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> Someone in auto industry decided that plugging device, and dependency on core functionality of the car to 3rd party device, that might be lost, have battery d

> Someone in auto industry decided that plugging device, and dependency on core functionality of the car to 3rd party device, that might be lost, have battery died, used for something else, etc is a good way to save money and not do proper software. On the contrary, having cars stop trying to provide a bespoke more-proprietary outdated piece of software you have less control over, probably have surreptitious telemetry reporting back from, and might have to pay a subscription fee for, and instead just delegate to the smartphone you already have, is a huge and surprising win. > It's good that there are some companies, that ban android/apple car since that's an ugly experience for the user. It's a terrible user-hostile loss when cars do that, typically because they want to maintain more control or try to extract more revenue from the user. If you don't want to use it, don't use it; there's nothing forcing you to do so.

BeetleB 3mo ago
> On the contrary, having cars stop trying to provide a bespoke more-proprietary outdated piece of software you have less control over, probably have surreptitious telemetry reporting back from, and might have to pay a subscription fee for, and instead just delegate to the smartphone you already have, is a huge and surprising win. I'd agree if it worked. Android Auto sucks. And I don't like that my auto manufacturer can wash their hands off it by pointing at Google. > If you don't want to use it, don't use it; there's nothing forcing you to do so. As long as the car manufacturer gives me basic functionality (radio, stereo, Bluetooth, etc). Nominally they do, but it sucks in a different way from Android Auto. So I have to ping pong between these two. My prior car's aftermarket Bluetooth receiver was fantastic. The fact that I can't install something like that on modern cars is a huge regression.
- maxdo 3mo ago
  why on earth you need an aftermarket receiver of Bluetooth? The cost of the module is few dollars. My cheap ac has bluethooth, just to connect it wifi, i used it once in it's lifetime. The entire idea that everytime you sit in the car you need to pair your devices, what if you have several devices in the car etc ? it's such a horrible, broken, neurotic idea.
  - BeetleB 3mo ago
    > The entire idea that everytime you sit in the car you need to pair your devices, Why would you get that idea? Do you have to pair your phone every time for all other Bluetooth products?
    - maxdo 3mo ago
      because that's the only way to use that CarPlay, if you need music, navigation, etc. if you have a standalone computer you don't have to do so.
      - BeetleB 3mo ago
        I still have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not speaking in the abstract. I've done this before on older cars.
- cyberax 3mo ago
  > Android Auto sucks. No, it doesn't. It's a very simple streaming protocol. It's literally a gRPC-encapsulated stream of h264 frames over a USB connection. With touch events and some car-related telemetry streamed back. You can implement it in a weekend: https://github.com/mrmees/open-android-auto https://github.com/mrmees/open-android-auto You can create whatever you want, including just streaming videos onto the head unit or making it play Doom while driving (with steering wheel for input).
  - BeetleB 3mo ago
    Maybe I'm being imprecise. What I mean is: When I enable Android Auto on my phone and on my car, and connect the two, I get something that has a poor UI and sucks.
    - cyberax 3mo ago
      What exactly is poor?
      - BeetleB 3mo ago
