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When researching family cars recently, I literally avoided the Honda CR-V just because the AC was controlled via the touch screen. There's a "Climate" button,

When researching family cars recently, I literally avoided the Honda CR-V just because the AC was controlled via the touch screen. There's a "Climate" button, which brings up a screen on the display where you can turn the aircon on/off, up/down, etc. It's just horrendous. Give me my dials. My worst gripe - which all modern cars have - is the aggressive bluetooth auto-connect. If my wife takes the car, it will automatically connect to my phone in the house and start playing whatever was last playing. If I'm using headphones, it will just pinch the audio from them. I cannot disable this. Drives me absolutely nuts (no pun intended).

joshtgreenwood 4y ago
FWIW - just bought a 23 CRV for my wife because of the abundance of analog controls. Not sure what on screen display you were seeing, we use the knobs exclusively.
- tastysandwich 4y ago
  Nice! I guess they fixed it up This review is for their 2021 model. > Plus, while there is a climate button and fan speed button, as well as dials for the temperature settings, you still have to go through the screen to control whether the air conditioner is on or off, and also which ventilation is active. Odd. https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-reviews/honda-cr-v-81488 https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-reviews/honda-cr-v-81488 And a demonstration, though it's for an even older model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99WLw0pQc8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99WLw0pQc8w
  - gregmac 4y ago
    I have a 2016 Civic, it's almost identical to the video. All I can say is this is such a non-issue: The "auto" mode they implemented works really well. I use the temperature knob pretty much exclusively. If it's hot, the A/C comes on. If it's cold, it doesn't. If the windshield needs defrosting, you press that button and.. it defrosts, then press "auto" to get back. I've literally never manually changed the A/C setting, and once or maybe twice in 5 years of ownership have I manually adjusted vents. The (physical) recirculate button is occasionally useful to manually if you're driving through dust/smoke/smell. But I'll also note the use of this with A/C is automatic: if it's really hot out or you turn the temp down really low, it'll automatically turn on recirculate (so it's cooling the already-cool inside air), but if it's able to use outside fresh air it'll do that instead. This is another thing that Just Works and I basically don't have to think about. Remote start is similarly smart: When it's cold out, it turns on the defrost and heats the seats up. When it's hot, it runs the A/C. Either way when you get in it's usually already comfortable and it resumes whatever mode and temperature it was set to last time you drove -- and on only a mildly warm day, that might mean A/C isn't on. Manual control of A/C is just something you never need to do. Sorry, but Honda absolutely nailed it on their climate control. The lack of a physical volume knob, on the other hand...
    - smaudet 4y ago
      "and once or maybe twice in 5 years of ownership have I manually adjusted vents." I'm going to guess you daily drive mostly and don't pickup many groceries then, and probably don't have a wife/kids. Blasting heat is usefull when e.g. you don't have windows, blasting cold is usefull when you have raw meat in the back and you don't feel like freezing too. Or, you drive with someone with larger/smaller body mass or metabolism, you want to blast cold air, they want to be warm (adding/removing layers is not always an option). There are numerous ways auto mode falls apart here, there are probably others I am not thinking of...I do know that when I take cars that have an auto mode in them it can be nice, but I usually get annoyed with them because something (blast of air, heat through the windshield) messes it up and I just want "cool" or "hot" air not to fiddle with bad UIs on dimly lit displays I can't see in the glare from the snow/blue sky to figure out the "right" temp to reconfigure too...
      - gregmac 4y ago
        Well, your guesses are all incorrect. The "dual climate" does work decently well, though we don't actually use it that often. Seat warmers do a better job if you're actually cold (and my wife usually puts hers way higher than mine). > Blasting heat is usefull when e.g. you don't have windows, blasting cold is usefull when you have raw meat in the back and you don't feel like freezing too. You can still "blast" heat or cool: by turning the temperature way up or down it goes to "MAX" (I don't recall exactly, but something like below 16 or above 25C) and the fan will also run at full speed. I'm not sure how manually "blasting cold" to keep raw meat in the back cold also doesn't freeze you in the front, or what that has to do with auto mode, but we typically don't have groceries in the car for more than about 20 minutes and don't worry about it. I know people who have a much longer trip to get groceries and they use a plug-in cooler; that seems like a more sensible option. > auto mode [...] messes it up and I just want "cool" or "hot" air not to fiddle with bad UIs on dimly lit displays I can't see in the glare from the snow/blue sky to figure out the "right" temp to reconfigure too... Just not reality, in my experience. Auto mode just works. I've been in other cars where it's bad so I understand where you're coming from. I adjust a couple degrees up or down, usually based on what we're wearing, and that's it -- and no need to use display or touchscreen for this. On the display: About the only time it's hard to read is if there's direct sunlight coming through a non-tinted window. I usually drive with polarized sunglasses and then it's basically never an issue at all.
