Why would I pay hundreds of $currency for a new head unit or thousands for a new car, if I'm already walking around with a device capable doing all that? Android Auto/Car play should just run as a dedicated mode on the phone.
Yep. A better approach these days would be to have the car dash component simply be a display/remote control surface for the phone rather than have all the software in the car.
I appreciate that approach has certain disadvantages for device and car makers, but really, the only additional value they could add from my perspective is a more convenient display location and larger, car-centric controls. The apps, the configs, accounts, audio, etc. I only ever use my phone anymore anyway.
And, yes, I have built in nav and never use it in favor of the phone. I also have a Bluetooth-to-FM relay device for the audio.
That's exactly what Android Auto is (can't speak for Carplay) --- it's a dumb terminal which is controlled by your phone. All the real software runs there.
I believe all the car provides is a screen, some speakers, a microphone and (possibly) a touch surface.
It's not a dumb terminal, it's a fully fledged car nav system from the car manufacturer, which also (secondary function) serves as an external screen for Android Auto/CarPlay. A dumb terminal would be dead until you connected the phone to it (and also cheaper).
The 2016 VW Sportwagen I does have a touch screen console either with or without Nav. The SE model and below does not have Nav and SEL does. I got the SE because it was the nicest model without Nav.
Built in Nav in cars is so shitty that I would personally pay extra to not have it.
Point taken for being a nav or not, but those touchscreens are still functional as in being a car stereo, contact manager (for BT calling), handling settings for the car computer etc.
But to answer my question why there's no standalone mode for Android Auto/Car Play - probably because they struck a deal with car vendors to sell more extras with the cars or newer cars.
So if you drive something older - fuck you and consume.
This feels familiar - I have a 2014 Volkswagen with touchscreen, bluetooth audio, calling, contact management, MirrorLink, etc. - about 1 out of 10 times upon starting the car the iPhone won't be able to connect to the car. It will only work again if I stop the car for a few minutes and start it again. Of course there are no VW software updates to be found and I'm not interested in bringing my car in to be serviced for this. All I want is Apple to be the software vendor of my car.
However using CarPlay of course requires me to buy a new car. There's no upgrade path which is very, very disappointing.
That's not a realistic option - most cars use their head units to control everything, from audio to car and safety settings. Those are essential features you'd be missing.
I've had this problem a long time ago (10 years) with my Honda and was able to pull out the control module out of the dash and just leave it in the space behind the new dash. But that's a case by case solution.
Honestly, the blame lies with the carmakers. They made these terrible digital dashboards in many cases with no after market upgrade paths. Obviously their incentive is sell/lease you a new car every few years... so why would they make it easy to upgrade. No incentive
Biggest reason I ended up getting the 2016 model vs 2015 (which had a much bigger discount) because of Carplay/Android auto. I won't be a frustrated by the digital NAV that never is upgraded.
I'm hoping the Carplay/Android auto compatibility is there for at least 6+ years of new phone models. But honestly I don't know how much I trust the above mentioned phone vendors.
Agreed. I got the cheaper model of my car when I custom ordered it to not have the NAV addon because I knew I'd use my phone and didn't want to pay $2500 USD extra for my car.
Even with good rear view, I find the backup camera super useful. In fact on my car I wish there was a way to have it running no matter the shifter position; I have a Ford Escape and the car must be going in reverse for the camera to activate. The most useful feature are the guide lines overlaid on the video that bend according to steering wheel position, and crosshairs that let me position my hitch to within half an inch of a trailer coupling.
Luckily the NHTSA is requiring backup cameras on 100% new cars by mid-2018.
What is it about American cars[1] and tiny rear view windows? I once got a Ford Fusion rental in the US; I was surprised how little I could see of what was behind me.
I have never had the same issue with European/Japanese vehicles.
1. My sample size is small, I could have been unlucky. Anti-glare coating on rear view mirrors on American cars makess night-time driving awesome though, I wish the European/Japanese vehicles would copy that
> Anti-glare coating on rear view mirrors on American cars makess night-time driving awesome though, I wish the European/Japanese vehicles would copy that
In Europe and Japan (and most of the rest of the world), automotive headlamps conform to the relevant ECE standard which allows for less glare compared to the US standard (defined in FMVSS 108). So, at least in those markets, the anti-glare coating isn't as necessary.
The technical term is an 'electrochromatic auto-dimming rear-view mirror'. It's been an option on higher end cars/trims for the last ~5 years, even in Europe. On eBay there are DIY kits too.
Not high-end at all, my Fiesta has it as standard.
It's a fantastic feature, it just annoys me that the sensor gets hit by the car ceiling lights when they're on, so if the light is on you get a completely dark mirror. I call it a quirk because it sounds better than "terrible design".
Anecdotally, having recently driven a rental Mercedes C200, rear visibility was abysmal there too. Luckily it had a camera. I guess it's less a European/American thing but rather depends on the car (type).
My Toyota Camry had the same limitation but I later found even the lower end models have a video in jack on the display module to connect a third party camera. Got one installed for $150 including labor.
As someone who had a 2012 Challenger, and recently went to a 2016 Challenger, have to agree... the backup camera, and moreso the blind spot indicators have been great improvements.
I have a 2016 VW Sportswagen that I use with my iPhone all the time. Everything just works and in 10 the Maps app in Carplay has gotten better.
About a month ago I was driving with a friend of mine in the passenger seat. Driving 45 minutes to some trails upstate. I asked him to put his Maps on (Android) so I don't need to get my phone out of my bad and fuck around with it while driving. He's got Galaxy 6 edge+ so I figured it just work... Boy was I wrong.
When he plugged it in nothing happened except autoplaying some music. Since I'm driving how no idea how to make it work. Turns out you need to download an App from the app store to make it work... but Android gives you no notification about it.
Then there's a whole on-boarding process you got to click through. Then you need to agree to let the Android connect to the Car all in all about 5 different agree prompts. Took about 30 minutes to get this going.
After all that the car would lose Android Auto connection with the phone every few minutes. Apparently it's a know issue with that model of Android and VW.
What a terrible experience. For a while I was thinking of getting an Android phone next time I need a new phone (break, slow/sluggish). Not going to happen now.
> How horrible, you had to install a single app and click "Next" a few times!
If you include the "guide" that you have the scroll through and then the 5 "Accept" popups for allowing the car to connect to the phone it's like about 9 clicks. Pretty crappy UX.
But really it's the whole process of getting setup. The Android phone didn't put up a prompt when plugged in to tell you you needed to download the Android Auto app. My friend had to Google how to make this thing work.
Compare that to the CarPlay experience. Connect, click accept once in car UI and accept in iPhone to allow the car to access it. From plugin to navigating on the dash about 30 seconds.
> If you include the "guide" that you have the scroll through and then the 5 "Accept" popups for allowing the car to connect to the phone it's like about 9 clicks. Pretty crappy UX.
Isn't that just the standard Android permission prompts?
I wonder if phone VR adapters could be useful for driving. With a wider angle camera, and maybe some AR niceties like sticking trip info below the windshield or overlay the nav directions on top of the roadway I could totally get into it. And I would kill for something that solves the solar glare issue.
GPS units like Garmin use touchscreen instead of physical buttons and are safe, road legal. Tesla ships cars with a huge touchscreen console - safe and road legal. That's a pretty weak excuse.
We could also debate that things that hinder concentration while handling "2 tones of steel" are :
I think display placement is much more important than size. Using a phone for nav that's sitting in your cupholder is terribly dangerous, but using one clipped to your dash inside your field of view seems okay.
