Hi all. I bought a new (for me) Subaru yesterday and I’m already sick of plugging my phone in (yet my last car couldn’t even connect a phone).

Has anyone had any experience with wireless-to-USB AA adapters? They all seem to be cheap AliExpress dealies so not sure how they go. I have suspicions that these would interfere with the “native” experience of the car.

Not fussed about connect time, just want to to be “transparent” and not have drop outs.

Oh and I’m running a Pixel 7, surely that has all the bells and whistles to do all this.

Cheers.

  • Mike@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Motorola MA1 for me, works every time without fail. I’m a motoring journalist so I’m in new cars all the time, and the MA1 provides an identical connection speed and stability to what I experience on those cars with wireless AA already equipped.

  • GotSka81@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I have the Motorola adapter and it works very well, but there are a couple quirks that I didn’t discover until I had it:

    1. Since I’m using wireless to connect to AA and the USB port on my car stays on for a while after I turn off my car, if I make or receive a call right after leaving my car it will still use my car instead of my phone, and since the call notification is hidden when using Android auto the usual button to switch it is inaccessible. The solution is to disable wifi momentarily, which severs the AA connection. Not a huge deal, but can be frustrating in the moment.

    2. Battery drain from AA can be significant, so you may find that you need to plug in your phone anyway, negating the point of using the wireless adapter. I solved this by putting a wireless charger in my car, but YMMV. The other benefit here is that you can use a quick charger while on AA instead of the slow charge provided by your car’s USB port. For short drives this problem is no big deal, but if you have a daily commute or spend any significant amount of time driving on a given day you may find your battery much lower than you would normally expect.

    Like I said, these issues haven’t been enough to make me go back, I like the simplicity of getting in my car and AA just launches. Sorry if any of this was confusing, I’m happy to answer any questions!

    • seang96@spgrn.com
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      1 year ago

      Yeah i got wireless charging pad in my car and with Android auto it drains so much and heats it so much charging stops lol. Hopefully a newer phone will run cooler with a more efficient processor.

  • wile_e8@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Add on question: Are there any wireless Android Auto adapters that are good for switching between multiple phones? I looked into AAWireless for a car that both my wife and I drive, and switching phones depending on who is driving seems… complicated. Is it? Is there another adapter that makes switching easy?

  • rhacer@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have the AAWireless in my 2020 VW GLI.

    For the most part it works very well and I am very happy with the purchase.

    It does have some quirks.

    Sometimes it crashes and reboots, this can take some time. This is a rare occurrence.

    It struggles with more than one connected device. If my wife and I are traveling together, it’s a bit of a crapshoot whose phone it will connect to. My understanding is that the dev is working to resolve that situation.

  • Skitals@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve been using the Motorola MA1 for over a year and it has been flawless. Don’t even think about it, it just works.

  • EchoCranium@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    The Motorola model looks to be the standard, but it’s not flawless. I was thinking about doing the same thing, just got a Pixel 7 myself. My Pixel 5 started having problems with the USB port from being plugged into my vehicle a couple times a day, so want a wireless option.

  • tmijail@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I have the AAWireless. It seems to be incompatible with my car (2020 Chevrolet Cruze). Every couple of months I update the firmware and try to use it again but so far no luck.

    • seang96@spgrn.com
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      1 year ago

      There’s 2 android auto, wired, and relatively new wireless. Wireless utilizes Bluetooth and wifi, the car hosts a wifi network and the phone likely gets the connection info from Bluetooth (a handshake of some sort) then uses the WiFi for Android auto likely due to higher bandwidth requirements that Bluetooth wouldn’t be able to do to host a user interface on the cars touchscreen.