  - dymk 4y ago
    Never had an issue using exclusively the physical buttons for climate control in my 2021 CRV
nichos 4y ago
You might want to look at tasker to have it enable Bluetooth when you're not at home or something similar. Also, on most cars you can change the priority of phones, moving yours down would help.
- tastysandwich 4y ago
  Then it becomes really annoying when we're both in the car and I want to use my phone.
  - thesuitonym 4y ago
    There is no magic solution that would, without user intervention, automatically know which phone you want to connect. It can't (yet) read your mind.
    - tastysandwich 4y ago
      I'd rather it just not autoconnect. That's all. At the moment it autoconnects (even if you're already connected to another device), AND autoplays. Doubly annoying.
    - 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
      There is a magic solution. It's called "Ask the user". All these companies think they know what's best for users, with their minimal settings, AI, and auto-magic this-that. Just ask.
      - beAbU 4y ago
        "Hey, last time you drove in me you were listening to music via bluetooth. I found the following _two_ devices that I can connect to. Whuch one do you want?" Perfect solution for the touch screen. Show a bunch of fat icons for all the found and paired devices. Usually it'll be 2-3 devices. Make it easy to tap your option as you are getting settled in the car.
        4y ago
mcronce 4y ago
The other day my mom was at our house, parked next to me. She got in her car to leave at the same time I did. I pulled out my phone and put on some music - noting that it was weird that I needed to do anything at all, typically it just resumes playing as soon as it connects to Bluetooth. But I didn't get any audio. That's weird. Until she drove away and the music started playing through my phone's speaker a few seconds later, and I realized that it connected to the wrong head unit.
- smaudet 4y ago
  Buy two of the same headphone, watch it not work because the software differentiates on the label not the MAC, and never asks you or auto labels the one you connected to... Not a BT problem so much as a bad software pattern. I solve this by naming my devices uniquely.
  - HPsquared 4y ago
    My old BMW had this pretty well solved, the Bluetooth device name was the last few digits of the VIN.
qgin 4y ago
I could live with auto-connect, but the assumption that I want to immediately start playing anything seems like a nuts assumption to me.
- wincy 4y ago
  What’s hilarious is the $10 Bluetooth retrofit I got on Amazon in my 2011 car doesn’t even do this. It just works as a Bluetooth speaker but doesn’t start playing and connects only when I turn on the car. Simple and easy to use.
  - smaudet 4y ago
    I think this is the majority of the problem(s) with bluetooth, bad defaults. In cars, second issue is no button to switch on/off, instead either the overly complex pairing process or the overly aggressive one. In phones, its non standard playback - I'm in the camp that audio should pause/resume for calls, and calls should always be routed through the phone you use. If you get a call while on the road either it should do nothing (no connect to car or auto route) or it should be hands free, per phone preference (no fiddling with settings in the car dash, period). This mostly works with some setups, but there's no easy config option and phones don't all have easily customized UIs. Your phone should probably be in charge of the volume too - some car I have gotten into try to rupture my eardrums, others seem to be on whisperquiet and need considerable cranking. Oh, and there should be a BT device priority, there usually isn't and sometimes my headphones get usurped by the car. My solution so far if I want BT is just to use headphones, and unpair all devices from the dash. I would use in car BT more if they worked in a reliably similar fashion. A standardized "ask the user" protocol might help some. I don't think Apple or Android play are valid alternatives, though - there are legit use cases for BT interactions that don't involve phones at all, making over complex top heavy proprietary protocols the norm just destandardizes things more, it doesn't make them better.
    - bluGill 4y ago
      I don't know how to do this, but drivers should never have access to phone calls. You are driving and should not have that distraction. I've never seen someone drive safely and talk on the phone at the same time. Many say they are safe while in the phone, but independent observation says they are not.
gffrd 4y ago
