Join the discussion
Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.
- Hacker News
- My 2016 car has the old version of Android auto. My phone has the new one, I think from 2019 or 2020. They are incompatible. Did I miss something by not integrating my phone with my car? I don't think so. I call with Bluetooth and navigate with the screen of the phone. The only thing I'm using is the mic and speaker of the car. The mic is probably substantially better than any earpiece I could buy, because I suspect that it's designed to filter out noises from the car and from the road.by pmontra
- That's the thing that gets me about all this car tech. The actual car will last far longer than the tech stuff will be supported. I suspect it's done intentionally to help phase out old cars faster by making them less functional.
I've begun rejecting any hardware that depends on some kind of external service. I won't buy anything that requires an app or a remote server anymore because they always kill the app long before the hardware is dead.
by Gigachad - > My 2016 car has the old version of Android auto.
I don't know if an AAWireless adapter might operate in a way that could bridge that compatibility gap, but it might be worth a shot if you can borrow one to try it out.
I've been decently happy with it in a ~2020 car. Compared to a direct USB connection, there are some privacy implications with how it's running a low-power access point in the car, but bluetooth etc. are already a risk there.
> Did I miss something by not integrating my phone with my car? I don't think so. I call with Bluetooth and navigate with the screen of the phone.
For me the the main feature for Android Auto (over just a bluetooth connection) is navigation on the car's larger touchscreen that already has a good fixed position.
by Terr_ - VW won't be missed! Cars weren't meant to be computers on wheel.
I bought a 2025 Suzuki because it is a manual and there is no firmware update, no internet connection, GOS Android Auto is all I get and only if my phone connects with the car.
It is so weird how companies in 2026 still making such bad mistakes.
by h4kunamata - Connected cars can be convenient though. E.g. when doing larger trips, we usually take a break when we need to charge (get some tea, food, etc.) and it's really handy to get a notification when the car is done charging.
Also in the heat of the summer, it's nice to be able to start the air conditioning a few minutes before leaving.
by microtonal - I've used a 2023 Suzuki S-Cross (manual fwiw) and this doesn't match my experience. Which model are you using?
They have an app [0] (which doesn't sync correctly for me, and their support is awful). When working it shows things like where you last parked, fuel efficiency, and allows you to remotely lock the vehicle, so it has internet access.
I sent Suzuki a Subject Access Request as a workaround to gain access to the data, and received months of extremely accurate location, speed, etc data.
There are also software updates, you just have to do them yourself [1]. They also didn't work for me.
Software aside however, they are extremely reliable cars, most of which seems down to their simplicity.
[0]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=suzuki.app.a02...
by otsukare - Answer from VW:
> Please note that the use of the Volkswagen app is only supported on iOS devices and Android devices with supported operating system versions.
Is it time to mandate app developers support all operating systems for a device?
by warkdarrior - No. You're not required to use the app. You're not even entitled to use the app. If you want to use the app, you have to play by their rules. Plenty of device manufacturers have chosen to only offer iOS apps. No one talked about mandating that apps were available on competing platforms.
If you choose to use something like GrapheneOS, you are signing up for the fact that almost no one will test on your platform and plenty of things will be broken.
by Arainach - My daily driver is a de-Googled LineageOS device, but I purchased a $50us iPhone SE 3 for FaceTime.
I have moved most of the my finance activity to it, along with my license and passport. I would never trust a Google device with this much, and the convenience has been profound in a few circumstances.
I would relegate any intrusive apps here, and happily deny them cross-app tracking privileges.
by chasil - The issue here is the Google-only remote attestation nonsense. It seems pointless to me. A device passing Google's attestation check tells you nothing. The device could well have malware on it and you won't know it. Integrity is a misnomer. The integrity scope is tiny.by bossyTeacher
- > In my opinion, the most useful next step is to contact Volkswagen support in a coordinated and technically precise way [...] Smartphone: Google Pixel Operating system: GrapheneOS
I strongly recommend saying that the operating system is one of "Android" (there are many variants), "Android (GrapheneOS)", or "GrapheneOS Android".
But if you say only "GrapheneOS", you are practically telling VW to respond that they do not support that operating system.
by neilv - I want a law that requires publishing your API for apps like this as well as allowing users to crate their own frontend based on it. That would enable more privacy aware versions of these apps.by jmward01
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty... from 1975, but is has more of what you were asking for than you might guess. And it was written about info-tainment systems (radios).by bluGill
- by studog
- If you pay for the privilege of using the app, that makes sense. I can't imagine such a law would ever be made for free apps as controlling the client experience is key for enabling them to offer it for free. The reason free apps often don't have a paid tier is because the folks who would pay for it are often the key demographic they need to not pay for the entire thing to be profitable for subsidizing the less desirable demographics.
