[ShadowBanThis01]

EXACTLY. This "infotainment" BS harks back to vastly overpriced stock car radios of years gone by.

All we need is a place in the dashboard to mount our phones. Phones already have big-ass touchscreens and anything else we want... except of course now the audio outputs have been removed.

We should simply have a well in the dashboard with replaceable inserts that snap in to accommodate different-sized phone models, which would connect to the audio system and power. But no... we still have phones bouncing around in the cabin or attached to hokey third-party claws, and janky-ass Bluetooth which (how many years in now?) can't handle simple music playback reliably.

Every car in my household has an auxiliary input for audio and no support for audio over Bluetooth. One is a 2013 Mini, so it's not as if they're ancient.

And that's just fine. And if it MUST be overcomplicated, then yes... AirPlay seems to be the way.

[neuralRiot]

> All we need is a place in the dashboard to mount our phones. Phones already have big-ass touchscreens and anything else we want...

That might be your personal prefernece, I particularly abhor the phone-centric world not to mention that a 5 inch “big-ass” touch screen becomes tiny when driving and that its UI is meant to be operated sitting down paying 100% attention to it not while operating a machine at 60mph down in the road surrounded by hundreds of people in the same situation.

[ShadowBanThis01]

I can respect that. To some extent, though, that's down to the phone UI. iOS, ummm, 6 if I remember correctly was supposed to be more "car-friendly." Of course, that was another Jony Ive failure... it actually changed the system font to a spindly outline that was hard enough to see in normal conditions, let alone in a car. There was absolutely nothing in that OS that offered a "car-friendlier" experience. I was so glad to see that pompous hack leave Apple.

If you look at CarPlay, it chunks the functionality down to a few big icons on the screen at a time. No reason that can't be done on the phone itself in a "car mode."

Anyway, this is what I ended up doing: https://imgur.com/gallery/krRXQwP

[fzzzy]

That was 7, 6 was the last 'good' one.

[ShadowBanThis01]

Ah, thanks.

Too many regressive releases to keep track of...

[MarioMan]

>We should simply have a well in the dashboard with replaceable inserts that snap in to accommodate different-sized phone models, which would connect to the audio system and power. But no... we still have phones bouncing around in the cabin or attached to hokey third-party claws, and janky-ass Bluetooth which (how many years in now?) can't handle simple music playback reliably.

I've been using Brodit/ProClip USA mounts to solve this. They sell holders designed specifically for your model of phone which attaches to a custom-fit mount for your car's make and model. It's pricy, at about $75 for a holder-mount combo, when cheap Amazon alternatives are closer to $10, but it overcomes a lot of the problems you list. I use it regularly for navigation, since my car doesn't support CarPlay or Android Auto.

[ShadowBanThis01]

Thanks! I can't settle for that, though. This is what I ended up doing in one car. I still haven't tackled my truck, though: https://imgur.com/gallery/krRXQwP

[fho]

> no support for audio over Bluetooth

So you rant about Bluetooth in cars ... without owning a car that gas Bluetooth?

Just checking, because we put after market radios (with BT) in our last two cars and, while not a miracle experience, music playback and handsfree telephony worked without problems.

[ShadowBanThis01]

I guess you don't think people rent cars, or drive family members' cars, or go on road trips with friends.

Bluetooth implementations are trash. Rented a brand-new Toyota over the summer and its radio suffered from all the same playback defects that Bluetooth has been offering for a decade or more. Playback randomly starting when not told to... showing the wrong info on the display... showing that no songs were available but playing songs anyway (four out of five times; once it did decide to show a song list).

[falcolas]

> Bluetooth implementations are trash.

They really are.

> Playback randomly starting when not told to...

Yup. Toyota and Subaru are particularly egregious about this. Something about using old cable/ipod implementations which would immediately reach for the default media player and telling it to start playing (and download a list of songs or some other BS).

> showing the wrong info on the display...

Yup. Especially if you have the audacity to use Spotify or something else.

There's some really shitty bluetooth audio interfaces out there. REALLY shitty.

[ShadowBanThis01]

Oh noes, I've been-modded by some members of the BT consortium, apparently.

Keep up the "good" work, guys! Don't spend all your licensing fees at the pub... unless you're buying a round for the house!

[kevin_thibedeau]

You could have that if manufacturers hadn't abandoned the double-DIN radio bay.

[ShadowBanThis01]

No doubt! I did this though: https://imgur.com/gallery/krRXQwP

And I even installed extra inputs for a guest to plug into on road trips, and the original CD player.

[cameronh90]

Do you not find it overheats in sunny weather, though?

I have an old car without any sort of fancy infotainment system, and I always end up with my phone overheating during long drives into the sun.

[ShadowBanThis01]

It was a concern but didn't happen often. I did consider making some kind of reflective roof for it.

The phones are too tall to fit there now (even the original SE), so there's going to have to be some rework anyway!

[M95D]

Don't make it reflective. The light would reflect again in the windshield.

[ShadowBanThis01]

It might indeed.

[extraduder_ire]

> All we need is a place in the dashboard to mount our phones.

Where I live, even touching your phone while driving is illegal. Doesn't stop most people, but I'd still not mess about.

I do remember reading news of someone getting cited in california when the model 3 was new, for "mounting a screen visible to the driver" which was the stock touchscreen.