The other day, I was taking a call on my iPhone, over the earpiece, in my office suite's lobby. The connection was rock solid, and then out of nowhere the audio just disappeared, without warning … but the call didn't drop. A few seconds later it returned. The person on the other end said they heard what sounded like a child for a second. I was perplexed. Fast forward a week, and this happens again. I look at the call screen, and notice that the audio is being routed to Bluetooth? Opening it, it says I'm connected to my car. Not possible: I'm here, in my office, took a bus in. I look up, baffled, and happen to see my wife drive by, 40 feet away, through a concrete wall and some glass. Damn you, auto-connect. DAMN YOU.
- MarcoZavala 4y ago
  [dead]
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
  I turn my bluetooth completely off for this reason. It's the only way I can figure to prevent this.
  - supportengineer 4y ago
    The only way to win is not to play.
  - ridgered4 4y ago
    I'm not sure if this is even possible on my car. Is there a hardware module I can remove?
    - 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
      I turn it off on my phone. Don't know if there's a setting in the car. I'm sure you can rip out some Bluetooth receiver in the car if you're really determined
- kristopolous 4y ago
  I really want an option like this Enable [ X ] Audio [ ] Phone Calls < Pair > < Cancel > Because I never, not one single time, wanted a phone call to blast over my car audio. Not once. I can't be the only one that has wanted the car to be a speakerphone exactly 0 times. Heck maybe someone is the opposite. They love terrestrial radio or their CD collection and also the speakerphone feature. Give people options.
8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
My Mazda CX-5 has buttons for A/C control but I'm still annoyed because my '99 Civic had knobs which are infinitely better. One for temp, one for fan. That's all I need. Don't want no stinking buttons for fan intensity in a row of 100 other buttons.
- charles_f 4y ago
  My old cx-5 has knobs, I love them, but the rest of the system sucks (notably, if you allow the car to download your contacts it will take several minutes at each start to allow you to play audio)
  - makapuf 4y ago
    This! My car automatically syncs my contacts (which I have never used) once it connects my Phone, instead of,like, playing the radio, allowing me to call, or show me the goddamn GPS route.
  - aphrax 4y ago
    Oh, is that why it takes so long to start audio? If you dont download contacts does audio start in a reasonable time?
    - charles_f 4y ago
      Yep, audio starts within 10-15s. Unpair your phone then pair again, select no when it asks if you want to sync contacts and messages
vishnugupta 4y ago
> it will automatically connect to my phone in the house and start playing whatever was last playing If it's an iPhone you could use automations (Shortcuts app which is preinstalled) to auto-pause music whenever it connects to bluetooth and launches CarPlay. I have done it and works like charm. https://www.guidingtech.com/how-to-stop-music-from-automatically-playing-in-car/ https://www.guidingtech.com/how-to-stop-music-from-automatic...
TylerE 4y ago
I’m really becoming pretty convinced that audio is not an acceptable use case for Bluetooth. Just so much jank, and that’s before you get to most devices only supporting lossy encoding.
CGamesPlay 4y ago
The sibling comments here are hilarious, but I actually prefer the Bluetooth auto-connect. "When it works" it's even better than a headphone jack. There is definitely more room for customization of the nuance, though. I could easily see a per-device setting on the phone to allow it to pair automatically or manually.
ad-astra 4y ago
This is why I always turn off Bluetooth when watching porn, otherwise my phone auto-connects to my wife’s Mini Cooper when she drives into the garage. DAMN YOU AUTO-CONNECT!!
- masteruvpuppetz 4y ago
  I'll do that next time too
princevegeta89 4y ago
Extending this topic, I've also had my phone calls hijacked by my wife who has just started the engine and is about to drive out. Happened to her when I took the car too. It brings a great deal of confusion as to wtf happened to our phone calls. I always wondered why they couldn't prioritize devices close to the system over others
- HPsquared 4y ago
  I think they just connect to whatever phone responds to the "ping" first.
nixass 4y ago
Just FYI, CR-V model 2023 has all necessary controls back on buttons. I took it back into consideration for that fact only
Seattle3503 4y ago
Bluetooth interfaces need a way to disable individual devices with a slider.
pier25 4y ago
I hate the touchscreen on my HRV. Thankfully I almost never use it and most controls are buttons and dials but I agree it would be a deal breaker if everything was touch based.
FrojoS 4y ago
Bluetooth is the worst standard ever [1, 2, 3]. My 'solution' is: _Maximum_ 1 (one, one!) Bluetooth 'master' (e.g. phone) device per 'slave device' (e.g. headphones, speaker). That means, if your friend asks if they can connect to your speaker the answer is "Sorry, no.". If you want to use headphones on your laptop and your phone, you need to buy two headphones, etc. For really problematic appliances, like cars, I just deactivate Bluetooth. Not worth the pain. For audio in the car, I use a portable speaker. :shrug: [1] Proof: Many people can't even pronounce it [2] I've bought two, different, new 3k bucks computers that never got the Bluetooth work with anything (yes, they run Windows). [3] I have a 200 bucks Victron SmartShunt in my van to monitor my battery. Can't connect to it anymore with any device (yes, its Bluetooth). Will have to buy an expensive external display (at least that exists) and crawl on the floor to read it. You read my rant this far? Congrats. Have a nice day :-)
