7 ms·

Automobile companies tried for years to make a decent infotainment system in cars, and almost universally they were all terrible no matter how expensive the veh

Automobile companies tried for years to make a decent infotainment system in cars, and almost universally they were all terrible no matter how expensive the vehicle. Finally Android Auto and CarPlay gave everyone what they wanted - decent access to music on their phone, call capabilities that actually work, and program integration with things they actually use with internet service they already have. Then manufacturers realized they were losing control to Google and Apple, and want it back. So now I guess we're back to random garbage half-baked solutions that no one likes, just so they can sell subscriptions for seat heaters and music players. Back to the walled gardens everyone, move along. I'll never buy a new vehicle again, particularly GM now, and simply stick to something older I can either put any standard double-din deck into, or a vehicle with 3rd party mods that then add Android Auto like my Infiniti that shipped with the worst infotainment system ever.

sublinear 3y ago
For what it's worth, most vehicles still have aftermarket dash panels and wiring harnesses so you can install whatever you want. Way less of a compromise than buying an older vehicle, but I wouldn't expect some of the control integrations with the steering wheel and other displays to work though. Really in retrospect nothing has changed from the days double-din was standard apart from some extra steps. Does anyone know if there are projects that reverse engineer these misc integrations for various manufacturers? Is it all just CAN bus or something proprietary?
- askvictor 3y ago
  Do they really? Most recent cars I've seen have a touchscreen LCD popping up out of the dash and it all looks rather custom. Are there some kind of standards like double-DIN?
  - equalsione 3y ago
    One option is standalone CarPlay and Android Auto head units - search for carpuride or Atoto for examples. There’s other manufacturers as well. I recall seeing model specific replacement head units for the pop up type display you describe but can’t find them now
    - lelanthran 3y ago
      > One option is standalone CarPlay and Android Auto head units - search for carpuride or Atoto for examples. What GP complained about was that the factory-installed head units have very non-standard shapes for everything but the screen, and even then it'd be glued into some molded piece of plastic trim which has a non-regular shape in the dashboard. You'd literally have to cut out the trim with a saw and refinish it in order to use the din/double-din standard sizes.
  - ghostly_s 3y ago
    you just need an aftermarket trim piece that allows install of standard head units.
- palemoonale 3y ago
  Nope, isn't as easy as it has been during the 90s. Ever had to deal with abominations like CAN-but-not-really-CAN like PSAs own VAN? Having to find out which model has which bus? Non-standard size cutouts / bays? Alone the FW versions i had to test of Alpine / OEM adapter products to get steering wheel controls working. The PDC i couldn't. And MOST is a different topic.
baz00 3y ago
I think you pretty much nailed it. On the other hand I will only buy a car where the car is a BT audio unit and control head and nothing else. Everything more than that sucks.
gambiting 3y ago
Just an anecdote - I own a Volvo XC60(with Sensus not AAOS) and 99% of the time I'd rather just use the built-in OS than Android Auto - AA is slow to respond and imprecise(clicks are almost always recognized as swipes rather than clicks, problem which doesn't happen in the built-in OS), and every time you need to do something it locks you out for 5 seconds to look at the road, even though it's my passenger using it. The integrated navigation and Spotify work great and don't give me this minimalistic interface of AA that is barely usable. Like, I get that it's a great solution in a lot of cars. But I don't think it's universally true that "no one" wants to use the built in system - I definitely do. >>just so they can sell subscriptions for seat heaters and music players. Yes, that is absolutely horrendous trend that I hope we manage to stop - but I suspect we won't, the genie is out of the bottle now so to speak.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  > every time you need to do something it locks you out for 5 seconds to look at the road Whoever came up with that wasn't entirely right in the head: so now people will stare at the device for another five seconds wondering what they did wrong. Sound of impact.
  - imp0cat 3y ago
    Or just push the button on your steering wheel and use voice control. You (mostly) do not have to touch the screen at all.
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      This was exclusively in the context of where you do need to use the touch screen. Which I think should be outlawed for automotive applications.
    - piva00 3y ago
      Voice control is imprecise. You are forgetting about us folks whom are not native in one of the supported languages for voice control and constantly have to adapt our accents to the whims of speech recognition. And the right incantation of command for the task. It's not impossible, just a very annoying way to control something precisely.
epolanski 3y ago
I have like the opposite experience...AA and Carplay have always been cause of issues, having to take the phone in my hand while driving, sluggishness.. In fact I feel the opposite you say: car play has been an excuse for some automakers for subpar infotainment. That being said removing it completely is madness, because people like you are millions and want it.
- lloeki 3y ago
  None of these issues exist on my Mazda car. Screen is tactile at stops, but I only ever use the rotational+directional knob. Phone stays plugged and untouched. It's snappy. I bet some other cars have poor HID but here they put the work in and it is good.
  - miniupuchaty 3y ago
    I have the same experiance, I wonder if maybe people are using wireless modes(I don't have that option in my car), and don't have "knob controls".
- huytersd 3y ago
