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Google Is Making Android Auto Available In Any Car (techcrunch.com) 50

Posted by BeauHD from the hands-free dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Earlier this year, Google announced its plans to bring Android Auto, its phone-centric in-car infotainment platform, "to every car" by launching it as a stand-alone Android app, too. It's taken a while, but the company today launched an update to the Android Auto app for -- well -- Android that makes good on this promise. Even if your car isn't Android Auto compatible, you can now get all the benefits of Android Auto without the cost of a new mid-size sedan. Android Auto on the phone provides you with a simplified interface that combines directions, music, and incoming messages into a relatively distraction free experience. That's essentially the same interface you would see on an in-car display with Android Auto support. Android Auto works with popular apps like Spotify, Pandora, Google Maps and others. Like all things Google, the app will also soon let you use "Ok Google" commands to use directions, send messages and control your music. What's more is that the app will automatically boot-up when the phone connects to your car's Bluetooth network. It's compatible with smartphones running Android 5.0 and newer and will be available to users in more than 30 countries over the course of the next few days.
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Google Is Making Android Auto Available In Any Car More

Google Is Making Android Auto Available In Any Car

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  • I was hoping it could read text messages. It may, but ...

    There are a lot of disappointed users on the play store :
    https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com]

    It's rated 3.3 at the time of writing. I will wait a bit before trying myself !

    • Actually, for me, text messages on my map display, particularly if I'm using the latter to get to an unknown destination, is a nuisance. I've set my phone to automatically send text replies if I'm driving. I can wait until I get to a place and then check my messages. If someone wants to call me, I'll take the call via the speaker. But it's in any case illegal to text while driving, so the automatic message that goes out should be adequate for the time that I'm driving. And if it's more urgent, the othe

  • Anyone know if this will integrate with Bluetooth OBD II readers? I did RTFA...well, I searched TFA, and didn't see anything one way or another.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by wbr1 ( 2538558 )
      No. This is for media and apps. Get Torque or Automatic if you want OBDII readers.

      I have not used one in a while, but my biggest beefs with any obd II system that yuo want to use in care are: 1. Size, even small ones tend to protrude under the dash where I hit it with my leg. I am an average height guy. 2. Battery drain, the OBD2 port has an always on power line, and leaving the reader in can really take a car battery down.

      • 1. Size, even small ones tend to protrude under the dash where I hit it with my leg. I am an average height guy.

        Dash? Every car I have had had the OBD2 port in bottom of the centre console. Though I guess those sleek looking large sedans don't have space for it there.

        2. Battery drain, the OBD2 port has an always on power line, and leaving the reader in can really take a car battery down.

        This is a complete and total non issue. These devices draw less power than the rest of the things on standby in your car. I never unplug mine, even when I was overseas for 2 months, I got back and my 5 year old battery was still fine. Just remember how insanely big a car battery is compared to a small low power device like this.

  • Giggity (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I want Google in my car about as much as I want a Trump presidency.

    • In case you haven't noticed, you got both things delivered to you. Be happy!
    • I'm happy to have gotten the latter: as far as the former goes, I have a car navigation unit which I'd be completely happy w/ if there was a way to update the maps. Unfortunately, there ain't. So if Google Maps can be projected on that navigation unit using Android Auto, I'd be reasonably happy. I checked Apple's site, but the Subaru Crosstrek is not one of those cars that supports Apple's CarPlay
    • Things could be worst, after all. Just imagine Trump in your car and Google managing the presidency!

  • I have an older Audi without navigation. The navigation data hasn't been updated for something like a decade, so there's little point in swapping it in. I just want to use Android. I actually plan to install something permanently or in a dock, probably a tablet, and make it a "keyboard" (using Arduino or similar) to provide some nicer controls. Now, let's see how many years this project takes me :p

    • They make head units ("radios") with Android Auto, and an adapter cable for your car, so you *could* have a very nice installation done in about 20 minutes. My brother who does auto electronics for a living says the aftermarket Android Auto units are really great.

      If you want to spend more time, you can also hook them up to your obd2 or whatever other sites for extra features.

      • They make head units ("radios") with Android Auto,

        Yes.

        and an adapter cable for your car,

        No. Not for my car. For my car without the Bose sound system, a configuration which was not even available in North America, yes.

        so you *could* have a very nice installation done in about 20 minutes.

        No. Absolutely not. In order to have a "Very nice" installation with another head unit, I would have to spend many hours and dollars doing custom work, bypassing amplifiers, replacing speakers, running wires, et cetera. And having done all that, I'd still have to buy equipment or hire someone with the equipment to come in and balance my sound stage, not having to do which is t

        • What car model/year?

          I assume you have already checked on Crutchfield?

    • Now, let's see how many years this project takes me

      Probably even longer than it's been since you looked at aftermarket car stereos... they come with HDMI inputs now, thus allowing you to use virtually any modern device while skipping all the reinventing-the-wheel shit...

  • Lies. (Score:2)

    by jonr ( 1130 )

    Can't install this on either my phone or car tablet.

    And why can't I see who's ringing and answer my phone from my tablet? They are both connected to my cars audio, and to each other...