- 3np 4y ago
  It's all in the implementation (which is not to say that the standard isn't contributing to poor implementations). If you believe hassle-free multi-device Bluetooth is a pipe dream, you have not been experiencing the magic of a ZMK firmware keyboard roaming between devices with high reliability and practically no delay. (Less blissful and smooth if you want to pair a Windows dual-boot system as a single device tho :p)
dontlaugh 4y ago
Wired CarPlay or Android Auto is much better in this respect.
- EricE 4y ago
  until the jack in your phone gets wonky due to age :(
simondotau 4y ago
I'm willing to accept climate controls within a touch interface so long as the "auto" mode is as competent as the auto mode in my 2013 BMW 1-series. I set it to 22°C at medium intensity. It's rare that I ever have to touch the climate controls, and exceedingly rare that I need to touch the climate controls while in motion. The only manual intervention I perform toggling "max AC" for a few minutes on an especially hot day — and that's pressed while not in motion. I've used "auto" modes in many cars and they're often rubbish. For example blasting unpleasant hot air in your face if you ask for 22°C and it's 21°C outside. Whereas the "stratification" feature of BMW climate control means the upper vents will never blow hot air in your face unless you override it.
- theshrike79 4y ago
  Even worse in cold climates. I've had an external heater heating the inside of my car and the engine for 2 hours. Then I start the car with AC set to 22C and instantly I'm blasted with -20C air from the outside. Why? The Toyota Prius was the first car I owned that actually waited for the air to be the correct temperature before opening the ducts. The same worked in the summer, if the car was already cooler than the outside air, it wouldn't do anything until the AC had enough time to cool.
jam_ocean 4y ago
All I want on my phone is the ability to NOT auto-connect to Bluetooth devices that are in range. It infuriates me. It should be a simple binary toggle for each device, and yet it doesn't exist. At least not on Android. How does this not exist yet? It should have been part of the original spec decades ago.
bmj 4y ago
Ironically, the last time my family purchased a "newer" car (2015), we avoided the Ford Flex and instead purchased a Honda Pilot because the Pilot didn't have a touchscreen for anything. We currently have a 2022 Nissan Altima as a rental (one of the kids totaled the beater 2004 Subaru Forester), and while climate controls still use buttons and knobs, everything else is controlled via a tablet-like touchscreen. I hate it.
Iolaum 4y ago
And this is why open ecosystems are better for the customer. If the software in the car was more open - even just as much as android - someone would write an app for that. /daydreaming ... :(
cnity 4y ago
Reminds me of this gem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32163667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32163667
moffkalast 4y ago
> If I'm using headphones, it will just pinch the audio from them. Man the bluetooth protocol really is something. Never connects when you want it to, won't pair or unpair, but when you don't want to use it it'll force a connect. And the thing is practically wifi, I am always at a loss as to how did they manage to mess it up so badly.
pcthrowaway 4y ago
> I cannot disable this. Drives me absolutely nuts Does this actually happen even if you're using bluetooth headphones? Or just wired headphones. Because if it's bluetooth headphones that's pretty surprising. If you mean you're using wired headphones, I realize this is obvious, but you can just turn bluetooth off on your phone when you're not using it. Arguably, you should, since bluetooth drains the battery for no reason and leads to more electronmagnetic 'noise' in the house (interfering with other bluetooth devices) as well as draining the battery on your phone, and possibly having negative effects on your health if you talk while holding your phone to your head
ethbr0 4y ago
Bluetooth auto-connect somewhat makes sense, reasoned from principles. If you want audio to start magically playing in the car, and the car is often turned off... You can't have the phone connect to it. Otherwise it would continually have to poll for a car, which would burn power. Ergo, you have to have the car initiate the connection, which should happen when the car turns on. Now, you could either have a "Confirm connect?" every time that happens or you could have it auto-reconnect. In most circumstances, "Car-initiated, auto-reconnecting Bluetooth" is preferable to the alternatives. Even if it does have bizarre and annoying UX failure modes.
coldpie 4y ago
Just use the aux jack, dude. You don't have to put up with this.
LazyMans 4y ago
It's incredible how little effort is put into these entertainment systems, and they're entirely closed source.

