I had another usb cable wear out just this weekend and it got me thinking
Android Auto uses 5GHz WiFi direct, so your headunit needs to support that. If your headunit only supports 2.4GHz, you’ll be a bit out of luck.
Spotify streaming may be okay with the 2.4GHz or even just plain Bluetooth.
My car has its own SIM card, why does it need to connect to my phone anyway?
Edit: I mean directly
Using a cellular connection for that would be very slow, laggy and unreliable. It would also use a ton of data, which someone would have to pay for.
Android auto/Apple CarPlay is screen mirroring. The apps run on your phone, not the car.
The benefit is that all the app and OS updates your phone receives are reflected in the Android auto experience, without needing the vehicle manufacturer to constantly ship updates and provide support for the head unit of your car for years after it’s originally manufactured.
The later revisions of android auto are Bluetooth, but the first version was cable only. So you just have a car that only had the older version.
Yeah so my question could be rephrased as “why can’t my car be updated to handle android auto wirelessly if all the necessary gear is already there?”. Well, turns out some of the gear might be missing after all.
FYI, they make $30-40 bluetooth pucks that make android auto wireless if your car only supports wired. I got one from Motorola and it works great.
I tried the Motorola one and it was unreliable. Switched to the AA wireless and it’s been great.
I still use wired USB for long trips tho, phone doesn’t heat up quite so much that way.
Another AA wireless user here. Worth the extra bucks to have a solid connection compared to the cheap adapters.
