Man, I’m glad Android Auto exists, I’m glad it’s finally appearing in more new cars with wireless connectivity (although MANY new cars still only have wireless carplay and wired Android), and I’m glad we’re finally getting the ability to open Google Maps on our phones while it’s also open on the car’s display.
But damn it still does some dumb shit.
I’ll just drop this one for now: I find it weird and dumb that Google Maps in Android Auto will let you send a progress share to a contact’s email address but not to their phone number as a text message with a link.
An email address might send a notification to somebody’s Google Maps app, but it’s certainly never happened on my partner’s iPhone. She just gets a link via email, and she is not the checking email sort — so I usually follow up with a text message telling her to check her email. 😑 (I wish she’d just get a Samsung…)
My major complaint is that Android Auto is a proprietary standard that doesn’t have an official open source implementation.
Just Google trying to do more vendor lock-in along with Apple.
I’m not too surprised by this, tbh. Cars are a lethal object, and even though you can get all manner of aftermarket infotainment systems, that doesn’t mean Google would want to have any culpability in a crash that occurred using a system running in an open-source system of its own making. You know how the legal system can be when apportioning blame…