    • That's b'cos Bluetooth is a 1:1 connection protocol, not a multiplexed connection: you can only have one device connected to another at any time. Aside from that, tablets typically don't come w/ a separate phone connection, just data, which is why even the messaging apps on the phone don't worrk

      • That's b'cos Bluetooth is a 1:1 connection protocol, not a multiplexed connection: you can only have one device connected to another at any time. Aside from that, tablets typically don't come w/ a separate phone connection, just data, which is why even the messaging apps on the phone don't worrk

        So my wireless mouse and my wireless keyboard and my wireless headphones don't work at the same time? Damn that must have been some powerful drugs i been takin'.

        • Your wireless mouse and keyboards don't use Bluetooth: they use an IRDA style wireless that connects a mouse/keyboard w/ a USB dongle, which goes into one of the 4 (or whatever) USB ports on your computer. It's like having a USB keyboard and USB mouse, sans the wires. Bluetooth is not the standard used here to connect one w/ the other.

          Any Bluetooth peripheral will have a single connection w/ a Bluetooth host. If your computer's Bluetooth is connected to a Bluetooth keyboard (not a USB wireless one), th

          • Your wireless mouse and keyboards don't use Bluetooth: they use an IRDA style wireless that connects a mouse/keyboard w/ a USB dongle, which goes into one of the 4 (or whatever) USB ports on your computer. It's like having a USB keyboard and USB mouse, sans the wires. Bluetooth is not the standard used here to connect one w/ the other.

            I'm sitting here listening to Jackie Blue by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils on my Logitech bluetooth Headset, while simultaneously typing to you on a logitech K480 bluetooth Keyboard and using an Apple magic mouse and I even tried moving the mouse with no effect on either the keyboard or headset all operating simultaneously.

            The K480 does have a USB plug-in, if I want it, but its sitting in a recess in the headset, not in use. That's a different technology and for devices that have USB and not Bluetooth.

        • Relationship between bluetooth hosts and bluetooth peripherals is 1:many. Not many:many. One computer, multiple devices (a headset, a mouse, a keyboard). But one device (say a mouse) can only connect to one computer at a time (typically).

          Also, getting phones and tablets to output audio to more than one output device isn't easy to configure.

          Also, and this one is a bit fuzzier but I seem to recall having trouble using older bluetooth headsets to listen to music on my Blackberry (back when Blackberrys were

      • > That's b'cos Bluetooth is a 1:1 connection protocol, not a multiplexed connection

        definitely not true, I personally use my phone to connect to a Bluetooth OBD-II device, Bluetooth radar detector, and stream music to the car via bluetooth at the same time daily on my android phone. I can hear the radar detector app through my BT headset on my motorcycle with music playing as well, so definitely all work at the same time.

        Devices do have to have unique UUID (so not from the same manufacture) and you can h

  • Sorry, your fucking texts and updates from the Book of Faces isn't necessary for you to see immediately while driving, and absolutely doesn't belong in the set of functions called "relatively distraction free." Especially if you're fucking about with a phone to see it, while either holding it up, or worrying about it falling out of the cheap shit window mount that constantly falls off because you didn't bother cleaning the windshield before sticking the suction cup on.

    • Precisely! All that Android Auto or CarPlay or whatever it is Microsoft does needs to do should be to recognize any GPS unit on your car, as well as any display, and figure out how to project its map there and then use the GPS antenna to get signals. I don't need it to browse my music or contacts or anything else. If I get a call, I answer via the navigation system using the buttons on the steering wheel. And if I can project Google Maps on the navigation display in my car, nothing like it. Anything be

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Precisely! All that Android Auto or CarPlay or whatever it is Microsoft does needs to do should be to recognize any GPS unit on your car, as well as any display, and figure out how to project its map there and then use the GPS antenna to get signals. I don't need it to browse my music or contacts or anything else. If I get a call, I answer via the navigation system using the buttons on the steering wheel. And if I can project Google Maps on the navigation display in my car, nothing like it. Anything beyond

  • Brought to you by a company that for almost a decade ignores its users' please to make the "avoid tolls" option in its navigation app sticky.

  • Curso NR 10 online [institutosc.com.br] curso NR 10 curso NR 10 online

  • Still may run afoul of the law? (Score:3)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @12:56PM (#53247905) Journal

    The problem I have with putting any of these auto services directly on a phone is that the hands-free/no texting laws the police try to enforce may snare you.

    The cops are usually just trying to keep any eye out for anyone driving along who picks up a cellphone and holds it in their hand. That's why the navigation systems, Apple Car Play, and Android Auto on an in-dash stereo have value. It ensures the interface is actually part of the vehicle, on the dash.

    You can argue that this is stupid, etc. But good luck getting out of the next "texting while driving" ticket by arguing with the cop that all you were actually doing was pressing a key to skip to the next song on your stereo from your phone.

    • pressing a key to skip to the next song

      If that's what you're doing then you're using it wrong. Not in the Apple sense, but literally using it wrong.

      • Personally, I hit the next song button on my steering wheel, but I have a car made in the last decade...

  • Why don't you have any money? Buying doo dads. Crap like this. You don't NEED it.

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