  Why do you have to take your phone in your hand? You just do all your actions on the screen in the car. I’ve never had to touch my phone in the car once it’s plugged in.
- mngdtt 3y ago
  I think you need to upgrade your phone. I have never had these issues with a (more or less recent) iPhone.
  - epolanski 3y ago
    The idea that I have to upgrade my perfectly working phone to get a better infotainment experience sounds ridiculous. Also, as I stated, I'm perfectly fine with the out-of-the-box experience of the infotainment in both my cars. There's radio, there's maps, that's all I really need.
warbeforepeace 3y ago
$40 bucks on fiver gets you a better management system than what GM will develop.
urbandw311er 3y ago
It’s interesting how you correctly identify that this is a massive play for control by Apple and Google, and yet you still seem to sympathise with their position! I can completely understand why vehicle manufacturers are so wary. Just look at the history of how Apple, Google, etc companies have behaved when it comes to “partnerships”. Look at the App Store. Look at what Google did to supposedly open source Android. It begins with some generous offer of allowing access to the UX/platform in exchange for innocent sounding things like control over user data/login. It ends with the platform completely taken over, GM being held to ransom, and no in-house systems or staff left to revert back to their own solution.
- esyir 3y ago
  Turns out doing it better influences people's preferences. The problem is fundamentally that the carmakers do such a shit job. If infotainment systems matter at all to consumers, we'd expect to see GM take a hit for this, and get their market share eaten by competitors who don't do so.
  - Xcelerate 3y ago
    > we'd expect to see GM take a hit for this, and get their market share eaten by competitors who don't do so. I think there’s a better chance of this happening than they believe. I bought a new Camry in 2017, right at the start of their 4 year upgrade cycle (i.e., the 2018 version). I chose a Camry due to their well-known reliability. However, none of the new vehicle models that Toyota sold had CarPlay at that point, and it was unclear whether Toyota would ever offer it at all. After a few months of driving my new car and then getting the chance to use CarPlay in a rental car, I decided I would not buy another Toyota in the future because it was so annoying to be aware of the experience that could easily exist involving navigation, music, etc. but that did not. Toyota eventually relented in 2018, and luckily my Camry had upgrade support to install CarPlay (so clearly it had been planned a while ago for this model). But they would have lost me as a customer otherwise, and I doubt my perspective on this is unique. It’s sort of curious that such a trivial-to-implement aspect of the car’s design can have such an outsized influence on a purchase decision.
lupusreal 3y ago
> decent access to music on their phone, call capabilities that actually work, and program integration with things they actually use with internet service they already have. I am convinced all of these things are unsafe. I refuse to take calls when driving over bluetooth; distracting yourself with a conversation when you're supposed to be driving is reckless and I think this is doubly true when it's a phone conversation (in which the other participant can't watch the road and know when to stop talking.) Even music while driving is a nuisance. Nobody talks about the role of music in car accidents because almost everybody likes it, but it contributes to distracted driving and in some cases reckless driving. It encourages people to continue driving when they are mentally fatigued (take note of how many people say music "helps" them during long drives.) GPS navigation on a screen is a bad idea too; your eyes cannot read a screen and watch the road at the same time. Pure voice navigation giving brief commands and updates is sufficient and relatively safe. Car integration isn't necessary at all; a phone placed in the center console with the volume turned up and the screen turned off gets the job done. If you need to make adjustments or read a text or take a call, pull over.
- sokoloff 3y ago
  I think GPS screen-based nav is safer than voice-based for any complex interchange situation. Showing me at a glance which lane I need to be in and what my overall path/goal will be is better (at least for me, but I think for loads of people) than describing the same over voice commands. Voice both takes longer and is subject to being pushed to you at the wrong moment where info from a screen can be pulled on demand and quickly.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  If you have someone in the car with you do you tell them to be silent?
  - lupusreal 3y ago
    If they don't watch the road and know when to be, yes. If they're talking when it's safe to that is okay.
odiroot 3y ago
Ironically motorcycle companies seem to be doing better in this regard. For example Royal Enfield, KTM or even BMW.
- koolba 3y ago
  At least nobody is stupid enough to add a touch screen infotainment system to a motorcycle.
  - lsmoron 3y ago
    Well, touring harleys have that for years (like since 2014)
  - odiroot 3y ago
    I'm actually not exactly sure. But would be hard to use it with gloves anyway. Most systems rely on buttons on the handlebars.
amelius 3y ago
The fundamental problem is that once you bought the car, the manufacturer now has a monopoly on everything they can sell you for the car. In my opinion we should have a "no-tether" law: once you buy a product you should be able to use (and upgrade) it as advertised even if you break all ties with the original vendor. This means that other vendors can supply parts and services. This law could hold for many product categories, including cars and smartphones.
steveBK123 3y ago
