> On the contrary, having cars stop trying to provide a bespoke more-proprietary outdated piece of software you have less control over, probably have surreptitious telemetry reporting back from, and might have to pay a subscription fee for, and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.

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cyberax 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> 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

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).

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BeetleB 2 days ago | parent [-]

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.

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cyberax 2 days ago | parent [-]

What exactly is poor?

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BeetleB 2 days ago | parent [-]

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.

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cyberax 2 days ago | parent [-]

> 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.

I don't think I ever saw this behavior?

> Why is there always a navigation app loaded?

I think this is the default? I have OsmAnd+ instead of Google Maps by default.

> 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.

This is because your phone needs to encode the contents of its display as h264 stream.

> 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?

AndroidAuto can notify the car that it wants reduced noise.

> That's all from the top of my head. I'm sure I can come up with plenty more.

This is all fixable in software on Android. Nothing from your list is a problem on the _car_ side.

Given that the protocol is now documented and available, it doesn't even need to be implemented in Android. You can have a KDE desktop running on your car!

I actually played with that about 10 years ago: https://github.com/Cyberax/aauto/tree/master

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BeetleB 2 days ago | parent [-]

> I think this is the default? I have OsmAnd+ instead of Google Maps by default.

Ok. How do I make it not load any of them?

> AndroidAuto can notify the car that it wants reduced noise

How do I get it not to notify the car?

> This is all fixable in software on Android. Nothing from your list is a problem on the _car_ side

Which is why my original comment said Android Auto sucks.

My complaint about the car manufacturer is that they allow the driving experience to be degraded with it.

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cyberax 2 days ago | parent [-]

> Ok. How do I make it not load any of them? > How do I get it not to notify the car?

Get the Android Auto app and patch away the notification. It's just an app, after all. Running on your own hardware.

> Which is why my original comment said Android Auto sucks. > My complaint about the car manufacturer is that they allow the driving experience to be degraded with it.

So your default car navigator can do everything in your list, including launching a non-default app from your phone? That's some mighty car navigation system.

	▲	BeetleB 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		> Get the Android Auto app and patch away the notification. It's just an app, after all. Running on your own hardware. So we're in agreement that the official app sucks, right? If the solution is "Well you can just patch it," then there is a problem. And BTW, how do I patch it and run it on an unrooted phone? Is there a community version I can install and use that sucks less? > So your default car navigator can do everything in your list, including launching a non-default app from your phone? That's some mighty car navigation system. Why is the alternative my default car navigation system? [1] What did people do before they had Android Auto? Not use the phone at all? One alternative is what I had in my old car: An aftermarket Bluetooth receiver, and a phone holder to hold the phone. The Bluetooth receiver was better for all things audio, and the phone on a phone holder didn't consume so much battery even when not plugged in. And the Waze experience was better. I would have thought a larger screen would make for easier navigation, but I now know it doesn't - the phone screen was large enough. I'll grant that stuff like Pocketcasts on AA is a bit more ergonomic than the bare phone, but when AA comes with so much painful baggage, it's not worth it. And that's why some people I know actually go this route - disable AA, and use a vanilla phone holder with the in-built car's Bluetooth. Sadly, they cannot (easily) install that Bluetooth receiver - that's an indictment of the car manufacturer. This isn't a great solution, but it's saying much when it's superior to AA. [1] Incidentally, the car navigation system is actually quite good!

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xmprt 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Android Auto sucks but I guarantee that any software that those car companies would have made in house would be many times worse.

	▲	BeetleB 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		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.

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maxdo 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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.

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BeetleB 2 days ago | parent [-]

> 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?

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maxdo 2 days ago | parent [-]

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 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		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.