I noticed a few threads about porting Android auto to specific systems but I'm looking to open it up to porting Android Auto to ANY system.
In short, like building CAR PCs, the vision is to build our own Android Auto system.
The challenges are how are we going to get our hands on the software? Anyone know of any leaks/demos/files that are being provided to manufacturers in order for them to implement Android Auto?
Lets start collecting it here so we can start up a development community around it.
windraver said:
I noticed a few threads about porting Android auto to specific systems but I'm looking to open it up to porting Android Auto to ANY system.
In short, like building CAR PCs, the vision is to build our own Android Auto system.
The challenges are how are we going to get our hands on the software? Anyone know of any leaks/demos/files that are being provided to manufacturers in order for them to implement Android Auto?
Lets start collecting it here so we can start up a development community around it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have spent many hours over many weeks searching everywhere and anywhere on the internet for any hardware specifications associated with Android Auto and have come up with absolutely nothing. It seems like it should be relatively trivial to build such a device as it is my understanding that the hardware mostly acts as a dumb terminal to the software on your phone. This of course assumes that you don't care if your head unit is completely inoperable when not attached to your phone but this seems like a limitation that personally I would be perfectly happy with and is the reason that I will not buy any of the new head units from the manufacturers currently releasing them.
Obviously it still has to interface with the rest of your car speaker system so you'd need an amp and whatever else to make that work (like I said, NO information anywhere!) and you'd also need a touchscreen controller, etc., but still it just feels like it should be doable for just a few hundred dollars.
Sorry I can't provide any better information. I hope someone else can be more helpful.
Copied from my other post.
I am sure we will see hundreds of posts asking this question.
Likely #1 FAQ for Android Auto.
See my post on the new app and it's developer mode.
If developers can see and use the UI pretty well without a head unit, presumably on a tablet or larger phone, then non-developers should be able to do the same.
search u tube video: YkdW9O6iwYm
Says video is not available
https://github.com/f1xpl/openauto
Related
feedback non-existent in H/U forum so thought i'd try my luck here.
seeking recommendation to be installed into RSX
back in January I looked into Android Auto/CarPlay from the brand names but they require USB connection to phone = dealbreaker
not looking to DIY a tablet into the dash
LF a 2DIN head unit that works very similiarly to AA without the wires.
I'm looking to have run this app pretty much on default
http://www.androidcentral.com/hands-automate-android-auto-your-phone
will be installing myself
to be used with Galaxy Nexus GSM on 4.3...quite long in the tooth my next phone is likely Note 5 or the new LG Nexus
convenience is key. I just want to enter the car and have BT auto connected to the phone and ready to stream music without having to pull out my phone.
voice-enabled messaging, google apps, backup cam, capacitative touch screen are all requirements. volume knob, 2gb ram, quad-core processor and large community dev support would be nice.I didn't look at Hufei and AN-21 because their specs are dated as they've been around for a while now. I've been waiting for android 5.0 head units to hit the market but it's taking forever.
i'm not an audiophile so as long as the sound quality isn't worse than a stock Honda radio I'm good which is only mediocre at best.
I think you're confused about a few things.
1. Android Auto requires USB, period. It doesn't work any other way.
2. AutoMate is not the same as Android Auto. It's a launcher that looks sort of like Android Auto. It has nothing to do with your other phone, bluetooth, etc. It's standalone. If you want to stream music from your phone you're gonna have a bad time.
The NU3001 is the best (i.e., most modern) head unit available today. Because the source code is available the community has developed a ROM that is car friendly and does work with bluetooth streaming, Google Now, etc. You can run AutoMate on it if you want but I finally uninstalled it as it's just a (pretty) layer that gets in the way between your maps/music/phone apps and you. There are variants available with a physical volume knob but to my knowledge they don't have one for a Honda.
alaninsitges said:
1. Android Auto requires USB, period. It doesn't work any other way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android Auto has Wifi support built in, but AFAIK my Headunit app is the only way to make it work at present, unless you have access to some unreleased devices/apps.
To Original poster: I don't think a solution with all the features you want exists yet. We've been waiting for decades for useful, robust implementations of the sort of environment that Android Auto and CarPlay provide.
I hope that within the next 2 years we will have solutions that are useful and "just work". The ones we have now clearly need work and seem as immature as Android 1.x and 2.x compared with the Android 5.x/6.x level solutions we want.