Yes, and on top of the mediocre infotainment UX, the automakers also have comical/user hostile upgrade cycles. I bought a new model release BMW which halfway through the 2nd or 3rd year of the models life, they shipped a slightly different head unit. From that point, only the owners with the new head unit get the newest OS/features. Imagine if next year when iOS 18 comes out, we learn that only iPhone 15s made after March 2024 were eligible, and no iPhone 14 or earlier was, lol. Beyond that, the OTA updates tend to not work and require you to go to the dealer. No one quite knows the rhyme or reason.
ants_everywhere 3y ago
> Automobile companies tried for years to make a decent infotainment system in cars To expand on your point, both Google and Apple are rumored to be getting into the business of manufacturing cars (e.g. Waymo and the rumored Apple Car). So GM may be looking toward the future where their infotainment systems are owned by rival car manufacturers.
dsr_ 3y ago
> Finally Android Auto and CarPlay gave everyone what they wanted Bzzt. What I want is what I have: there's a $10 bluetooth receiver hooked to the car audio input jack, and a $10 phone holder on top of the dash, and a $10 USB charger plugged into the 12V. If phones routinely came with headphone jacks, I could skip the bluetooth intermediate. So: when I start the car, whatever phone I have paired reconnects with the bluetooth receiver and plays what I want through the dumb speaker system. If I want to run a map app, I do that. If I want to make a call, I can do that. The phone is in charge of muting the music when a call comes in. It's very good at that. If I change software on my phone, the new things work in the car. If I want to replace the phone with something not tied to Google or Apple, I can. The car can't report its location, can't be remotely immobilized, can't show me advertising. No new subscription. No bugs in the car system to exploit; no bugs in the car system to brick the system. Easily and cheaply replaceable parts. I don't understand why any driver would want more integration than this. Somebody suggested that the car should tell the mapping system when I've clicked the turn signal on or off, but if you need that level of detailed support when driving, I think maybe you shouldn't be driving while distracted by a mapping system at all.
- JoBrad 3y ago
  That’s Android Auto/Carplay, except it uses WiFi or USB, for a better connection.
  - dolmen 3y ago
    Better connection is not my experience. In long trips, the car starts to loose the connection to the phone, even if connected by USB cable. Looks like a memory leak crashing the system. And no, I don't want to stop the car just to restart display of Google Maps on the car display: baby is sleeping, stopping is not an option.
- alufers 3y ago
  I still have a drawer full of phone holders and bluetooth receivers that I used in my previous car with a "dumb" radio. All of the holders were annoyingly rattling when driving over potholes and finicky to insert or remove the phone. From all the bluetooth receivers I tried (3 of them), none of them had a decent microphone, which meant making phone calls a no go, and the first 2 of them had poor power filtering resulting in a high-pitched hum (I suppose it was from the alternator). Now I have a car with wireless Android Auto and when I start the car I immediately get a google maps view without having to search for the app, including two recommended destinations (usually places I go to frequently, or the last searched place on Gmaps). The whole interface is easier to use while driving, because of the limited feature-set and larger screen than on the phone itself. Same story with calling, it just works - I can answer calls from the buttons on the steering wheel and the mic is decent and in the right place. Can we stop pretending that every innovation since 2010 is evil? I get it that it locks in you in Google's/Apple's ecosystems, but their solution is simply working well. For me the alternatives don't cut it, and I believe that their shoddy practices (data collection, monopoly etc.) should be fought with legislation and not by refusing to use their stuff on principle.
jimmydddd 3y ago
I just have a playlist on a USB thumb drive. Works flawlessly.
winternett 3y ago
The major problem I have with software is that there's no commitment to maintaining it once it's sold, and no additional money is there to be made. The old boring button-based radios lasted forever without software updates, and they could also be swapped out for newer devices later on if need be. Now cars are being made with very specific parts that are not easily replaced, and with systems that aren't infinitely upgradeable, even as we've somewhat reached a plateau of hardware performance that can handle most application demands. Now hardware is being bogged down by resource-eating ads and limited/ spotty Internet bandwidth more than by processing power. As we progress into the future, there needs to be a major pushback on the software upsell practices of companies, especially for cars. Cars need to be reliable, and dependable. My desktop PC has been running for 11 years now, with the power on (with only minor hardware & OS updates), the only thing that has been a constant threat to it's reliability is the drive by software makers to milk me out of my money for updates.... They often push updates under the premise that they are for security, but now most updates are to insert ads and up-sell schemes into the apps and OS. I miss the old days, because even though you could buy new hardware, you rarely needed to... Now, with each update, I'm worried about my PC being bricked and heavy downtime without any real technical support available, because there are so many different greedy brands of companies making tons of devices that they regularly drop updates for. Something has to change about the software-driven economy, or I'm planning to just go entirely "off grid" for the most part in my retirement from being a developer and consumer myself.
xnx 3y ago
Modern cars are of such high quality that they are largely commodity, even moreso with the switch to electric drivetrains. Margins on the hardware will continue to decrease, and automakers will be desperate to recoup revenue through digital and subscription services. The problem is that traditional automakers are way out of their league. GM has a lot more in common with Foxconn than it does Apple or Google.

