Had to go through four USB cables in my car before one worked reliably with my current phone. A “10Gbit/s certified” USB-C cable did the trick, plus two layers of aluminum tape on the lower outer side of the car side USB plug to make the connection less wiggly.
The phone before that worked fine with any cable, but apparently some combinations of head unit and phone have relatively thin error margins on the actual physical layer of the connection.
It’s more likely that auto manufacturers put the oldest shittest slowest chips in cars that crash constantly because they can’t handle any load at all.
I use android auto in numerous rental cars. Some head units are so slow to process taps or menu selections that it is pretty much unusable.
The normal headunit UI is generally ok, so either there’s a whole lot of overhead for android auto, or some programmer simply dropped the base example implementation of it into the system and did zero work at optimising it.
Personally, I’m betting that it’s the latter. “Supports Android Auto” box has been ticked on the feature sheet, send it.
Yep, current eCMP platform by stellantis e.g. runs Linux and containers per “application” (radio, nav, backup camera…) for their nav capable head unit. Those are made by Continental and are called NAC, current gen is WAVE4.
Not sure what everyone else is doing, I use Android Auto constantly for work on a lot of rental cars without issue. The bugginess is probably crap cables or old phones, check those.
This has been my experience as well. I’ve been using it on my Honda since 2015, and have not had any problems except 2. Once it was just an old USB cable that needed to be replaced. The other issue was sometimes the Bluetooth doesn’t connect the right way so I have to turn off Bluetooth on my phone then connect the USB to my phone which forces it to connect correctly. The Bluetooth issue was recurring (once every month or two), but hasn’t happened for nearly a year now.
I bought a new cable just to use it in a rental car. I had to keep switching between Bluetooth and the cable because my music would only work on one and maps on the other. Then the phone wouldn’t work while charging, so I just drove in silence for hours so it wouldn’t die on me because then I’d be really lost. After multiple rental cars and multiple cables, I’ve never had even a decent experience with it and it pisses me off to no end. It just crosses the line into actually being dangerous on top of being inconvenient.
Well that’s presumptive. I use a Pixel 7 in a 2022 vehicle. When I plug it in I have to open the USB settings EVERY TIME and switch to MIDI before it recognizes the device. I have bugs with Waze, and my music will pause regularly with no connection issues.
Google is notorious for A/B testing (usually a good idea) so they roll out changes in batches and look at telemetry for any changes in user behaviour. You might just be the lucky late adopter for those changes that someone tested for you a month earlier.
Sometimes I don’t think Google even care about Android car experience at all, even Google Maps somehow always bugs out at the most inconvenient times when you are driving.
This happens to me. If you bounce between menus, you can get it back. Get to the screen where the apps are round icons, from a screen other than maps. The maps icon will get you back. I’m on a stock pixel, no excuse for this.
Yeah, unfortunately it seems that the Google “can’t care to test updates” has been extended from some edge services to their main ones and only keeps on growing.
Been an android guy forever until this year and car play is SO much better. I figured the touch screen in my Kia was just a little slow and shitty. It wasn’t. It was my pixel 7. Car play is so fast and responsive in comparison.
Vast majority of the time my AA works fine. I use Waze 99% of the time. Occasionally double check through Maps. I use PowerAmp as my music player. All my music is on my phone, not a streaming service.
Android auto and always been a buggy mess. I was very disappointed when I first tried to use it, and the consecutive two months, until eventually I gave up and went back to normal bluetooth
Pretty sure there’s an android auto API for music apps and stuff (that’s why Spotify and pocket casts and many audiobook players support it), but unfortunately there aren’t non-Google navigation apps (unsure if that’s because Google won’t allow them or because there just aren’t any).
It uses openstreetmap data, except for our country and slovakia, where it uses its own map data. Although it has a some features aimed only at our country it can be used by anyone around the world without problem. In comparison to google maps it’s much more usable for hiking and cycling thanks to it’s less dull map graphic. Since the app is owned by a profit company it requires you to login to be able to use some of the basic features, like saving routes or recorded tracks, which is a pity. I am not really fan of Seznam (company behind it) and their services, but their maps are probably their most useful and well-done usable service. It has a web version too: https://en.mapy.cz. when it comes to navigation it has no traffic information except in our country. I would say that the navigation is average, but generally works well.
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I HATE android auto… it is constantly crashing. I wish they would just QA the software or something.
Had to go through four USB cables in my car before one worked reliably with my current phone. A “10Gbit/s certified” USB-C cable did the trick, plus two layers of aluminum tape on the lower outer side of the car side USB plug to make the connection less wiggly.
The phone before that worked fine with any cable, but apparently some combinations of head unit and phone have relatively thin error margins on the actual physical layer of the connection.
It’s more likely that auto manufacturers put the oldest shittest slowest chips in cars that crash constantly because they can’t handle any load at all.
Isn’t the whole point of android auto that it uses your phone and the display is just an external display when in that mode?
I use android auto in numerous rental cars. Some head units are so slow to process taps or menu selections that it is pretty much unusable.
The normal headunit UI is generally ok, so either there’s a whole lot of overhead for android auto, or some programmer simply dropped the base example implementation of it into the system and did zero work at optimising it.
Personally, I’m betting that it’s the latter. “Supports Android Auto” box has been ticked on the feature sheet, send it.