The in-car software is available on Android 5.0 phones for every driver to access
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/android-auto-all-cars
What does this mean? Can we get this apk and install this in our android HU's and have true android auto?
I've installed this on my MTCD device via the apk (google android auto apk mirror for the apk, I cannot post links yet). Make sure to install the correct arm/arm64/x86 version for your device, the top 3 Android Auto 2.0 are the three versions.
It runs extremely slow on my unit, curious to know if others have a better experience. I think I will stick with automate for now, but hoping that there will be continued development in the android auto pipeline. I think in my case it is limited by the hardware (1GB ram, som), but I bet the newer intel units will run it well.
i have a Joying 2GB, intel unit, I will try it this weekend
Running nice on my Samsung J7 / Mazda 3 SGT
I've only played with the app on my phone but I don't think it's been designed to work in the way you think. The new app is designed so your phone displays the Android Auto UI. If you install on a MTC Headunit, it's likely that it will assume your Headunit is the phone and not link to your phone (note - I'm assuming this based on what I've read and have not tried). However... If you only install on your phone and screen mirror to your headunit, it should be close to an Android Auto experience... Let me know if this works or if anything in my post is not true...
Yup, it is essentially the Android Auto UI optimized for phones on the MTCD head unit. No link to the phone is required (which is what I expected), however the slower MTC units are just too slow to run it well enough imo.
Wouldn't screen mirroring just display the UI and you would still have to interact with the phone for selections? I feel like that defeats the purpose of Android Auto.
If they made it so any Android tablet/HU could just be the display and touchscreen for Android Auto (similar to Pioneer etc) running on your phone, that would be awesome. Would achieve the functionality at a MUCH lower price tag than the Pioneer/Sony etc units and have way more flexibility for other apps.
To be honest, I've not played with screen mirror but I thought it allowed you to control your phone from the head unit as well as display it's screen (or so the marketing talk for my head unit claimed).
I thought it was uni-directional, but I have not tried it myself either (only got it a few weeks ago). After looking at some of the information, I think you might be right (assuming it really is mirror link). Hoping that is the case!
I loaded it on my Joying 2GB Intel 8 inch Android 5.1 unit
Much better than expected, although you still can't make calls on it
More pics
CadillacMike said:
I loaded it on my Joying 2GB Intel 8 inch Android 5.1 unit
Much better than expected, although you still can't make calls on it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course not, it's expecting to be installed on a phone not a tablet.
Not one of these units have ever implemented the standard Android way of handling phone calls.
Bit of a disappointment, really. The "Your Places" and "Saved" menus from Google Maps do not seem to be available thru Android Auto.
Has anyone created a Xposed or root hack that will allow AA apps not approved by The Google to be ran using AA? For example I have been working on a update for K-9 mail that will read my mail and let me respond from AA. However there is no way to use it outside of the emulator and Google would never approve it.
when I try to make a call it tells me "Network not available". anybody getting the same error?
fopoku2k2 said:
when I try to make a call it tells me "Network not available". anybody getting the same error?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From your phone? Or from an Android head unit?
I out AA on my Android head unit and it gets that error. Which is to be expected, as noted earlier by another poster, it is common for these Android units to not talk to the phone properly
backstory: I never owned a car with a 3rd party head unit, never used android auto or had a car that supported it. Mirrorlink never worked on any car i've tested that should support it. So i'm here with pretty much here with little knowledge
I'm probably getting the AVH-2300NEX, I read some good stuff about it and it has android auto, its my main focus currently but i'm open to suggestions.
Here's my questions regarding Android Auto
1. Android auto isn't supported in my country via the playstore, can getting the apk from elsewhere bypass this problem or will it still be locked?
2. I remember reading that you can't use your device at all but some other news contradicting saying that there is a slide to unlock? if its the latter, what can you do on the device while its in android auto mode?
3. Does screen aspect ratio and resolution affect the quality of android auto? (I read that 16:9 QHD devices should switch to FHD, but that about 18:9 or 19:9 with QHD, will FHD fix any issues? do these still exist? or is this all dependant on the head unit)
4. Does samsung android pie has any issues with android auto currently? I read that in general some devices with pie had issues with android auto back in october, idk if google fixed it and I dont know if samsung has this issue.
