benk016

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I think this will be included in the next release of Sync after the 2.x.x OTA's.

Hoping for mid to late summer when we see that.
 

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The layouts you see will be available within the small non-expanded Android Auto area in our Sync system now.

In order to see a more portrait orientation equivalent to what you can get with CarPlay now on the MME, Ford needs to update how Sync communicates with Android Auto via a software update to offer the proper screen dimensions to Android Auto.

Hopefully this is part of the mythical big Sync updates hyped up by Jim Farley coming this summer.

PS -- if you get an AAWireless gadget, you can adjust the DPI reported to the phone, and the phone will think it is sending video to a larger screen. When Android Auto has a high-enough DPI, it will switch to its current split screen mode.

Still not as good as CarPlay -- but for those not using a fruity phone, this can be more pleasant to see what's playing while you navigate.

Ford Mustang Mach-E AndroidAuto Update Shows It's Scalable / Full-Screen Capable PXL_20220503_002925622
 

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A mention from Ars Technica on the changes coming this summer. I hope the Mach-E will support it with the expanded vertical mode, like CarPlay does.
 

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I think this will be included in the next release of Sync after the 2.x.x OTA's.

Hoping for mid to late summer when we see that.
I’d prefer Ford focus (get it πŸ˜€) on more practical functions, like a remote frunk release πŸ˜€πŸ˜€πŸ˜€πŸ˜€
Every single Mustang Mach E has a frunk. How many people are using Android Auto πŸ˜€
 


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Currently AndroidAuto is unable to use "fullscreen" mode in the mache (well mine at least) while CarPlay can (see https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/full-screen-car-play-os-versions.12099/).

I just stumbled upon this article (https://voonze.com/android-auto-pre...e-the-coolwalk-interface-arrives-this-summer/) which talks about AndroidAuto getting a similar full screen mode. For an example go to this thread and fast forward to roughly 25 seconds.

Hopefully we get this feature. Seems like it would be a great UI improvement.
 

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The layouts you see will be available within the small non-expanded Android Auto area in our Sync system now.

In order to see a more portrait orientation equivalent to what you can get with CarPlay now on the MME, Ford needs to update how Sync communicates with Android Auto via a software update to offer the proper screen dimensions to Android Auto.

Hopefully this is part of the mythical big Sync updates hyped up by Jim Farley coming this summer.

PS -- if you get an AAWireless gadget, you can adjust the DPI reported to the phone, and the phone will think it is sending video to a larger screen. When Android Auto has a high-enough DPI, it will switch to its current split screen mode.

Still not as good as CarPlay -- but for those not using a fruity phone, this can be more pleasant to see what's playing while you navigate.

Ford Mustang Mach-E AndroidAuto Update Shows It's Scalable / Full-Screen Capable PXL_20220503_002925622
Tell me more! So, does the car think that the AAwireless device is a phone? And then you connect your phone to the device? Do you not even set up your phone in Sync?
 

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Currently AndroidAuto is unable to use "fullscreen" mode in the mache (well mine at least) while CarPlay can (see https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/full-screen-car-play-os-versions.12099/).

I just stumbled upon this article (https://voonze.com/android-auto-pre...e-the-coolwalk-interface-arrives-this-summer/) which talks about AndroidAuto getting a similar full screen mode. For an example go to this thread and fast forward to roughly 25 seconds.

Hopefully we get this feature. Seems like it would be a great UI improvement.
Again, Ford needs to change their software in the APIM that uses the Android Auto protocol to communicate with the phone before we'd see the increase in screen real estate.

The real change here that the Android Auto team made is to copy CarPlay's dashboard mode and realize that most drivers really like the overview mode of having one main and 1-2 secondary tasks on the screen at once. Instead of only being available in very "wide screen" cars (as it is now), they're pushing new layouts which completely copy CarPlay to all screen resolutions.
 

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Tell me more! So, does the car think that the AAwireless device is a phone? And then you connect your phone to the device? Do you not even set up your phone in Sync?
I'm going to have a video on this next week-ish.

But TLDR --- what AAWireless does is plug into your car via USB-A or USB-C, and to your car, it looks like an Android phone that talks Android Auto protocol.

But this isn't an Android phone, it's a slick purpose-built little Linux-running device that talks AA to your car, but then talks Android Auto wireless to your phone.

So if your car can do Android Auto wired or wireless already, why would you want this?
  • Android Auto is HORRIBLE in its reliability starting up. This is a known issue but for a number of reasons, AA lags CarPlay considerably in its startup time and reliability with most phones and cars. AAWireless solves some of these issues by being extremely configurable and rapidly fixing bugs that improve startup time and reliability (cars take FOREVER to push out fixes to the car side of the connection, the source of many bugs)
  • Some cars don't have Android Auto wireless, and this adds the capability to many of those cars (such as the Ioniq 5 and EV6)
  • AAWireless has a companion app on your phone that lets you update the device firmware and completely configure and customize lots of stuff about the gadget. Some of the configs address car startup reliability and compatibility with a wide array of phones, and as I showed above, you can have AAWireless report a "denser" DPI to your phone to have more information on the screen and force the phone into the current AA widescreen layout
  • There are other interesting tweaks, including eliminating some of the safety nannies of Android Auto such as not being able to tap more than 6 times in a row before completing a task.
Full disclosure -- I was the founding Product Manager of Android Auto (I'm not at Google anymore, so all opinions are my own), so happy to try and answer any questions about this stuff.
 