Still requires overhead and a non-zero number of head units are built on, this may shock you, Android.
My experience has been that anything on QNX works fine, and anything else is hit or miss.
How do you find what platforms run on QNX? I’d prefer that on my car over other options.
You’d have to look it up for your make and model, but previous gen Hyundai Kia Genesis tend to run on QNX. Don’t know what the new gen runs on.
Apparently some head units even run Linux!
Hyundai Mobis head units for Kia run on Android 11 from what I’ve seen. Unless they’ve changed to QNX
Yep, current eCMP platform by stellantis e.g. runs Linux and containers per “application” (radio, nav, backup camera…) for their nav capable head unit. Those are made by Continental and are called NAC, current gen is WAVE4.
Not sure what everyone else is doing, I use Android Auto constantly for work on a lot of rental cars without issue. The bugginess is probably crap cables or old phones, check those.
This has been my experience as well. I’ve been using it on my Honda since 2015, and have not had any problems except 2. Once it was just an old USB cable that needed to be replaced. The other issue was sometimes the Bluetooth doesn’t connect the right way so I have to turn off Bluetooth on my phone then connect the USB to my phone which forces it to connect correctly. The Bluetooth issue was recurring (once every month or two), but hasn’t happened for nearly a year now.
I bought a new cable just to use it in a rental car. I had to keep switching between Bluetooth and the cable because my music would only work on one and maps on the other. Then the phone wouldn’t work while charging, so I just drove in silence for hours so it wouldn’t die on me because then I’d be really lost. After multiple rental cars and multiple cables, I’ve never had even a decent experience with it and it pisses me off to no end. It just crosses the line into actually being dangerous on top of being inconvenient.
I know it might not be helpful, but, I’ve experienced bad USB slots in the rental cars. I’m sure they got a lot of abuse.
Well that’s presumptive. I use a Pixel 7 in a 2022 vehicle. When I plug it in I have to open the USB settings EVERY TIME and switch to MIDI before it recognizes the device. I have bugs with Waze, and my music will pause regularly with no connection issues.
This is more of a workaround than a fix, but you can change the default USB configuration in the developer settings.
Thank you! I’ll try that out.
Google is notorious for A/B testing (usually a good idea) so they roll out changes in batches and look at telemetry for any changes in user behaviour. You might just be the lucky late adopter for those changes that someone tested for you a month earlier.
Yeah I remember having issues only once and I’m pretty sure that was Waze rather than Android Auto.
Sometimes I don’t think Google even care about Android car experience at all, even Google Maps somehow always bugs out at the most inconvenient times when you are driving.
It will not let me remove an address near my house that is not my house. It is the first option all day every day. It’s so annoying.
Also no YouTube implementation, you’d imagine background playback would be supported
I can’t even use google maps. Just doesn’t show up.
This happens to me. If you bounce between menus, you can get it back. Get to the screen where the apps are round icons, from a screen other than maps. The maps icon will get you back. I’m on a stock pixel, no excuse for this.
The whole app is recycled dogshit. Songs freeze, half the time it won’t recognize my phone and the list goes on.
I had those issues but they went away after I got a shorter USB cord.
Might have to give that a whirl. Thanks!
Yeah, unfortunately it seems that the Google “can’t care to test updates” has been extended from some edge services to their main ones and only keeps on growing.
I hate to say it but my issues with Android Auto are part of what pushed me to trying out iPhone again. Haven’t had any issues with CarPlay.
Been an android guy forever until this year and car play is SO much better. I figured the touch screen in my Kia was just a little slow and shitty. It wasn’t. It was my pixel 7. Car play is so fast and responsive in comparison.
Vast majority of the time my AA works fine. I use Waze 99% of the time. Occasionally double check through Maps. I use PowerAmp as my music player. All my music is on my phone, not a streaming service.
Happened to me once.
I hit the home button on the headunit to dump out of Android Auto back to the headunit’s UI, went back into AA, and it reappeared.
Hasn’t happened again since.
Android auto and always been a buggy mess. I was very disappointed when I first tried to use it, and the consecutive two months, until eventually I gave up and went back to normal bluetooth
Kinda sucks android atuo is s google feature rather than an android feature
Pretty sure there’s an android auto API for music apps and stuff (that’s why Spotify and pocket casts and many audiobook players support it), but unfortunately there aren’t non-Google navigation apps (unsure if that’s because Google won’t allow them or because there just aren’t any).
Our local Google competitor has an map app and they did add Android auto and Apple carplay support.
Oh that’s cool! Is this local for the Czech Republic? How does it compare to Google maps/navigation?
It uses openstreetmap data, except for our country and slovakia, where it uses its own map data. Although it has a some features aimed only at our country it can be used by anyone around the world without problem. In comparison to google maps it’s much more usable for hiking and cycling thanks to it’s less dull map graphic. Since the app is owned by a profit company it requires you to login to be able to use some of the basic features, like saving routes or recorded tracks, which is a pity. I am not really fan of Seznam (company behind it) and their services, but their maps are probably their most useful and well-done usable service. It has a web version too: https://en.mapy.cz. when it comes to navigation it has no traffic information except in our country. I would say that the navigation is average, but generally works well.
Yeah I really wish there was some sort of other option.