Questions regarding head units.
1. similar to 4. from above Does the avh-2300nex work with note9? this post here seems to indicate that pie broke android auto usually samsung work differently than google so I'm not sure if its broken on note9 pie update if anyone here has it.
2. Overall, is the 2300NEX/2400Nex (they seem to be the same) worth getting for 300$ or so is there a better alternative for similar pricing (considering these are 2017 products)
3. is the 2300NEX even running android? should I even care so long it runs android auto?
4. Are there better units that better suit my needs? google maps navigation, music control and backup camera
Edit: one note responsiveness is a must I drove a car with an android unit that had horrendous touch sensitivity and was very slow (Had to click 3/4 times in the same spot for it to recognize my touch and was very slow to actually do the thing)
1) Based on a Google Search: you should be good to go. Don't take it as granted
2) There's a slide to unlock and pretty much you can fully use your phone
3) It depends on the head unit. If the head unit has a big resolution, though, you should be aware that your phone should be powerful enough to deliver a good experience
shmykelsa said:
1) Based on a Google Search: you should be good to go. Don't take it as granted
2) There's a slide to unlock and pretty much you can fully use your phone
3) It depends on the head unit. If the head unit has a big resolution, though, you should be aware that your phone should be powerful enough to deliver a good experience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm wondering what would be the difference between my choice and this Xtron unit this one doesn't support android auto out of the box but i can install an app to let me do just that.
Hi,
I have a 2015 Audi A3, which unfortunately didn't come with AA as an option (I think it was introduced in 2017). It's a real pain to install the 2017 MMI into an older car, but there are guys out there developing aftermarket Android-based headunits that basically put a whole android "phone" in the dash; which isn't a very eloquent solution and kind of overkill in my opinion. They've got their own SIM cards and you have to change the bluetooth devices the phone is paired to and whatnot. It's really not exactly what I'm looking for. I just want AA and that's it.
Anyway there's one guy who's kind of got what I'm looking for . Unfortunately because the car also didn't come with a touchscreen, I have to toggle through the menus with the knobs and steering wheel buttons, which is meh. I'd love to put a digitizer overlay on the screen and play around with it, maybe have a daughter board made up and inject the screen coordinates into the packets somehow before it's sent down to the phone. I'm more of an EE, don't really have a lot of Android dev experience but I've got a lot of microcontroller and firmware experience. Anyway that's my high level idea of how this might work, not sure if I'm going in the right direction. I did ask the guy at RSNAV (seems to be a one-man show) last night if I might have the source code after signing an NDA and I'm awaiting his response. In the meantime I want to get a plan of action going.
So I'm wondering how AA is integrated on the client-side. Obviously the manufacturer headunits aren't running Android, but they've gotta communicate somehow with the phone. I can't find this info anywhere, I'm guessing this is info Google only shares with Auto manufacturers and the Kentwoods and Pioneers of the world. But maybe I'm wrong. I'm assuming it's a protobuf-based protocol between the headunit and the phone, but I don't know.
Can anybody help me out here? Thanks.
All my android auto head units are running android operating system two Chevy and one Mitsubishi. Main reason why poplar cars get rooted head units and what not. But after market android auto head unit is probably your best choice.
I currently use Screen2Auto and while it is working overall I'm still having issues.
I'm not a developer or anything, just an end user.
I'm curious why no one has come up with an alternative to Android Auto. I.e., an app that will run on an unrooted phone, make the car's headunit think it is interfacing with Android Auto, and allow you to mirror any app that is on your phone.
Are unrooted phones just too locked down to operate an app like this?
Is there a special key or something that the car's headunit requires for communication?
Is it just too onerous of a job to make an app like this?
Just curious. Seems like there would be quite a demand for an app like this.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitspice.automate ... this was an awesome attempt to do exactly what you are looking for. It was intended to be an AA replacement, and I was an early adopter/beta tester. The biggest problem was they were never able to find a way to get it to the head unit *legitimately*.The next biggest problem was that everytime they came up with something better than AA, Google would make changes and break it. Several times functionality would have to be changed / removed because of changes to Google's Terms of Service.
Ultimately it becomes a battle between Google's unlimited (seemingly) resources and the developer writing the app.
I'm looking for something a little different than the above. I'm looking for something that mirrors your phone's apps on the car's touchscreen.