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I'm going to have a video on this next week-ish.

But TLDR --- what AAWireless does is plug into your car via USB-A or USB-C, and to your car, it looks like an Android phone that talks Android Auto protocol.

But this isn't an Android phone, it's a slick purpose-built little Linux-running device that talks AA to your car, but then talks Android Auto wireless to your phone.

So if your car can do Android Auto wired or wireless already, why would you want this?
  • Android Auto is HORRIBLE in its reliability starting up. This is a known issue but for a number of reasons, AA lags CarPlay considerably in its startup time and reliability with most phones and cars. AAWireless solves some of these issues by being extremely configurable and rapidly fixing bugs that improve startup time and reliability (cars take FOREVER to push out fixes to the car side of the connection, the source of many bugs)
  • Some cars don't have Android Auto wireless, and this adds the capability to many of those cars (such as the Ioniq 5 and EV6)
  • AAWireless has a companion app on your phone that lets you update the device firmware and completely configure and customize lots of stuff about the gadget. Some of the configs address car startup reliability and compatibility with a wide array of phones, and as I showed above, you can have AAWireless report a "denser" DPI to your phone to have more information on the screen and force the phone into the current AA widescreen layout
  • There are other interesting tweaks, including eliminating some of the safety nannies of Android Auto such as not being able to tap more than 6 times in a row before completing a task.
Full disclosure -- I was the founding Product Manager of Android Auto (I'm not at Google anymore, so all opinions are my own), so happy to try and answer any questions about this stuff.
Thanks for the quick reply. I may get one of them, they're only $85.

On a separate note, since you worked on AA, I have a question: When is Android Auto updated on my Mach E? Is it something that gets pushed by Google through my phone? Or does AA only update when Ford says it updates via a Sync update? I only ask because I heard a while ago that AA would let me change the startup app from Maps to something else like YouTube music but I haven't seen that show up.
 

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Thanks for the quick reply. I may get one of them, they're only $85.

On a separate note, since you worked on AA, I have a question: When is Android Auto updated on my Mach E? Is it something that gets pushed by Google through my phone? Or does AA only update when Ford says it updates via a Sync update? I only ask because I heard a while ago that AA would let me change the startup app from Maps to something else like YouTube music but I haven't seen that show up.
How Android Auto starts up and shares the car resources such as touch input and sound and bluetooth is controlled by the car.

What you're asking is completely controlled by Google and the Android Auto app that's updated through the Play Store. Having other nav apps be the default instead of forcing you to use Google Maps every time you start up isn't technically challenging to do.

I'm not sure how high a priority this is on Google's list of things to do, however.

Apple has remembered the last nav app used between CarPlay sessions for years now, BTW.
 

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I’d prefer Ford focus (get it πŸ˜€) on more practical functions, like a remote frunk release πŸ˜€πŸ˜€πŸ˜€πŸ˜€
Every single Mustang Mach E has a frunk. How many people are using Android Auto πŸ˜€
Android dominates and currently has 70% smart phone market share globally... so, the answer is... a lot of us.
 

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@scoopman which AA wireless device do you recommend? I see several of them on Amazon.
 

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Just jumping in to ask since I setup AA on my new mach e 2 days ago, AA has taken over the home screen on my phone. Anytime I press home instead of taking me to my home and seeing all my icons I now get an AA screen telling me that AAis now only available for car screens. I have to back out of it to get back to another app but can't get back to my home screen without jumping through hoops. Only way to get it to stop is disable AA but then phone won't connect to car. Any ideas? I rebooted the phone and it seemed to fix it until my last drive and now that I'm out of the car it has taken over again. Do I have to reboot the phone anytime I get out of the car?
 

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Just jumping in to ask since I setup AA on my new mach e 2 days ago, AA has taken over the home screen on my phone. Anytime I press home instead of taking me to my home and seeing all my icons I now get an AA screen telling me that AAis now only available for car screens. I have to back out of it to get back to another app but can't get back to my home screen without jumping through hoops. Only way to get it to stop is disable AA but then phone won't connect to car. Any ideas? I rebooted the phone and it seemed to fix it until my last drive and now that I'm out of the car it has taken over again. Do I have to reboot the phone anytime I get out of the car?
that does not sound like fun. what phone is this with? one of the main problems with Android Auto is the fragmentation of Android versions and phone models from different manfuacturers guarantees incompatibility.
Sponsored

 
 




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