[smaudet]

Eh I've had decent experiences with BT in cars, there are some truly terrible implementations out there though.

My current vehicle doesn't have a functional BT connection, because some idiot put it behind a voice activation (and the mic broke).

I don't think this is the long term future, though - I've seen it work really well, if consumers actually start caring about how to connect to their cars it will work better.

BT will always "just work" - Android Auto and Carplay (never used) are enterprise monstrosities you must sign your soul for in blood that don't work on Thursdays, by comparison.

Yeah yeah I'm sure it does some app thing but I honestly don't car, what with cellphones becoming less reliable over time. I only want to play music in my car, BT works great (once it is setup).

[dhosek]

My experience with CarPlay has been rock solid in four different cars from four different manufacturers. I was able to connect in about a minute in every case (the longest time for connection was the first rental car with CarPlay where I didn’t realize it was there until I plugged my phone into the USB jack to charge—this was in 2018 and it was wired CarPlay).

In contrast, the BlueTooth in the car that I own typically takes about half a block to a block’s driving before it actually connects to my phone, occasionally refuses to connect or will pair but not send audio. There’s some weird interaction between Overcast and the car’s Bluetooth that means that if I’m listening to a podcast when I turn off the car, I need to restart Overcast before it will send audio to any output (including the car when I get back in).

I don’t understand the “you must sign your soul for in blood” claim, unless you’re an open source absolutist (or maybe Android Auto is really bad, I don’t know), but your claims don’t match my experience.