sublinear 3y ago

For what it's worth, most vehicles still have aftermarket dash panels and wiring harnesses so you can install whatever you want. Way less of a compromise than buying an older vehicle, but I wouldn't expect some of the control integrations with the steering wheel and other displays to work though. Really in retrospect nothing has changed from the days double-din was standard apart from some extra steps. Does anyone know if there are projects that reverse engineer these misc integrations for various manufacturers? Is it all just CAN bus or something proprietary?

askvictor 3y ago
Do they really? Most recent cars I've seen have a touchscreen LCD popping up out of the dash and it all looks rather custom. Are there some kind of standards like double-DIN?
- equalsione 3y ago
  One option is standalone CarPlay and Android Auto head units - search for carpuride or Atoto for examples. There’s other manufacturers as well. I recall seeing model specific replacement head units for the pop up type display you describe but can’t find them now
  - lelanthran 3y ago
    > One option is standalone CarPlay and Android Auto head units - search for carpuride or Atoto for examples. What GP complained about was that the factory-installed head units have very non-standard shapes for everything but the screen, and even then it'd be glued into some molded piece of plastic trim which has a non-regular shape in the dashboard. You'd literally have to cut out the trim with a saw and refinish it in order to use the din/double-din standard sizes.
- ghostly_s 3y ago
  you just need an aftermarket trim piece that allows install of standard head units.
palemoonale 3y ago
Nope, isn't as easy as it has been during the 90s. Ever had to deal with abominations like CAN-but-not-really-CAN like PSAs own VAN? Having to find out which model has which bus? Non-standard size cutouts / bays? Alone the FW versions i had to test of Alpine / OEM adapter products to get steering wheel controls working. The PDC i couldn't. And MOST is a different topic.