joshtgreenwood 4y ago

FWIW - just bought a 23 CRV for my wife because of the abundance of analog controls. Not sure what on screen display you were seeing, we use the knobs exclusively.

tastysandwich 4y ago
Nice! I guess they fixed it up This review is for their 2021 model. > Plus, while there is a climate button and fan speed button, as well as dials for the temperature settings, you still have to go through the screen to control whether the air conditioner is on or off, and also which ventilation is active. Odd. https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-reviews/honda-cr-v-81488 https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-reviews/honda-cr-v-81488 And a demonstration, though it's for an even older model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99WLw0pQc8w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99WLw0pQc8w
- gregmac 4y ago
  I have a 2016 Civic, it's almost identical to the video. All I can say is this is such a non-issue: The "auto" mode they implemented works really well. I use the temperature knob pretty much exclusively. If it's hot, the A/C comes on. If it's cold, it doesn't. If the windshield needs defrosting, you press that button and.. it defrosts, then press "auto" to get back. I've literally never manually changed the A/C setting, and once or maybe twice in 5 years of ownership have I manually adjusted vents. The (physical) recirculate button is occasionally useful to manually if you're driving through dust/smoke/smell. But I'll also note the use of this with A/C is automatic: if it's really hot out or you turn the temp down really low, it'll automatically turn on recirculate (so it's cooling the already-cool inside air), but if it's able to use outside fresh air it'll do that instead. This is another thing that Just Works and I basically don't have to think about. Remote start is similarly smart: When it's cold out, it turns on the defrost and heats the seats up. When it's hot, it runs the A/C. Either way when you get in it's usually already comfortable and it resumes whatever mode and temperature it was set to last time you drove -- and on only a mildly warm day, that might mean A/C isn't on. Manual control of A/C is just something you never need to do. Sorry, but Honda absolutely nailed it on their climate control. The lack of a physical volume knob, on the other hand...
  - smaudet 4y ago
    "and once or maybe twice in 5 years of ownership have I manually adjusted vents." I'm going to guess you daily drive mostly and don't pickup many groceries then, and probably don't have a wife/kids. Blasting heat is usefull when e.g. you don't have windows, blasting cold is usefull when you have raw meat in the back and you don't feel like freezing too. Or, you drive with someone with larger/smaller body mass or metabolism, you want to blast cold air, they want to be warm (adding/removing layers is not always an option). There are numerous ways auto mode falls apart here, there are probably others I am not thinking of...I do know that when I take cars that have an auto mode in them it can be nice, but I usually get annoyed with them because something (blast of air, heat through the windshield) messes it up and I just want "cool" or "hot" air not to fiddle with bad UIs on dimly lit displays I can't see in the glare from the snow/blue sky to figure out the "right" temp to reconfigure too...
    - gregmac 4y ago
      Well, your guesses are all incorrect. The "dual climate" does work decently well, though we don't actually use it that often. Seat warmers do a better job if you're actually cold (and my wife usually puts hers way higher than mine). > Blasting heat is usefull when e.g. you don't have windows, blasting cold is usefull when you have raw meat in the back and you don't feel like freezing too. You can still "blast" heat or cool: by turning the temperature way up or down it goes to "MAX" (I don't recall exactly, but something like below 16 or above 25C) and the fan will also run at full speed. I'm not sure how manually "blasting cold" to keep raw meat in the back cold also doesn't freeze you in the front, or what that has to do with auto mode, but we typically don't have groceries in the car for more than about 20 minutes and don't worry about it. I know people who have a much longer trip to get groceries and they use a plug-in cooler; that seems like a more sensible option. > auto mode [...] messes it up and I just want "cool" or "hot" air not to fiddle with bad UIs on dimly lit displays I can't see in the glare from the snow/blue sky to figure out the "right" temp to reconfigure too... Just not reality, in my experience. Auto mode just works. I've been in other cars where it's bad so I understand where you're coming from. I adjust a couple degrees up or down, usually based on what we're wearing, and that's it -- and no need to use display or touchscreen for this. On the display: About the only time it's hard to read is if there's direct sunlight coming through a non-tinted window. I usually drive with polarized sunglasses and then it's basically never an issue at all.
- dymk 4y ago
  Never had an issue using exclusively the physical buttons for climate control in my 2021 CRV

nichos 4y ago

You might want to look at tasker to have it enable Bluetooth when you're not at home or something similar. Also, on most cars you can change the priority of phones, moving yours down would help.

