I once got a Ford Fusion rental in the US; I was surprised how little I could see of what was behind me. I have never had the same issue with European/Japanese vehicles. 1. My sample size is small, I could have been unlucky. Anti-glare coating on rear view mirrors on American cars makess night-time driving awesome though, I wish the European/Japanese vehicles would copy that
    - lucaspiller 10y ago
      > Anti-glare coating on rear view mirrors The technical term is an 'electrochromatic auto-dimming rear-view mirror'. It's been an option on higher end cars/trims for the last ~5 years, even in Europe. On eBay there are DIY kits too.
      - sib 10y ago
        My 2003 Mini Cooper (not very high end!) has this, as does my 2015 Subaru - it makes it incredibly hard to drive any other car that doesn't.
sbuttgereit 10y ago
Yep. A better approach these days would be to have the car dash component simply be a display/remote control surface for the phone rather than have all the software in the car. I appreciate that approach has certain disadvantages for device and car makers, but really, the only additional value they could add from my perspective is a more convenient display location and larger, car-centric controls. The apps, the configs, accounts, audio, etc. I only ever use my phone anymore anyway. And, yes, I have built in nav and never use it in favor of the phone. I also have a Bluetooth-to-FM relay device for the audio.
- david-given 10y ago
  That's exactly what Android Auto is (can't speak for Carplay) --- it's a dumb terminal which is controlled by your phone. All the real software runs there. I believe all the car provides is a screen, some speakers, a microphone and (possibly) a touch surface.
  - tdkl 10y ago
    It's not a dumb terminal, it's a fully fledged car nav system from the car manufacturer, which also (secondary function) serves as an external screen for Android Auto/CarPlay. A dumb terminal would be dead until you connected the phone to it (and also cheaper).
    - mtanski 10y ago
      The 2016 VW Sportwagen I does have a touch screen console either with or without Nav. The SE model and below does not have Nav and SEL does. I got the SE because it was the nicest model without Nav. Built in Nav in cars is so shitty that I would personally pay extra to not have it.
      - tdkl 10y ago
        Point taken for being a nav or not, but those touchscreens are still functional as in being a car stereo, contact manager (for BT calling), handling settings for the car computer etc. But to answer my question why there's no standalone mode for Android Auto/Car Play - probably because they struck a deal with car vendors to sell more extras with the cars or newer cars. So if you drive something older - fuck you and consume.
mtanski 10y ago
I have a 2016 VW Sportswagen that I use with my iPhone all the time. Everything just works and in 10 the Maps app in Carplay has gotten better. About a month ago I was driving with a friend of mine in the passenger seat. Driving 45 minutes to some trails upstate. I asked him to put his Maps on (Android) so I don't need to get my phone out of my bad and fuck around with it while driving. He's got Galaxy 6 edge+ so I figured it just work... Boy was I wrong. When he plugged it in nothing happened except autoplaying some music. Since I'm driving how no idea how to make it work. Turns out you need to download an App from the app store to make it work... but Android gives you no notification about it. Then there's a whole on-boarding process you got to click through. Then you need to agree to let the Android connect to the Car all in all about 5 different agree prompts. Took about 30 minutes to get this going. After all that the car would lose Android Auto connection with the phone every few minutes. Apparently it's a know issue with that model of Android and VW. What a terrible experience. For a while I was thinking of getting an Android phone next time I need a new phone (break, slow/sluggish). Not going to happen now.
- izacus 10y ago
  How horrible, you had to install a single app and click "Next" a few times! The connectivity issues with VWs are a valid complaint, but not pushing bloat on everyones devices really isnt.
  - mtanski 10y ago
    > How horrible, you had to install a single app and click "Next" a few times! If you include the "guide" that you have the scroll through and then the 5 "Accept" popups for allowing the car to connect to the phone it's like about 9 clicks. Pretty crappy UX. But really it's the whole process of getting setup. The Android phone didn't put up a prompt when plugged in to tell you you needed to download the Android Auto app. My friend had to Google how to make this thing work. Compare that to the CarPlay experience. Connect, click accept once in car UI and accept in iPhone to allow the car to access it. From plugin to navigating on the dash about 30 seconds.
    - 10y ago
foobarian 10y ago
I wonder if phone VR adapters could be useful for driving. With a wider angle camera, and maybe some AR niceties like sticking trip info below the windshield or overlay the nav directions on top of the roadway I could totally get into it. And I would kill for something that solves the solar glare issue.

by tdkl 10y ago

masklinn 10y ago

> Why would I pay hundreds of $currency for a new head unit or thousands for a new car Larger display and physical buttons are really quite a good idea when you're driving 2 tons of steel at 60mph.

hughes 10y ago
I think display placement is much more important than size. Using a phone for nav that's sitting in your cupholder is terribly dangerous, but using one clipped to your dash inside your field of view seems okay.
tdkl 10y ago
> Larger display and physical buttons GPS units like Garmin use touchscreen instead of physical buttons and are safe, road legal. Tesla ships cars with a huge touchscreen console - safe and road legal. That's a pretty weak excuse. We could also debate that things that hinder concentration while handling "2 tones of steel" are : - listening to the radio, - talking to the passenger(s), - singing.
- dexterdog 10y ago
  Looking at billboards
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

mikeryan 10y ago

Because for the most part in the US its actually illegal to use that capable device while you're driving your car.

