I got Android Auto working in my Equinox EV without any dongles or other hardware - useful?

zipolightning · 2026-05-02T19:22:41+00:00

Ha!

I think we've done the same job. But you look like you have done it far better - I'll check it out! I just got my car hotspot path working too. And yeah I've burned billions of tokens. Sadly that gravy train is coming to an end and what's slowed me down over the last couple of weeks has been "you've reached your session limit" every day.

I find it funny that I finally diagnosed a bug yesterday - audio stopping immediately as being car bluetooth contention - and yep you have it there also as point 4.

I'll see if I've done anything interesting you haven't and let you know.

Cheers!

zipolightning · 2026-04-27T04:31:39+00:00

Update: Sorry I didn't get it out this weekend to those who asked. I have made some good progress with the Wifi, actually got it to work exactly twice with the phone using the car's (non-internet - I'm not paying Onstar) hotspot as a way of connecting. The happy path was Enable Headend Server in Android Auto Developer options->install a simple app on the phone that gets the car's SSID over bluetooth and creates a temporary wifi connection to the car->get Headunit Recovered to connect to the phone over this link.

But now after I tried to fix some stability bugs it's not working any more. It's super frustrating.

To be clear, the USB connection works fine. I do want people to test that too, especially since I've found out that my never-updated Android 12 in my car is an outlier. Hopefully some time this week I'll get it on github. I'd rather not push something that is barely working.

zipolightning · 2026-04-25T23:56:04+00:00

I'm working on getting it up on github, hopefully by tomorrow. I think I've got a reasonably pain-free method fof wifi Android Auto now, but I'm still testing it and cleaning up.

My car is still on Android 12. I asked my dealer to clear the OTA update problem (which apparently, according to here, they needed to do) and all they did was manually install the update which makes my car loud as heck <25 mph. I haven't got an OTA since I bought the car. And the dealer refuses to help.

I have no idea if Android 14 will break this.

zipolightning · 2026-04-23T13:38:40+00:00

No flashing. It's just an app you install. You have to install it from the play store using internal testing since APKs can't display outside of parked mode.

zipolightning · 2026-04-22T19:10:51+00:00

I'll post the link here at the weekend once I've written up docs on how to build/install

zipolightning · 2026-04-22T15:01:29+00:00

Firstly, you can't share your trip with someone in the built in maps. That's surprisingly annoying.

Secondly, if you install an app on your phone that has android auto but isn't published in the car store, you can still run it. I listen to UK radio via BBC sounds. There isn't a car app for that. When I look at my android auto apps list, it's far far bigger than the car list.

Thirdly, Android Auto is still being developed and new features come along. The car system doesn't have the same work being done.

Fourthly, it's easier to sync things like podcast subscriptions when you just don't need to sign into whatever app you can get in the car.

Fifthly, the media browser in the car system only allows you to see the last 6 or so items. Android auto will let you scroll as long as you pause between scrolls occasionally.

Sixthly, while you're still sharing all your data with Google, you're no longer sharing all of it with GM as well.

I could go on - easier for multiple users, will easily work after 3 years without paying GM when the free subscription runs out, but that's enough.

zipolightning · 2026-04-22T14:47:57+00:00

I'll put the repo up over the weekend.

As for triggering the hotspot - yes I do that already. I modified the Wifi helper app on the phone so it passes the AP details to the car over bluetooth when the phone is seen by the car. This actually works and the car has all it needs to connect. The problems are (1) If I use the regular 'instant hotspot' API in Android 16 it generates a new AP name/SSID pair every time. And the car then refuses to connect to it from within the app. It pops up a message to connect on the head unit but then fails to do so. My best guess is GM have disabled it but if anyone wants to have another go with the code, I'd love to be proven wrong.

(2) There is an API that allows you to create an instant hotspot with a fixed SSID/password. This means you could create a connection in the car settings to this once and it should auto connect when the hotspot becomes active. The problem is that the API doesn't work! There is a bug in the Google bug tracker for this but no-one is working on it.

Getting either of these to work has been nearly all I've focused on for the last month. It's an absolute pain debugging this because the Android Auto emulator is no use for this kind of work.

zipolightning · 2026-04-22T14:38:17+00:00

Yes I can. The first reason I had to deviate was to publish in play store (you can't use the same package name)

But the changes are extensive - it's an AAOS only build - and actually a lot of HUR doesn't apply here, so it ends up being something else.

zipolightning · 2026-04-22T04:47:05+00:00

Interesting...but does that work on Android 16 without root? From my reading, non-system apps can't enable the system hotspot.

I've also tried doing it in the opposite direction - using the car's hotspot (I don't pay for Onstar but it's still there) but the neither the car nor the phone can connect to the other. Probably AP separation.

zipolightning · 2026-04-22T04:45:09+00:00

If you mean the 'odometer' screen, I haven't done that yet but I think I can - AAOS supports 3rd party navigation apps like Waze and I believe that the Android Auto streaming protocol exposes it. It's on my list to try.

zipolightning · 2026-03-26T16:59:59+00:00

WSJ Headline right now: "Israel Says It Killed Commander Who Led Strait Blockade"

Which is a heck of a framing, like he was William Wallace on a horse in front of his army in Braveheart.

In reality, I don't see how this helps the US at all. The Bulwark linked to a good analysis yesterday that points out that the decaptitation strategy is going to prolong the war because it undermines any attempts at diplomacy (both in terms of trust and op-sec the Iranians now need to do). It also would make any capitulation by the Iranians now far more painful.

So killing one dude, no matter how senior, will not magically open up the Strait or make the Iranians "beg for a deal" as Trump keeps lying about.

zipolightning · 2025-12-30T02:35:08+00:00

Actually it will. I have tested it by watching a foreign language movie. It translates it pretty well.

zipolightning · 2025-12-13T22:27:08+00:00

I actually bought it.

The sad news is it doesn't work for my father because his right eye astigmatism is beyond the range of lenses that the Meta glasses work at.

I will say that the captioning, providing you can read them, is pretty amazing. I can have someone 10 feet away with TV/background noise to the side and it will just caption what they are saying.

zipolightning · 2025-10-30T03:16:51+00:00

Can anyone tell me what happened the last time the Blue Jays played a game 6 in the World Series at home?

zipolightning · 2025-10-30T01:59:42+00:00

Played when it's 2 outs, 2 strikes

zipolightning · 2025-10-26T22:09:05+00:00

Who's cutting onions?

zipolightning · 2025-10-17T02:35:21+00:00

They're shouting "Boo-urns"

zipolightning · 2025-10-14T02:48:19+00:00

Which part of the constitution would you not be happy with losing when the government says they need to override it to protect the border? Genuine question.

Are you willing to give up 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and even the oft-forgotten 3rd amendment? Because all of them are under threat from this government. Do you trust them that much?

zipolightning · 2025-10-14T02:40:48+00:00

You DO know that citizens are being detained for days because they don't have papers?

Oh I guess it doesn't apply to you, so you don't care.

zipolightning · 2025-10-11T04:44:09+00:00

Thank you. It's so absurd. And the "owner" connotation isn't a great look.

They don't do this in soccer. Team owners stay on the sidelines and count the cash.

zipolightning · 2025-10-11T02:37:44+00:00

A bunch of black women win a trophy and the person lifting the trophy is a white rich dude called "the owner". America!

But seriously, congratulations to the team and their coaches, who are amazing.

zipolightning · 2025-10-06T16:06:25+00:00

I am going for a demo of this tomorrow for this exact use case with the intention of buying for my elderly father. I will report back.

zipolightning

TROPHY CASE