tastysandwich 4y ago
Then it becomes really annoying when we're both in the car and I want to use my phone.
- thesuitonym 4y ago
  There is no magic solution that would, without user intervention, automatically know which phone you want to connect. It can't (yet) read your mind.
  - tastysandwich 4y ago
    I'd rather it just not autoconnect. That's all. At the moment it autoconnects (even if you're already connected to another device), AND autoplays. Doubly annoying.
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
    There is a magic solution. It's called "Ask the user". All these companies think they know what's best for users, with their minimal settings, AI, and auto-magic this-that. Just ask.
    - beAbU 4y ago
      "Hey, last time you drove in me you were listening to music via bluetooth. I found the following _two_ devices that I can connect to. Whuch one do you want?" Perfect solution for the touch screen. Show a bunch of fat icons for all the found and paired devices. Usually it'll be 2-3 devices. Make it easy to tap your option as you are getting settled in the car.
      - 4y ago

mcronce 4y ago

The other day my mom was at our house, parked next to me. She got in her car to leave at the same time I did. I pulled out my phone and put on some music - noting that it was weird that I needed to do anything at all, typically it just resumes playing as soon as it connects to Bluetooth. But I didn't get any audio. That's weird. Until she drove away and the music started playing through my phone's speaker a few seconds later, and I realized that it connected to the wrong head unit.

smaudet 4y ago
Buy two of the same headphone, watch it not work because the software differentiates on the label not the MAC, and never asks you or auto labels the one you connected to... Not a BT problem so much as a bad software pattern. I solve this by naming my devices uniquely.
- HPsquared 4y ago
  My old BMW had this pretty well solved, the Bluetooth device name was the last few digits of the VIN.

qgin 4y ago

I could live with auto-connect, but the assumption that I want to immediately start playing anything seems like a nuts assumption to me.

wincy 4y ago
What’s hilarious is the $10 Bluetooth retrofit I got on Amazon in my 2011 car doesn’t even do this. It just works as a Bluetooth speaker but doesn’t start playing and connects only when I turn on the car. Simple and easy to use.
- smaudet 4y ago
  I think this is the majority of the problem(s) with bluetooth, bad defaults. In cars, second issue is no button to switch on/off, instead either the overly complex pairing process or the overly aggressive one. In phones, its non standard playback - I'm in the camp that audio should pause/resume for calls, and calls should always be routed through the phone you use. If you get a call while on the road either it should do nothing (no connect to car or auto route) or it should be hands free, per phone preference (no fiddling with settings in the car dash, period). This mostly works with some setups, but there's no easy config option and phones don't all have easily customized UIs. Your phone should probably be in charge of the volume too - some car I have gotten into try to rupture my eardrums, others seem to be on whisperquiet and need considerable cranking. Oh, and there should be a BT device priority, there usually isn't and sometimes my headphones get usurped by the car. My solution so far if I want BT is just to use headphones, and unpair all devices from the dash. I would use in car BT more if they worked in a reliably similar fashion. A standardized "ask the user" protocol might help some. I don't think Apple or Android play are valid alternatives, though - there are legit use cases for BT interactions that don't involve phones at all, making over complex top heavy proprietary protocols the norm just destandardizes things more, it doesn't make them better.
  - bluGill 4y ago
    I don't know how to do this, but drivers should never have access to phone calls. You are driving and should not have that distraction. I've never seen someone drive safely and talk on the phone at the same time. Many say they are safe while in the phone, but independent observation says they are not.

gffrd 4y ago

The other day, I was taking a call on my iPhone, over the earpiece, in my office suite's lobby. The connection was rock solid, and then out of nowhere the audio just disappeared, without warning … but the call didn't drop. A few seconds later it returned. The person on the other end said they heard what sounded like a child for a second. I was perplexed. Fast forward a week, and this happens again. I look at the call screen, and notice that the audio is being routed to Bluetooth? Opening it, it says I'm connected to my car. Not possible: I'm here, in my office, took a bus in. I look up, baffled, and happen to see my wife drive by, 40 feet away, through a concrete wall and some glass. Damn you, auto-connect. DAMN YOU.