        Not sure if you're asking relative to other options, or just in the absolute. I'll respond to the latter. Some of my complaints below may have remedies - please feel free to inform me! When Android Auto loads up, it shows me a tile with the current weather. In Fahrenheit. I want it in Celsius. Everywhere on my phone I've set it to Celsius. In the Settings (I think multiple ones). In the actual weather app. But AA will show it in Fahrenheit. And why show me that tile at all? I don't want to see it. I can't disable it. In my Android Auto settings, I removed it from the list of apps. It still shows up. Why can't I control what apps launch? Why is there always a navigation app loaded? I don't want it on by default if I'm just going to listen to stuff. Nothing should be loaded by default except the launcher menu. I should be able to configure on my phone what I want autolaunched. It eats up too much battery. Why does it need to eat so much battery if all I'm using it for is to listen to podcasts? With regular Bluetooth, it barely consumes battery. Waze sucks on AA compared to just plain Android. I can't, for example, send an ETA via AA. I can't even do it on my phone while connected to AA. Why does the air vent fan speed drop dramatically when I get a call? Why does the climate system even know I'm getting a call? If I connect my phone via USB cable, why does it insist I connect via Bluetooth? I can go to Android settings, have Bluetooth forget my car, and when I plug in the USB and launch Android Auto, Android will connect to Bluetooth. I Googled and apparently this is intentional. I find it very hostile. That's all from the top of my head. I'm sure I can come up with plenty more.
- xmprt 3mo ago
  Android Auto sucks but I guarantee that any software that those car companies would have made in house would be many times worse.
  - BeetleB 3mo ago
    Disagree. They mostly suck in a different way, with neither being better than the other. I've often switched back and forth. But this is a red herring. With older cars, you could install a 3rd party system and it was far superior to Android Auto for the basic things I need.
maxdo 3mo ago
you settle with one failure story for another failure story. there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid, even gm is start moving into that direction, and WV is buying software from rivian.
- JoshTriplett 3mo ago
  > there are companies with amazing software experience I don't want an amazing software experience. I want an unsurprising experience, ideally the one I already have. The only thing better than Android Auto would be to just provide a standardized port (and perhaps a wireless standard) for a combination of video output, audio output, touchscreen input, and charging, with optional standardized sensor inputs. Then you wouldn't need two different standards (Android Auto and Apple Carplay), just one, which would also work with any new device that came along to break that duopoly.
  - maxdo 3mo ago
    you just stuck in this paradigm, this apple/auto surprised me so many times : - when you need to re-pair Bluetooth - when you forget the cable to charge and you need to drive - when you want to share your car to someone and they need to spend 5 minutes to accept every single ToS possible to simply put a GPS - several people with phones paired before, now you dealing with complete random you name it. - you listen music and you need to go out to buy something while others in the car None of these problems exist if you have a decent, dedicated computer in the car that just works, it knows profiles, it does need you to be always on wire, or on the line.
    - cyberax 3mo ago
      The TLDR; answer to all your problems is: "Just use a freaking USB cable". I rent tons of cars and my experience with the wired AndroidAuto is: 1. Plug it in. 2. That's it. It just works. No ToS or any other crap. 3. The same cable also supplies power! Some cars _may_ need me to press something on the screen to switch to AA mode, but it's rare. And it works perfectly with _everything_ on my phone. A navigator properly pauses my audiobook before announcing a turn, for example.

