Open Views on Android Auto

First Glance

Android Auto is a new in car entertainment most have not had a chance to experience for themselves.  It is fairly simple, a quick cable connection to the charge port on your supported Android phone and you are ready to go.

First time you connect the phone there is a set up process.  The set up includes installing Google's Android Auto app from the Play Store.  You have to accept a few conditions and you are ready.  If you are going to have access to Android Auto, now would be a great time to get it installed.

My test unit is the Pioneer AVIC-8100nex.  This beast is chock full of features, with Android Auto there are duplicate components like Navigation and Google Maps.  My focus is primarily on Android Auto.

Functionality

The front end is a little rough around the edges.  This is to be expected with nearly all technology found in its infancy.

One element of Android Auto is the simplicity.  The front end engine runs directly from the phone rather than on the head unit.  The benefit to this is if Android Auto is updated, the changes take effect the next time you connect your phone.  Not to mention, moving from one Android Auto unit to another it will be the same with the settings on your phone.

If you are already familiar with Google Now, then you will be right at home.  A quick tap of the microphone icon on the screen will give you quick access.  You can send quick text messages, have messages play back for you, pull up play lists

The Competition

Currently the only competitor to Android Auto is found from Apple CarPlay.  From what I have personally seen, Android Auto is leaps and bounds better.  With CarPlay, you are locked down inside the walled garden once again forced to use the built in apps found in iOS.  With Android Auto, you can customize what you want to use.  So if you don't like Google's offering of their Music app, there are many options to choose from.  There really is only a single benefit of CarPlay and that is the ability to connect via in car wifi.  Connectivity of Android Auto or CarPlay over Bluetooth does not look like it will happen with the current standings.

Accessing your phone

One part you will notice about Android Auto is the phone becomes locked down when connected.  This is for safety reasons.  You can still do quite a bit through the Android Auto functions on the head unit using voice commands or tapping the screen for what you are wanting.  However, what if the passenger wants to access something on the phone?  There is a work around, not an easy one mind you.  I don't doubt this will be patched up later.

After pressing the power button you will be greeted with the Android Auto screen.  Pull down from the top and you can access the menu to your notifications.  Pressing one of those will bring up the app obviously, but now you can hit the recents button to access any other app idling in the background.

Last Thoughts

Voice commands can feel slow when first acclimating to Android Auto. When touching the microphone icon on the head unit's screen you must wait for a tone after it asks what you want then speak. The timing of the tone can seem a bit “off” or slow sometimes. Patience and learning the rhythm of the voice commands takes a bit of practice but once mastered is a wonderful tool while travelling.  What I would like to see, is a setting to fine tune the delay.

You can not access your entire music library from the screen.  It can be helpful to build specific playlists and play them before leaving. The music feature only pulls up the most recent albums and playlists used on your phone.  There is a queuing feature which I have yet to utilize and master.

When booking travel plans that sync to with Google Now, Android Auto intuitively pulls your travel information. When traveling to a hotel in a different city it offers navigation as one of the suggestions when using the GPS feature. This efficiency is bar-none one of my most favorite features when taking a road trip.

During a trip to Chicago, I pulled up a route home through Bloomington/Normal Illinois on my phone.  The next morning when I plugged the phone back in, it wanted to route me through the Quad Cities, an hour and a half outside of my path.  Not sure what was going on, but after a little finagling we were on our way.

Overall, I’m impressed with this rather unpolished software.  I’m sure we will see lots of changes and improvements over the coming months.  The best part, you don’t have to upgrade the firmware of your car's stereo, the updates will come through your phone.