Rent seeking behavior. They want subscription revenue instead of wanting to deliver what consumers want.
And then carmakers will cry that Chinese cars are reading over the market.
It’s not free you know.
Yes, the software doesn’t cost anything but the chipset is supplied by a single manufacturer Qualcomm and costs a bomb.
You can’t run it on a Mediatek or a Rokchip or whatever?
There’s more than just Qualcomm in the ARM market.
Also, so what? Do you think the cars are currently sold at a loss? They profit on each car sold, and that includes the infotainment.
That’s such an obvious deflection, though. My last car was a GM vehicle, with built-in OnStar right there in the box behind the rearview mirror. Built into the price I paid was hardware I didn’t want, didn’t pay a subscription for, yet was collecting my driving data and selling it.
Building a functionally useful infotainment system to replace Android Auto, with all of the bells and whistles needed to complete, is going to cost them the same or more. The difference is the rent seeking behavior, the demand for subscriptions, and getting more opportunities to spy on their customers for profit.
Back to the days of rip out the head unit and stick one in that does have the features you want?
I imagine they’ll try to make this increasingly difficult; maybe even impossible.
I just had a little magnetic clip for my air vent where I could attach my phone and put up a map.
I’d sooner go back to doing that than use a “Gemini-based AI assistant” in my fucking car.
I quite literally just bought one of those clips recently because I am done with Android Auto, and Google in general as much as I can be.
I’d rip out the touch screen SO fast
And then lose control of numerous functions of your car.
It’s simply not an option in modern cars.That’s the “why I can’t do it” part.
But if it was possible to get knobs and buttons for everything and a small-ish screen only for info, I’d take that. I’d pay for that. Touch screens are dangerous. I’d at most be comfortable to swipe on the screen to show different infos like GPS, temperature/airflow, music/radio. Otherwise I want buttons and knobs with little lights.
I 100% understand what you mean. I just bought a VW ID.4, and IMO they have a good balance. Everything needed for normal driving is handled with buttons, and although some are touch, they do have haptic feedback, and it works OK IMO.
I was looking at the Skoda Enyaq, because it has traditional buttons and more things operated through them.
But it cost about €5000 extra for the same features as is in our fully equipped ID.4 when used and 4 years old. But now I’m happy we chose the ID.4 instead of an Enyaq with fewer features. Because the ID.4 works way better than I expected.
It’s crazy and previously absolutely unheard of that the Skoda version of a similar car to a genuine VW is more expensive.Oh wow, it IS odd that Skoda would be more expensive and €5k is a lot! Very odd indeed.
I’m glad you found a car you like!
No need to do that. You could get a Slate and put in what you want.
Car mechanics are basically going to need to become hackers.
99% of them won’t, but yeah, a couple will figure out how to ‘unlock’ your car, like a smartphone, install a custom OS on it.
Good luck. Everything is integrated now with nonstandard form factors. The work and cost to do my 2020 transit is ridiculous. Phone mount and Bluetooth it is.
I wish I could develop my own apps on my own car. I mean I own the car… why can’t I “sideload” my own created apps? Their apps are sht anyways.
You can, but it’s a Google filled minefield. A good view of it is reading into all of the trouble of using Android Auto in GrapheneOS without destroying all the privacy protections. It’s essentially impossible to get navigation going without doing so, but audio for music and phone calls can be done with some hoop jumping. You’re still probably better off just using bluetooth though.
There are open source navigation apps. No need for google.
No, you misunderstand what I was trying to say, so I probably didn’t communicate it well. You cannot use any of them, open source or not, without allowing the Google Play Services some rather invasive permissions. That’s the Google I was referring to.
Best thing to do is remove google play services if at all possible. Installing microg will solve most issues. This of course means rooting the device. Which is admittedly not an easy task when dealing with head units.
.? No the information entertainment system is fully proprietary as far as I know. Without any way of flashing something else like Linux on it.
It kind of makes sense to not allow people to do that - just imagine what horrors people will create that totally will kill people. Cars are dangerous.
People have been able to change their own brake pads for as long as cars existed.
There are two things hidden here:
- People totally got killed by doing their own maintenance
- There is a difference between physical maintenance and, well, you know that people will install some buggy self driving app
People totally got killed by doing their own maintenance
People have totally gotten killed from maintenance done by a “professional” (new kid on the job at the shop.)
I watch YouTuber CarCareNut and he’s shown many stupid mistakes made by dealerships.
I assure you I take greater care doing repairs than a tech who will get yelled at if they don’t finish the job fast.