baz00 3y ago

I think you pretty much nailed it. On the other hand I will only buy a car where the car is a BT audio unit and control head and nothing else. Everything more than that sucks.

gambiting 3y ago

Just an anecdote - I own a Volvo XC60(with Sensus not AAOS) and 99% of the time I'd rather just use the built-in OS than Android Auto - AA is slow to respond and imprecise(clicks are almost always recognized as swipes rather than clicks, problem which doesn't happen in the built-in OS), and every time you need to do something it locks you out for 5 seconds to look at the road, even though it's my passenger using it. The integrated navigation and Spotify work great and don't give me this minimalistic interface of AA that is barely usable. Like, I get that it's a great solution in a lot of cars. But I don't think it's universally true that "no one" wants to use the built in system - I definitely do. >>just so they can sell subscriptions for seat heaters and music players. Yes, that is absolutely horrendous trend that I hope we manage to stop - but I suspect we won't, the genie is out of the bottle now so to speak.

jacquesm 3y ago
> every time you need to do something it locks you out for 5 seconds to look at the road Whoever came up with that wasn't entirely right in the head: so now people will stare at the device for another five seconds wondering what they did wrong. Sound of impact.
- imp0cat 3y ago
  Or just push the button on your steering wheel and use voice control. You (mostly) do not have to touch the screen at all.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    This was exclusively in the context of where you do need to use the touch screen. Which I think should be outlawed for automotive applications.
  - piva00 3y ago
    Voice control is imprecise. You are forgetting about us folks whom are not native in one of the supported languages for voice control and constantly have to adapt our accents to the whims of speech recognition. And the right incantation of command for the task. It's not impossible, just a very annoying way to control something precisely.

epolanski 3y ago

I have like the opposite experience...AA and Carplay have always been cause of issues, having to take the phone in my hand while driving, sluggishness.. In fact I feel the opposite you say: car play has been an excuse for some automakers for subpar infotainment. That being said removing it completely is madness, because people like you are millions and want it.

lloeki 3y ago
None of these issues exist on my Mazda car. Screen is tactile at stops, but I only ever use the rotational+directional knob. Phone stays plugged and untouched. It's snappy. I bet some other cars have poor HID but here they put the work in and it is good.
- miniupuchaty 3y ago
  I have the same experiance, I wonder if maybe people are using wireless modes(I don't have that option in my car), and don't have "knob controls".
huytersd 3y ago
Why do you have to take your phone in your hand? You just do all your actions on the screen in the car. I’ve never had to touch my phone in the car once it’s plugged in.
mngdtt 3y ago
I think you need to upgrade your phone. I have never had these issues with a (more or less recent) iPhone.
- epolanski 3y ago
  The idea that I have to upgrade my perfectly working phone to get a better infotainment experience sounds ridiculous. Also, as I stated, I'm perfectly fine with the out-of-the-box experience of the infotainment in both my cars. There's radio, there's maps, that's all I really need.

warbeforepeace 3y ago

$40 bucks on fiver gets you a better management system than what GM will develop.

urbandw311er 3y ago

It’s interesting how you correctly identify that this is a massive play for control by Apple and Google, and yet you still seem to sympathise with their position! I can completely understand why vehicle manufacturers are so wary. Just look at the history of how Apple, Google, etc companies have behaved when it comes to “partnerships”. Look at the App Store. Look at what Google did to supposedly open source Android. It begins with some generous offer of allowing access to the UX/platform in exchange for innocent sounding things like control over user data/login. It ends with the platform completely taken over, GM being held to ransom, and no in-house systems or staff left to revert back to their own solution.

