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European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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The first time I tried using android auto in a rental car I hated it. The damn thing would disconnect constantly and there was no safe way to restart or reconnect it while driving, I had to pull over somewhere. The car's screen controlled things like the radio and AC so I had to constantly take my eyes off of the road to adjust anything.
Were you using Android Auto with a USB cable or wireless? I have an aftermarket AA radio in my car that I use wired and it works almost perfectly, but I also have physical climate control so I can't fully relate
Are you suggesting a ~~Wi-Fi~~ Bluetooth device inside of the same vehicle its trying to connect to via ~~Wi-Fi~~ Bluetooth would have connection problems, and not be able to connect, at that short range?
I mean, yeah, it's possible
Just trying to get more information about their experience as well, maybe it's not actually Android Auto and it's a weird half baked system built into the car
It uses Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi. But there are a ton of factors that make wireless communications less reliable than wired. Have you ever been on Wi-Fi and had connection issues right next to the router? All of those factors also affect Bluetooth.
That said, I've never had any issues connecting my phone to AA via wireless.
Yeah sorry about that. I actually know it's Bluetooth and not Wi-Fi, but I was just working on my Wi-Fi in the house before I posted that comment, so it got stuck in my head. I connect my phone to my stereo system in my car via bluetooth.
Over long distances, sure. But in a vehicle, with that short of a distance?
It would have to be one hell of another thing interfering to break a Bluetooth connection in a car.
I have an irrigation valve that turns the water on and off for the garden. It talks to the app via Bluetooth, and I've found that my phone has to be at least 3m away from it or it won't connect. Any closer and the signal must overload it to the point where it can't interpret it. The first one I bought, I took back to the store and swapped it for another before I figured out what the problem was.
I'm sure it's a bad design on the valve's Bluetooth implementation, but nevertheless, it exists.
Not to discredit your example, but that's not exactly a car that we're talking about right? I would imagine more due diligence would have been done on the engineering side for a Bluetooth connection in a vehicle, versus a lawn sprinkler.
If cars were having that same problem of close distance issues that would be making the news, especially if it was a whole fleet of cars that that problem was happening for.
Being honest here, I have a car with android auto and I hate having to plug it in for a variety of reasons.
I just want to get in and drive, the music should just play and all the stuff should just get out of the way.
I don't want to charge my phone every time I drive my car, it's not necessary and can be hard on the battery
This is doubly important for an EV, I don't want to waste EV power charging a phone that doesn't need charging
My opinion, Phone OS makers need to get their shit together around android auto / apple carplay. Too much nonsense gets in the way of all the actually important pieces. When you get in a car with only a radio, the music just starts playing when you get in. Which means, your experience is better with old tech. That's just ridiculous.
I personally think a better idea is to just start equipping cars with cell modems that you add to your plan or something. There is no need to offload this work to your cellphone when the car has more physical space for that kind of thing anyway. I mean tesla's just have a borderline gaming computer in them these days.
You can get an adapter that makes wired Android Auto or Apple CarPlay wireless. I bought one off AliExpress for like $30 and it works great.
Ironically I've had an issue with Spotify not automatically playing when I wanted it to, unrelated to Android Auto lol
Also I think some cars do have cell modems, but it's mostly to provide in car wifi
I'm researching aftermarket head units for my wife's Kia, what did you go with?
You definitely don't want wireless android auto...the interface sucks and it's amazing to be able to unplug it and use your phone correctly then plug back in
I have wireless android auto in my GLI. It's fine. There have been a few random instances where being connected wirelessly has been inconvenient. But my biggest gripe is the battery drain.