If saftey is your concern I hope you do not blindly trust manufacturers given their history of “safety and security”. My concern is software freedom: being in control of your own computing (instead of the creator being in control). All software has bugs, but at least 3rd party software isn’t intentionally adding anti-features and spyware.
100% fearmongering bullshit designed to erode property rights. Cars have been completely “open” throughout their entire history until recently, and the problems caused by irresponsible owner modification have been both negligible and entirely acceptable (compared to the alternative of going full-blown police state to stop them).
Make no mistake: full-blown police state is exactly what you’re arguing for when you suggest people shouldn’t have the right to modify their own fucking property!
They would probably have a panic attack if they learned about megasquirt. Cars being locked down is so unnatural that most of their design allows them to be controlled by open source solutions.
Your car radio can’t kill people lmao
Of course I’m talking about the information entertainment system. Not the main Can bus that is handling breaking or whatever…
I am always surprised I don’t hear more discussion about Automotive Grade Linux.
Something something year of the Linux car
You heard it on Lemmy first!
Because it’s corporate controlled embedded Linux, you aren’t guaranteed any freedom or control. Hell you aren’t even guaranteed access to a debug menu. Technically a car manufacturer could make a open a free car running embedded Linux that does give you freedom but the chances are absurdly low.
Man, that sounds INCREDIBLE!!! Never heard of this! Linux on my pc, my laptop, my phone, and now my CAR! 🤣
That’s what most? cars used for a long time (there is also GENIVI)
Many manufacturers are switching to Android as the base OS so they can just hire app developers rather than developers that know other UI toolkits
Why I like Android Auto:
- I can plan my route on my phone at home and see the map on the big screen instead the little phone ui, or worse putting in the adress manually with the keyboard wheel in Korean instead of copy and pasting it from the Element chat
- I already have all my music on my phone, I don’t want to copy and organize it again for hours in my car
- I already have integration with many apps on my phone, I don’t want to set everything up again on the car, especially I can’t copy and paste my long ass passwords from my KeePassXC into the car and need to painstakingly put in every password with their clunky keyboard, if they even have a keyboard.
I could go on forever. But as long as I can connect bluetooth and set up my phone somewhere so I can see the map while driving I’ll be OK. The worst part, at work what I do is car infotainment system software, but it never has any of the features I would want from a car.
Plus if I rent a car that also has Android Auto I only have to pair it and all my stuff is there.
So manufacturers can bill you monthly for the same features…
Because GM sucks.
People aren’t asking for much. People just want their phone navigation and music controls displayed onto the infotainment. Won’t consider any car that cannot afford me this tiny bit of convenience for the sake of nickel and diming me.
And if every car manufacturer starts forcing me to adopt their own stupid software I’ll just buy a fucking phone holder.
And GM has shitty reliability anyways.
I’m perfectly happy with my 2012 car + magnetic phone holder
Removing smartphone integration from its vehicles opens the door for GM to grow its in-vehicle subscription revenue. Yep 💩
I won’t buy a car without CarPlay.
My current car has it and I love it. So I imagine Android users feel the same way.
If there is truly no option, then my phone is getting the window/airvent mount option.
I’ll never subscribe to their bs.
My car is from the 2010s.
I bought a GPS looking screen for $40 that has android auto and carplay. I already have Bluetooth added onto the radio for audio streaming.
Works perfectly for GPS off of my phone and as a media controller.
Only thing I’m missing is steering wheel controls.
I’m in a country where stuff in the car is not regulated as much as the US.
One of my ride share drivers had basically a 13” android tablet instead of the stock radio in the car 😂
It was all hooked up to the car to act as a legit part of the car.
Yeah this is the kind of shit I was looking forward to when I got into driving in the 2000s. But then car manufacturers started doing thier own non standard radios.
Then the car mod communities made kits to for a dual bay fit.
Then the corpos made radios required to service the car…
No regulations to protect the consumers let them do what they want.
The car part of the car should be completely independent of the entertainment part of the car. Fuckers.
The line can get blurry when you talk about EVs but protections should still be possible.
GM are saying that their customers want a more seamless integration. Shareholders are slavering at the idea of owners collared to their subscription system. Buyers need to stop buying cars with stupid subscriptions. My 2nd hand BMW has a heated steering wheel that requires an annual fee to use. Nope, heated gloves are the solution!
I imagine you could wire your own mechanical switch to that steering wheel. Fuck them for doing that though.
Money.
There I wrote the whole article in one word.