esyir 3y ago
Turns out doing it better influences people's preferences. The problem is fundamentally that the carmakers do such a shit job. If infotainment systems matter at all to consumers, we'd expect to see GM take a hit for this, and get their market share eaten by competitors who don't do so.
- Xcelerate 3y ago
  > we'd expect to see GM take a hit for this, and get their market share eaten by competitors who don't do so. I think there’s a better chance of this happening than they believe. I bought a new Camry in 2017, right at the start of their 4 year upgrade cycle (i.e., the 2018 version). I chose a Camry due to their well-known reliability. However, none of the new vehicle models that Toyota sold had CarPlay at that point, and it was unclear whether Toyota would ever offer it at all. After a few months of driving my new car and then getting the chance to use CarPlay in a rental car, I decided I would not buy another Toyota in the future because it was so annoying to be aware of the experience that could easily exist involving navigation, music, etc. but that did not. Toyota eventually relented in 2018, and luckily my Camry had upgrade support to install CarPlay (so clearly it had been planned a while ago for this model). But they would have lost me as a customer otherwise, and I doubt my perspective on this is unique. It’s sort of curious that such a trivial-to-implement aspect of the car’s design can have such an outsized influence on a purchase decision.

lupusreal 3y ago

> decent access to music on their phone, call capabilities that actually work, and program integration with things they actually use with internet service they already have. I am convinced all of these things are unsafe. I refuse to take calls when driving over bluetooth; distracting yourself with a conversation when you're supposed to be driving is reckless and I think this is doubly true when it's a phone conversation (in which the other participant can't watch the road and know when to stop talking.) Even music while driving is a nuisance. Nobody talks about the role of music in car accidents because almost everybody likes it, but it contributes to distracted driving and in some cases reckless driving. It encourages people to continue driving when they are mentally fatigued (take note of how many people say music "helps" them during long drives.) GPS navigation on a screen is a bad idea too; your eyes cannot read a screen and watch the road at the same time. Pure voice navigation giving brief commands and updates is sufficient and relatively safe. Car integration isn't necessary at all; a phone placed in the center console with the volume turned up and the screen turned off gets the job done. If you need to make adjustments or read a text or take a call, pull over.

sokoloff 3y ago
I think GPS screen-based nav is safer than voice-based for any complex interchange situation. Showing me at a glance which lane I need to be in and what my overall path/goal will be is better (at least for me, but I think for loads of people) than describing the same over voice commands. Voice both takes longer and is subject to being pushed to you at the wrong moment where info from a screen can be pulled on demand and quickly.
aaomidi 3y ago
If you have someone in the car with you do you tell them to be silent?
- lupusreal 3y ago
  If they don't watch the road and know when to be, yes. If they're talking when it's safe to that is okay.

odiroot 3y ago

Ironically motorcycle companies seem to be doing better in this regard. For example Royal Enfield, KTM or even BMW.

koolba 3y ago
At least nobody is stupid enough to add a touch screen infotainment system to a motorcycle.
- lsmoron 3y ago
  Well, touring harleys have that for years (like since 2014)
- odiroot 3y ago
  I'm actually not exactly sure. But would be hard to use it with gloves anyway. Most systems rely on buttons on the handlebars.

amelius 3y ago

The fundamental problem is that once you bought the car, the manufacturer now has a monopoly on everything they can sell you for the car. In my opinion we should have a "no-tether" law: once you buy a product you should be able to use (and upgrade) it as advertised even if you break all ties with the original vendor. This means that other vendors can supply parts and services. This law could hold for many product categories, including cars and smartphones.

steveBK123 3y ago

Yes, and on top of the mediocre infotainment UX, the automakers also have comical/user hostile upgrade cycles. I bought a new model release BMW which halfway through the 2nd or 3rd year of the models life, they shipped a slightly different head unit. From that point, only the owners with the new head unit get the newest OS/features. Imagine if next year when iOS 18 comes out, we learn that only iPhone 15s made after March 2024 were eligible, and no iPhone 14 or earlier was, lol. Beyond that, the OTA updates tend to not work and require you to go to the dealer. No one quite knows the rhyme or reason.

ants_everywhere 3y ago

> Automobile companies tried for years to make a decent infotainment system in cars To expand on your point, both Google and Apple are rumored to be getting into the business of manufacturing cars (e.g. Waymo and the rumored Apple Car). So GM may be looking toward the future where their infotainment systems are owned by rival car manufacturers.