alex_anglin 10y ago
Not if you're using an interface such as Siri, I believe.
- mikeryan 10y ago
  Siri's okay - Google Maps Voice is Okay but honestly whenever I have to enter an address in Google Maps I'm still plugging it in by hand.
tdkl 10y ago
That's a regulation issue. Is it illegal to handle radio, car head units (Android Auto/Car Play being of those) and GPS devices ? Common sense would also advise to enter the destination, set music etc. before starting to drive.

jimwalsh 10y ago

Agreed. I got the cheaper model of my car when I custom ordered it to not have the NAV addon because I knew I'd use my phone and didn't want to pay $2500 USD extra for my car.

imglorp 10y ago
My car needed the nav feature in order to get the backup camera, which is essential in cars with a poor rear view.
- tracker1 10y ago
  As someone who had a 2012 Challenger, and recently went to a 2016 Challenger, have to agree... the backup camera, and moreso the blind spot indicators have been great improvements.
- sangnoir 10y ago
  What is it about American cars[1] and tiny rear view windows? I once got a Ford Fusion rental in the US; I was surprised how little I could see of what was behind me. I have never had the same issue with European/Japanese vehicles. 1. My sample size is small, I could have been unlucky. Anti-glare coating on rear view mirrors on American cars makess night-time driving awesome though, I wish the European/Japanese vehicles would copy that
  - lucaspiller 10y ago
    > Anti-glare coating on rear view mirrors The technical term is an 'electrochromatic auto-dimming rear-view mirror'. It's been an option on higher end cars/trims for the last ~5 years, even in Europe. On eBay there are DIY kits too.
    - sib 10y ago
      My 2003 Mini Cooper (not very high end!) has this, as does my 2015 Subaru - it makes it incredibly hard to drive any other car that doesn't.

sbuttgereit 10y ago

Yep. A better approach these days would be to have the car dash component simply be a display/remote control surface for the phone rather than have all the software in the car. I appreciate that approach has certain disadvantages for device and car makers, but really, the only additional value they could add from my perspective is a more convenient display location and larger, car-centric controls. The apps, the configs, accounts, audio, etc. I only ever use my phone anymore anyway. And, yes, I have built in nav and never use it in favor of the phone. I also have a Bluetooth-to-FM relay device for the audio.

david-given 10y ago
That's exactly what Android Auto is (can't speak for Carplay) --- it's a dumb terminal which is controlled by your phone. All the real software runs there. I believe all the car provides is a screen, some speakers, a microphone and (possibly) a touch surface.
- tdkl 10y ago
  It's not a dumb terminal, it's a fully fledged car nav system from the car manufacturer, which also (secondary function) serves as an external screen for Android Auto/CarPlay. A dumb terminal would be dead until you connected the phone to it (and also cheaper).
  - mtanski 10y ago
    The 2016 VW Sportwagen I does have a touch screen console either with or without Nav. The SE model and below does not have Nav and SEL does. I got the SE because it was the nicest model without Nav. Built in Nav in cars is so shitty that I would personally pay extra to not have it.
    - tdkl 10y ago
      Point taken for being a nav or not, but those touchscreens are still functional as in being a car stereo, contact manager (for BT calling), handling settings for the car computer etc. But to answer my question why there's no standalone mode for Android Auto/Car Play - probably because they struck a deal with car vendors to sell more extras with the cars or newer cars. So if you drive something older - fuck you and consume.

mtanski 10y ago

I have a 2016 VW Sportswagen that I use with my iPhone all the time. Everything just works and in 10 the Maps app in Carplay has gotten better. About a month ago I was driving with a friend of mine in the passenger seat. Driving 45 minutes to some trails upstate. I asked him to put his Maps on (Android) so I don't need to get my phone out of my bad and fuck around with it while driving. He's got Galaxy 6 edge+ so I figured it just work... Boy was I wrong. When he plugged it in nothing happened except autoplaying some music. Since I'm driving how no idea how to make it work. Turns out you need to download an App from the app store to make it work... but Android gives you no notification about it. Then there's a whole on-boarding process you got to click through. Then you need to agree to let the Android connect to the Car all in all about 5 different agree prompts. Took about 30 minutes to get this going. After all that the car would lose Android Auto connection with the phone every few minutes. Apparently it's a know issue with that model of Android and VW. What a terrible experience. For a while I was thinking of getting an Android phone next time I need a new phone (break, slow/sluggish). Not going to happen now.

izacus 10y ago
How horrible, you had to install a single app and click "Next" a few times! The connectivity issues with VWs are a valid complaint, but not pushing bloat on everyones devices really isnt.
- mtanski 10y ago
  > How horrible, you had to install a single app and click "Next" a few times! If you include the "guide" that you have the scroll through and then the 5 "Accept" popups for allowing the car to connect to the phone it's like about 9 clicks. Pretty crappy UX. But really it's the whole process of getting setup. The Android phone didn't put up a prompt when plugged in to tell you you needed to download the Android Auto app. My friend had to Google how to make this thing work. Compare that to the CarPlay experience. Connect, click accept once in car UI and accept in iPhone to allow the car to access it. From plugin to navigating on the dash about 30 seconds.
  - 10y ago

foobarian 10y ago

I wonder if phone VR adapters could be useful for driving. With a wider angle camera, and maybe some AR niceties like sticking trip info below the windshield or overlay the nav directions on top of the roadway I could totally get into it. And I would kill for something that solves the solar glare issue.