My take on Android Auto (I’m sure everyone wants to hear)
pros:
- free to choose the maps app you want (OsmAnd, Organic Maps, Google Maps or anything)
- stream music for the app you want
- decent voice control for maps and spotify
- decent integration with some EV charging apps, you can find and initiate chargers from the dashboard
- you can write your own Android Auto apps
cons:
- Android Auto app is very invasive, polluting phone with stupid notifications
- the standard is shit. Android Auto doesn’t work work with Android Go phones but it’s not specified anywhere in the documentation, wireless Android Auto only works with latest android but it’s also not specified anywhere
- it’s controlled by Google and there are no alternative implementations
My solution so far is to use cheap, secondary phone for AA (which was hard to find because of the stupid limitations). If someone would create a open AA client not controlled by Google I would put it on my primary phone. AA should now work with Graphene OS so I may try to set it up in separate profile some day.
Could it be money?
It’s money, isn’t it?!
So, by utilizing built-in systems, the car manufacturers would indeed be able to collect more data about how you use the systems in place, while also possibly getting more money out of you through subscriptions.
Nooooooo that’s totally unlikely. It’s probably just for our best!
Nooooooo that’s totally unlikely. It’s probably just for our best!
Every day I get more thankful for my hand-me-down car. It has no heated seats or anything fancy, but that also means no subscriptions, no wifi tracking/stalking, no digital touch screen over physical buttons, etc. All I’ve ever done is use a clip holder on my AC vent for my phone, so I’m used to it. It’s given me time to see how others feel about Android Auto and features in newer cars, and I can make an informed decision whenever my baby decides to kick the bucket. Hopefully I can get something not too stalkerish nor with subscriptions.
I’m super pleased to have gotten a vehicle right in the breakpoint between dumb and dumber vehicles, 2018, center console without touchscreen, mouse/dpad instead, no connected services except offline gps with option to update maps via tethered network, no sos lojack. Got lane assist, adaptive spees etc but nothing actually ‘smart’
Next year model got it all, touchscreens, lojack, annoying android…
I bought a cheap chinabox for android auto instead of upgrading software via dealer for higher price, and now I can connect whatever I want to the system below android, enter ui for dashcams, kill it entirely or just use the good ol radio.
Not looking forward to ‘upgrading’ in the future at all, I’d rather let this one turn to rolling rust.
People also seriously over estimate the effort required to install an android auto/car play stereo and backup camera. One adapter later and green wire connects to green, red to red, etc. most of the work goes to watching videos on how to do it to get a clearer picture. Not to mention that even for something on the fancier side you pay perhaps one car payment and you are done vs signing up for another 5 years of monthly misery.
Mine was basically plug and play, most difficult part was being willing dismantle a brand new car, besides that it just took 30 minutes to plug the box into the main unit
2015 cars came with bluetooth support for hands free calling using your phone. This was great.
After that, it was replaced with carplay or android auto as the only means to get hands free calling. Stupid…stupid.
Plus, last 2 new cars i bought, i had to take the interior roof apart so i could access the built in cellular antennae wire and remove that spyware P.O.S. And by the way, car works fine without it.
I still use that Bluetooth everyday in my Mitsubishi Outlander I don’t need more than this… I also installed some magnet mount for the phone case.
The only problem is that since December 2024 android release on Pixels it stopped connecting “media audio” automatically due to some timing issue or something. So I have to manually toggle that button on my phone since that day… (Google Pixel) And now Samsung seems to have the same issue since they started updating to newer android versions.
Google is not focusing on fixing this and just focusing on Android auto instead. But it only impacts some Japanese makes. I think some Mazda also have the issue.
I have a Samsung and I’ve had two of them this year actually three of them this year one fold three, one fold six, one s24 ultra and one pixel 9 and none of them have had this issue that you mentioned.
Right. And which Mitsubishi model and year do you have?
I don’t have a mitsubishi, you didn’t mention Mitsubishi in your comments. You mentioned some Japanese cars. I had a quest which I recently traded in and I still own a 2014 tacoma. Both of which are Japanese vehicles
Fair enough. But that’s why I mentioned “some” and not “all”. I’ve never heard about a Toyota impacted by this issue.
Mitsubishi are definitely impacted. Some Mazda too according to some people posting. But I’ve read less posts about Mazda. They must be using some similar Bluetooth receivers in the infotainment system.
This is possibly the first post when this issue originated but then in January 2025 they improved it with a workaround that works till today, but before connection was always automatic without any workaround.
Anyway. Every single time you start the engine you need to go to Bluetooth settings on the phone toggle “media audio” (that failed to connect automatically) one or two times and then it connects and you can enjoy BT normally. A pain in the ass especially for 10 minute trips.
On most cars, it’s probably easier to unplug it on the head unit side. They’re generally designed to be accessed for repair