BeetleB 3mo ago

> On the contrary, having cars stop trying to provide a bespoke more-proprietary outdated piece of software you have less control over, probably have surreptitious telemetry reporting back from, and might have to pay a subscription fee for, and instead just delegate to the smartphone you already have, is a huge and surprising win. I'd agree if it worked. Android Auto sucks. And I don't like that my auto manufacturer can wash their hands off it by pointing at Google. > If you don't want to use it, don't use it; there's nothing forcing you to do so. As long as the car manufacturer gives me basic functionality (radio, stereo, Bluetooth, etc). Nominally they do, but it sucks in a different way from Android Auto. So I have to ping pong between these two. My prior car's aftermarket Bluetooth receiver was fantastic. The fact that I can't install something like that on modern cars is a huge regression.

maxdo 3mo ago
why on earth you need an aftermarket receiver of Bluetooth? The cost of the module is few dollars. My cheap ac has bluethooth, just to connect it wifi, i used it once in it's lifetime. The entire idea that everytime you sit in the car you need to pair your devices, what if you have several devices in the car etc ? it's such a horrible, broken, neurotic idea.
- BeetleB 3mo ago
  > The entire idea that everytime you sit in the car you need to pair your devices, Why would you get that idea? Do you have to pair your phone every time for all other Bluetooth products?
  - maxdo 3mo ago
    because that's the only way to use that CarPlay, if you need music, navigation, etc. if you have a standalone computer you don't have to do so.
    - BeetleB 3mo ago
      I still have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not speaking in the abstract. I've done this before on older cars.
cyberax 3mo ago
> Android Auto sucks. No, it doesn't. It's a very simple streaming protocol. It's literally a gRPC-encapsulated stream of h264 frames over a USB connection. With touch events and some car-related telemetry streamed back. You can implement it in a weekend: https://github.com/mrmees/open-android-auto https://github.com/mrmees/open-android-auto You can create whatever you want, including just streaming videos onto the head unit or making it play Doom while driving (with steering wheel for input).
- BeetleB 3mo ago
  Maybe I'm being imprecise. What I mean is: When I enable Android Auto on my phone and on my car, and connect the two, I get something that has a poor UI and sucks.
  - cyberax 3mo ago
    What exactly is poor?
    - BeetleB 3mo ago
      Not sure if you're asking relative to other options, or just in the absolute. I'll respond to the latter. Some of my complaints below may have remedies - please feel free to inform me! When Android Auto loads up, it shows me a tile with the current weather. In Fahrenheit. I want it in Celsius. Everywhere on my phone I've set it to Celsius. In the Settings (I think multiple ones). In the actual weather app. But AA will show it in Fahrenheit. And why show me that tile at all? I don't want to see it. I can't disable it. In my Android Auto settings, I removed it from the list of apps. It still shows up. Why can't I control what apps launch? Why is there always a navigation app loaded? I don't want it on by default if I'm just going to listen to stuff. Nothing should be loaded by default except the launcher menu. I should be able to configure on my phone what I want autolaunched. It eats up too much battery. Why does it need to eat so much battery if all I'm using it for is to listen to podcasts? With regular Bluetooth, it barely consumes battery. Waze sucks on AA compared to just plain Android. I can't, for example, send an ETA via AA. I can't even do it on my phone while connected to AA. Why does the air vent fan speed drop dramatically when I get a call? Why does the climate system even know I'm getting a call? If I connect my phone via USB cable, why does it insist I connect via Bluetooth? I can go to Android settings, have Bluetooth forget my car, and when I plug in the USB and launch Android Auto, Android will connect to Bluetooth. I Googled and apparently this is intentional. I find it very hostile. That's all from the top of my head. I'm sure I can come up with plenty more.
xmprt 3mo ago
Android Auto sucks but I guarantee that any software that those car companies would have made in house would be many times worse.
- BeetleB 3mo ago
  Disagree. They mostly suck in a different way, with neither being better than the other. I've often switched back and forth. But this is a red herring. With older cars, you could install a 3rd party system and it was far superior to Android Auto for the basic things I need.

maxdo 3mo ago

you settle with one failure story for another failure story. there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid, even gm is start moving into that direction, and WV is buying software from rivian.

JoshTriplett 3mo ago
> there are companies with amazing software experience I don't want an amazing software experience. I want an unsurprising experience, ideally the one I already have. The only thing better than Android Auto would be to just provide a standardized port (and perhaps a wireless standard) for a combination of video output, audio output, touchscreen input, and charging, with optional standardized sensor inputs. Then you wouldn't need two different standards (Android Auto and Apple Carplay), just one, which would also work with any new device that came along to break that duopoly.
- maxdo 3mo ago
  you just stuck in this paradigm, this apple/auto surprised me so many times : - when you need to re-pair Bluetooth - when you forget the cable to charge and you need to drive - when you want to share your car to someone and they need to spend 5 minutes to accept every single ToS possible to simply put a GPS - several people with phones paired before, now you dealing with complete random you name it. - you listen music and you need to go out to buy something while others in the car None of these problems exist if you have a decent, dedicated computer in the car that just works, it knows profiles, it does need you to be always on wire, or on the line.
  - cyberax 3mo ago
    The TLDR; answer to all your problems is: "Just use a freaking USB cable". I rent tons of cars and my experience with the wired AndroidAuto is: 1. Plug it in. 2. That's it. It just works. No ToS or any other crap. 3. The same cable also supplies power! Some cars _may_ need me to press something on the screen to switch to AA mode, but it's rare. And it works perfectly with _everything_ on my phone. A navigator properly pauses my audiobook before announcing a turn, for example.