dsr_ 3y ago

> Finally Android Auto and CarPlay gave everyone what they wanted Bzzt. What I want is what I have: there's a $10 bluetooth receiver hooked to the car audio input jack, and a $10 phone holder on top of the dash, and a $10 USB charger plugged into the 12V. If phones routinely came with headphone jacks, I could skip the bluetooth intermediate. So: when I start the car, whatever phone I have paired reconnects with the bluetooth receiver and plays what I want through the dumb speaker system. If I want to run a map app, I do that. If I want to make a call, I can do that. The phone is in charge of muting the music when a call comes in. It's very good at that. If I change software on my phone, the new things work in the car. If I want to replace the phone with something not tied to Google or Apple, I can. The car can't report its location, can't be remotely immobilized, can't show me advertising. No new subscription. No bugs in the car system to exploit; no bugs in the car system to brick the system. Easily and cheaply replaceable parts. I don't understand why any driver would want more integration than this. Somebody suggested that the car should tell the mapping system when I've clicked the turn signal on or off, but if you need that level of detailed support when driving, I think maybe you shouldn't be driving while distracted by a mapping system at all.

JoBrad 3y ago
That’s Android Auto/Carplay, except it uses WiFi or USB, for a better connection.
- dolmen 3y ago
  Better connection is not my experience. In long trips, the car starts to loose the connection to the phone, even if connected by USB cable. Looks like a memory leak crashing the system. And no, I don't want to stop the car just to restart display of Google Maps on the car display: baby is sleeping, stopping is not an option.
alufers 3y ago
I still have a drawer full of phone holders and bluetooth receivers that I used in my previous car with a "dumb" radio. All of the holders were annoyingly rattling when driving over potholes and finicky to insert or remove the phone. From all the bluetooth receivers I tried (3 of them), none of them had a decent microphone, which meant making phone calls a no go, and the first 2 of them had poor power filtering resulting in a high-pitched hum (I suppose it was from the alternator). Now I have a car with wireless Android Auto and when I start the car I immediately get a google maps view without having to search for the app, including two recommended destinations (usually places I go to frequently, or the last searched place on Gmaps). The whole interface is easier to use while driving, because of the limited feature-set and larger screen than on the phone itself. Same story with calling, it just works - I can answer calls from the buttons on the steering wheel and the mic is decent and in the right place. Can we stop pretending that every innovation since 2010 is evil? I get it that it locks in you in Google's/Apple's ecosystems, but their solution is simply working well. For me the alternatives don't cut it, and I believe that their shoddy practices (data collection, monopoly etc.) should be fought with legislation and not by refusing to use their stuff on principle.

jimmydddd 3y ago

I just have a playlist on a USB thumb drive. Works flawlessly.

winternett 3y ago

The major problem I have with software is that there's no commitment to maintaining it once it's sold, and no additional money is there to be made. The old boring button-based radios lasted forever without software updates, and they could also be swapped out for newer devices later on if need be. Now cars are being made with very specific parts that are not easily replaced, and with systems that aren't infinitely upgradeable, even as we've somewhat reached a plateau of hardware performance that can handle most application demands. Now hardware is being bogged down by resource-eating ads and limited/ spotty Internet bandwidth more than by processing power. As we progress into the future, there needs to be a major pushback on the software upsell practices of companies, especially for cars. Cars need to be reliable, and dependable. My desktop PC has been running for 11 years now, with the power on (with only minor hardware & OS updates), the only thing that has been a constant threat to it's reliability is the drive by software makers to milk me out of my money for updates.... They often push updates under the premise that they are for security, but now most updates are to insert ads and up-sell schemes into the apps and OS. I miss the old days, because even though you could buy new hardware, you rarely needed to... Now, with each update, I'm worried about my PC being bricked and heavy downtime without any real technical support available, because there are so many different greedy brands of companies making tons of devices that they regularly drop updates for. Something has to change about the software-driven economy, or I'm planning to just go entirely "off grid" for the most part in my retirement from being a developer and consumer myself.

xnx 3y ago

Modern cars are of such high quality that they are largely commodity, even moreso with the switch to electric drivetrains. Margins on the hardware will continue to decrease, and automakers will be desperate to recoup revenue through digital and subscription services. The problem is that traditional automakers are way out of their league. GM has a lot more in common with Foxconn than it does Apple or Google.