this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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One day we must come together, and find faith to figure out how to operate a car without entertainment systems and screens.
This will be the most middle aged thing I ever post, but:
I'm Gen X. I feel like my generation, and maybe some millennials, got the best of both worlds. We know what it's like to live in an offline world, including cars. You can drop me anywhere in the continental US and I can drive home without GPS, and probably without a map. We grew up on mixtape-fueled road trips and not having every inch of our commute planned and cross-checked. We didn't know exactly what to expect in that upcoming town or city, because there was no Tripadvisor or Wikitravel.
We also know how convenient smartphones can be. It's great that I don't have to carry a camera plus a camcorder plus a Walkman plus an atlas plus a photo album plus a laptop plus a calling card plus a bag phone plus a notepad plus an encyclopedia plus a wristwatch plus a travel alarm clock plus whatever else I'm forgetting. But take that all away, and it's at worst a mild annoyance.
So if I can't use Android Auto, I'm just going to not buy that car. And if all cars suddenly stop shipping with Android Auto, then I'll see that as a precursor to mandatory 30-second ads before being able to drive, and I'll just buy whatever car remotely meets my needs AND makes it easy for me to install an aftermarket Android head unit.
I'm continuing to drive my 2009 until the wheels fall off. Backup cameras are nice and safe for sure, it just feels nice having a working stereo and CD player. Buying a car today I imagine there is little to no choice. I keep reading and hearing about subscription services to use some entertainment features nowadays.
The backup camera is one of those things that you mock until you get one, then you can't fathom living without it. But you can easily add an aftermarket one to an existing system.
I wound up paying for Subaru Starlink when I discovered that any dealership can sell it to you, and several sell it at steep discounts. I'm paying $10 / month for a 7-year package that includes emergency response if my airbags go off or the car flips, stolen vehicle location, and some other things I really don't use. It basically stays out of the way. But when I had a Hyundai, I'd regularly get BlueLink popups about "special savings at your local dealership" and long story short, that's the main reason I didn't buy another Hyundai.
Are you me?
We have 2 cars in my family that have BS systems in them. We had to add our own Bluetooth adapters because the builtin crap sucks so bad.
I added a GPS head unit to a car in 2007 or so. It was nice for a few years. I swapped the factory unit back into the car 2 years ago.
Any phone has outperformed head units of any type for 10 years now. It's more headache to use the built in crap than to use my phone.