[xster]

I had a car headunit with wireless Android Auto before and I drive a Rivian now. I thought it would be a degraded experience before buying the car. But I think it's probably a generally better experience now.

Context: I used Android Auto almost entirely for maps and streaming audio, and I always have my phone mounted on the dash to play some media when I drive.

1- Versus either wired or wireless Android Auto, there's just one less step after getting in the car. The car boots ready to go and navigate. There isn't a 2 step loading of the car OS, and then streaming your phone content

2- No battery usage in wireless mode. Phone runs less hot generally vs charging wirelessly or plugged in, which matters on sunny days.

3- If you're not just one-tap navigating to a routine place and you're actively searching for a destination, given how big infotainment screens are continuously getting, I just don't think it's generally a good medium for prolonged interactions. I rather hold the phone in my hands and interact with a familiar phone interface and then send the destination to the car, than doing search and explorations on a car. And I rather hold an untethered phone that isn't slowing down because of the heat from streaming when I do interact with the phone.

4- CarPlay might be better, but Android Auto still has plenty of edge cases, correctly controlling volume, play/pausing media, depending on which app was in the foreground when Android Auto got initially connected. For the first few years, Google Maps disallowed having Maps open simultaneously on the car display and on the phone. And the car app has much less features. I have to turn the engine off or turn off wifi to disconnect Android Auto and use Maps directly. Having 2 full functioning devices with a thin, mature (Bluetooth) interface between them on the Rivian is a cleaner separation.