I'm not trying to suggest that these sorts of things should be this way, but if there is a server involved in the economics of maintaining that endpoint come into play and can't be ignored. Ideally things were federated and you could point your car or whatever device at and endpoint you maintain, but that comes at a cost as well as maintaining software where both client and server are controlled by the same party is an order of magnitude easier than cases where they aren't the same.
by surajrmal - If this is a deal breaker, then you want to avoid KIA. The KIA connect app also doesn't work on GrapheneOS due to the use of NSHC DxShield [1].by jsiepkes
- UPDATE 25-06-2026: The Kia app started working again on GrapheneOS.by jsiepkes
- Google Play has been a huge drag on innovation and security in the mobile ecosystem. I'm actually looking forward to the time when AI kills the mobile app ecosystem so that every phone manufacturer can bundle their own "vibe-code-your-own-app" system with their devices, and the Google Play monopoly is broken.by 9cb14c1ec0
- Let's rewind 15 years ago when everyone was jumping and praising mobile Eco-systems. Did no one ever see this happening or were most too gullible with Facebook hugs and pokesby doublerabbit
- I see a future where it is easier for startups to create their own mobile devices than to deliver certain functionality through the Google and Apple platforms where your own data will be used against you and where their devices can record you 24/7 without any remediation to ensure privacy.by bflesch
- I don't think that will happen. Sure for a minority of users the same as people running linux for their daily driver, and I definitely support it!
It's possible that we get to a place where everyone cooks their own meal (vibe coded app), and only goes out to eat sometimes (official app store). Spreadsheets are the same, you can get a lot of milage, and most still buy and use closed source software.
Reminds me of this: https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app/
by miketery - VW blocking third party to access their servers is one thing, the thing that I find shocking is that you need to access VW servers to obtain your charging data while this should be directly available locally from the car.by prmoustache
- The historical data is aggregated in some "cloud" rather than in the car, but if you want to collect and aggregate the data locally, you can still, for now at least. Car Scanner Pro and ABRP (A Better Route Planner) are both really popular for EVs for this exact use case, and both support VW EVs; they read battery charge state / voltage / temperature and operating states (speed, consumption, etc) using both standard OBD and proprietary manufacturer diagnostic IDs over the OBD port and then redo the aggregation and math that VW are doing on their end.by bri3d
- I don't know how large a group who will do this is - but if the UK bans VPNs I can see Graphene having a very large target on its back.
Pixel being a fairly popular phone in the UK is the interesting bit - if you had to buy some niche device I couldn't see it hitting more than a few hundred people doing it, but there are likely 100k pixels in the UK, and it's still possible to buy one and put Graphene on it.- Buy Pixel, Get Graphene - Use FDroid, don't sign up for Google Play, download Tor browser - Censorship resistant access to the internet without handing over your ID.The squeeze on the free internet happened so quick by the UK (well it took years of indifference and a failure to enshrine protections - but once they started moving the did so super fast)
Realistically we're speed running ID being tied to internet usage - create your escape hatch while you can!
by AJRF - > - create your escape hatch while you can!
I really, really, really dont understand why people keep avoiding saying the obvious.
DON'T TREAT YOUR PHONE AS YOUR PRIMARY ENTERTAINMENT DEVICE.
Have two phones. One is the real one. The one you use. The other one is the "cops and bank" phone.
- I regret not signing up for Discord when they first introduced facial recognition and middle schoolers were trivially spoofing their ID checks with meme pics.
There's really something to be said for greedily signing up for most things and trying to get grandfathered before the zipcuffs tighten.
IRL, though, fuck this. Home depot added flock cams and broad facial recognition, grocery store installed turnstiles, haven't stepped foot in either since. I'm just dropping out of the IRL retail economy left and right.
by RickS - Who said the UK is going to ban VPN?
Genuine question. That's news to me and I'm here.
by LightBug1 - https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-organized-crim...
“Every time we see a Google Pixel, we suspect it might belong to a drug dealer,” said a police official leading the anti-drug operation in Catalonia.."
Seems like some countries/areas are already targeting the Pixel (really its because of GrapheneOS)
by spogbiper - There must be 10s of millions of x86 PCs with unlocked bioses in the UK. The issue won't be running an open device. The problem is software - what does someone running Linux do if the government mandates online services require proprietary attestation APIs?
It's scary how quickly the banning is moving. The problem is what happens next. When they realise that banning things doesn't really work. The next logical step is severely limiting internet traffic.
by leoedin - Driving a rental car in Germany almost makes me cheer for the ongoing bankruptcy of their auto industry. It really needs a full reset at this point. Sad thing is EU law mandates for a modem in the car as well as intrusive driving aids that actually make driving less safe by constantly driving your attention away from the road[1]. So there is no hope to get a minimally decent car in Europe in the near future, unless a wider reset also happens at the political and social level.by afarah1