The most expensive appliances (particularly stoves) are the ones with no LCD screens. "Smart" TVs are often cheaper then dumb ones. People have learned that software does not always make things better. Anything that has code in it I assume will last for about three years. In practice that's a little less then the average but a safe assumption.
My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
71–80 of 217 posts
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#72Auto manufacturers need to realize that one bad software experience means lost sales of entire cars. Fail to provide a good experience at the cost of your brand for years to come.
We just sold our 2025 Subaru Outback specifically because the software experience was bad. To exit a climate control modal on the screen you have to find and tap a tiny red "X" box in the furthest corner of the screen from the steering wheel.
I despise our Outback's climate settings. It seems every time I start the car it picks a random temperature to set each side to. It'll be 30 deg outside and you look down wondering why its getting hotter and the car is set to 30 deg inside.
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#73His good points here are undermined by the profane, emotional high-cortisol crashout. There’s a place for well-written, witty diatribes and polemics, but throwing F-bombs and F-yous into complaints is not that.
Did you just come off the Mayflower?
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#74If we had a software building code, it could mandate the testing procedures for consumer devices, like a car's headunit firmware. This building code could be backed by an industry body that could revoke its certification from manufacturers if they don't comply with the code. Super-advanced-testing-procedure #1: plug a phone into a test car and check it works before release . (This software building code is more neces…
Plug one of every combination of vendor, model, OS, and config into the car and check if everything works. That’s what would be required to actually ensure functionality.
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#75His good points here are undermined by the profane, emotional high-cortisol crashout. There’s a place for well-written, witty diatribes and polemics, but throwing F-bombs and F-yous into complaints is not that.
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Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#76It's not an indictment of modern software. It's an indictment of using SW where not needed. Don't put discrete, isolated HW functions behind a SW powered screen. It's that simple.
Pretty much this. The less software on the car, the fewer problems. It's practically impossible to test every permutation of code against every system. Maybe AI can help, but practically it'll just mean the software gets more complicated, with more features. And to top it all off, more and more features get regulated , so they have to be there. The rear-view camera requirement in particular, since you need a screen t…
It all comes down to cost. At scale, testing hardware is appreciably more expensive than testing software. The former requires specialized machinery that costs the soul of your firstborn, and the logistics overhead for each do-over means long iteration times. The latter can be done with a CI pipeline for pennies worth of compute in a fraction of a working day.
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even hardware features (heated steering wheel, rain sensing wipers, etc...) are now behind software switches which the car maker can control based upon subscription or trim-level purchase. All the hardware pieces are installed at build time
> heated steering wheel As a licensed driver who resides in the Sonoran Desert, can you even imagine the horrific visions that just flashed before my eyes? We often joke around here that wearing oven mitts is a good way to get our cars started in the late afternoons. It's not really a joke. I personally have several pairs of gloves, and I never fail to don those gloves when I go out, whether I am walking, riding an e…
Wow, clearly you've never left the tropics. Some of us start our cars in -30, C or F, take your pick, for at least some months out of the year.
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#78Auto manufacturers need to realize that one bad software experience means lost sales of entire cars. Fail to provide a good experience at the cost of your brand for years to come.
We just sold our 2025 Subaru Outback specifically because the software experience was bad. To exit a climate control modal on the screen you have to find and tap a tiny red "X" box in the furthest corner of the screen from the steering wheel.
That's an absolutely disastrous UI choice!
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
you settle with one failure story for another failure story. there are companies with amazing software experience, Rivian, Tesla, Nio, Lucid, even gm is start moving into that direction, and WV is buying software from rivian.
> there are companies with amazing software experience I don't want an amazing software experience. I want an unsurprising experience, ideally the one I already have . The only thing better than Android Auto would be to just provide a standardized port (and perhaps a wireless standard) for a combination of video output, audio output, touchscreen input, and charging, with optional standardized sensor inputs. Then you…
> standardized port (and perhaps a wireless standard) for a combination of video output, audio output, touchscreen input, and charging, with optional standardized sensor inputs
So a web browser loading a page off the phone? :)
Re: My car’s OTA update broke Android Auto
#80When I bought my car, it had no Car Play or Android Auto. Upon some investigation I found out that both of them were installed on all the current models. It’s just disabled on the cars sold without the option. Some open source software for the car entertainment system flashed on the car was able to turn on the flags to enable various features including Car Play and Android Auto. So a happy story.
Please could you share the name of the manufacturer, so the rest of us know who to be wary of?
Volkswagen Group for example. Most of their brands are like this, Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda. Carplay/Android Auto is in the head unit but you have to
pay 200-300€ to unlock unless it’s part of the trim
level you choose.