MarcoZavala 4y ago
[dead]
8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
I turn my bluetooth completely off for this reason. It's the only way I can figure to prevent this.
- supportengineer 4y ago
  The only way to win is not to play.
- ridgered4 4y ago
  I'm not sure if this is even possible on my car. Is there a hardware module I can remove?
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
    I turn it off on my phone. Don't know if there's a setting in the car. I'm sure you can rip out some Bluetooth receiver in the car if you're really determined
kristopolous 4y ago
I really want an option like this Enable [ X ] Audio [ ] Phone Calls < Pair > < Cancel > Because I never, not one single time, wanted a phone call to blast over my car audio. Not once. I can't be the only one that has wanted the car to be a speakerphone exactly 0 times. Heck maybe someone is the opposite. They love terrestrial radio or their CD collection and also the speakerphone feature. Give people options.

8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago

My Mazda CX-5 has buttons for A/C control but I'm still annoyed because my '99 Civic had knobs which are infinitely better. One for temp, one for fan. That's all I need. Don't want no stinking buttons for fan intensity in a row of 100 other buttons.

charles_f 4y ago
My old cx-5 has knobs, I love them, but the rest of the system sucks (notably, if you allow the car to download your contacts it will take several minutes at each start to allow you to play audio)
- makapuf 4y ago
  This! My car automatically syncs my contacts (which I have never used) once it connects my Phone, instead of,like, playing the radio, allowing me to call, or show me the goddamn GPS route.
- aphrax 4y ago
  Oh, is that why it takes so long to start audio? If you dont download contacts does audio start in a reasonable time?
  - charles_f 4y ago
    Yep, audio starts within 10-15s. Unpair your phone then pair again, select no when it asks if you want to sync contacts and messages

vishnugupta 4y ago

> it will automatically connect to my phone in the house and start playing whatever was last playing If it's an iPhone you could use automations (Shortcuts app which is preinstalled) to auto-pause music whenever it connects to bluetooth and launches CarPlay. I have done it and works like charm. https://www.guidingtech.com/how-to-stop-music-from-automatically-playing-in-car/ https://www.guidingtech.com/how-to-stop-music-from-automatic...

TylerE 4y ago

I’m really becoming pretty convinced that audio is not an acceptable use case for Bluetooth. Just so much jank, and that’s before you get to most devices only supporting lossy encoding.

CGamesPlay 4y ago

The sibling comments here are hilarious, but I actually prefer the Bluetooth auto-connect. "When it works" it's even better than a headphone jack. There is definitely more room for customization of the nuance, though. I could easily see a per-device setting on the phone to allow it to pair automatically or manually.

ad-astra 4y ago

This is why I always turn off Bluetooth when watching porn, otherwise my phone auto-connects to my wife’s Mini Cooper when she drives into the garage. DAMN YOU AUTO-CONNECT!!

masteruvpuppetz 4y ago
I'll do that next time too

princevegeta89 4y ago

Extending this topic, I've also had my phone calls hijacked by my wife who has just started the engine and is about to drive out. Happened to her when I took the car too. It brings a great deal of confusion as to wtf happened to our phone calls. I always wondered why they couldn't prioritize devices close to the system over others

HPsquared 4y ago
I think they just connect to whatever phone responds to the "ping" first.

nixass 4y ago

Just FYI, CR-V model 2023 has all necessary controls back on buttons. I took it back into consideration for that fact only

Seattle3503 4y ago

Bluetooth interfaces need a way to disable individual devices with a slider.

pier25 4y ago

I hate the touchscreen on my HRV. Thankfully I almost never use it and most controls are buttons and dials but I agree it would be a deal breaker if everything was touch based.

FrojoS 4y ago

Bluetooth is the worst standard ever [1, 2, 3]. My 'solution' is: _Maximum_ 1 (one, one!) Bluetooth 'master' (e.g. phone) device per 'slave device' (e.g. headphones, speaker). That means, if your friend asks if they can connect to your speaker the answer is "Sorry, no.". If you want to use headphones on your laptop and your phone, you need to buy two headphones, etc. For really problematic appliances, like cars, I just deactivate Bluetooth. Not worth the pain. For audio in the car, I use a portable speaker. :shrug: [1] Proof: Many people can't even pronounce it [2] I've bought two, different, new 3k bucks computers that never got the Bluetooth work with anything (yes, they run Windows). [3] I have a 200 bucks Victron SmartShunt in my van to monitor my battery. Can't connect to it anymore with any device (yes, its Bluetooth). Will have to buy an expensive external display (at least that exists) and crawl on the floor to read it. You read my rant this far? Congrats. Have a nice day :-)

3np 4y ago
It's all in the implementation (which is not to say that the standard isn't contributing to poor implementations). If you believe hassle-free multi-device Bluetooth is a pipe dream, you have not been experiencing the magic of a ZMK firmware keyboard roaming between devices with high reliability and practically no delay. (Less blissful and smooth if you want to pair a Windows dual-boot system as a single device tho :p)

dontlaugh 4y ago

Wired CarPlay or Android Auto is much better in this respect.

EricE 4y ago
until the jack in your phone gets wonky due to age :(

simondotau 4y ago

I'm willing to accept climate controls within a touch interface so long as the "auto" mode is as competent as the auto mode in my 2013 BMW 1-series. I set it to 22°C at medium intensity. It's rare that I ever have to touch the climate controls, and exceedingly rare that I need to touch the climate controls while in motion. The only manual intervention I perform toggling "max AC" for a few minutes on an especially hot day — and that's pressed while not in motion. I've used "auto" modes in many cars and they're often rubbish. For example blasting unpleasant hot air in your face if you ask for 22°C and it's 21°C outside. Whereas the "stratification" feature of BMW climate control means the upper vents will never blow hot air in your face unless you override it.

theshrike79 4y ago
Even worse in cold climates. I've had an external heater heating the inside of my car and the engine for 2 hours. Then I start the car with AC set to 22C and instantly I'm blasted with -20C air from the outside. Why? The Toyota Prius was the first car I owned that actually waited for the air to be the correct temperature before opening the ducts. The same worked in the summer, if the car was already cooler than the outside air, it wouldn't do anything until the AC had enough time to cool.

jam_ocean 4y ago

All I want on my phone is the ability to NOT auto-connect to Bluetooth devices that are in range. It infuriates me. It should be a simple binary toggle for each device, and yet it doesn't exist. At least not on Android. How does this not exist yet? It should have been part of the original spec decades ago.

bmj 4y ago

Ironically, the last time my family purchased a "newer" car (2015), we avoided the Ford Flex and instead purchased a Honda Pilot because the Pilot didn't have a touchscreen for anything. We currently have a 2022 Nissan Altima as a rental (one of the kids totaled the beater 2004 Subaru Forester), and while climate controls still use buttons and knobs, everything else is controlled via a tablet-like touchscreen. I hate it.

Iolaum 4y ago

And this is why open ecosystems are better for the customer. If the software in the car was more open - even just as much as android - someone would write an app for that. /daydreaming ... :(

cnity 4y ago

Reminds me of this gem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32163667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32163667

moffkalast 4y ago

> If I'm using headphones, it will just pinch the audio from them. Man the bluetooth protocol really is something. Never connects when you want it to, won't pair or unpair, but when you don't want to use it it'll force a connect. And the thing is practically wifi, I am always at a loss as to how did they manage to mess it up so badly.

pcthrowaway 4y ago

> I cannot disable this. Drives me absolutely nuts Does this actually happen even if you're using bluetooth headphones? Or just wired headphones. Because if it's bluetooth headphones that's pretty surprising. If you mean you're using wired headphones, I realize this is obvious, but you can just turn bluetooth off on your phone when you're not using it. Arguably, you should, since bluetooth drains the battery for no reason and leads to more electronmagnetic 'noise' in the house (interfering with other bluetooth devices) as well as draining the battery on your phone, and possibly having negative effects on your health if you talk while holding your phone to your head

ethbr0 4y ago

Bluetooth auto-connect somewhat makes sense, reasoned from principles. If you want audio to start magically playing in the car, and the car is often turned off... You can't have the phone connect to it. Otherwise it would continually have to poll for a car, which would burn power. Ergo, you have to have the car initiate the connection, which should happen when the car turns on. Now, you could either have a "Confirm connect?" every time that happens or you could have it auto-reconnect. In most circumstances, "Car-initiated, auto-reconnecting Bluetooth" is preferable to the alternatives. Even if it does have bizarre and annoying UX failure modes.

coldpie 4y ago

Just use the aux jack, dude. You don't have to put up with this.

LazyMans 4y ago

It's incredible how little effort is put into these entertainment systems, and they're entirely closed source.