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> There is no alternative but to comply.

Maybe not within the confines of the head unit but you can still stick your phone onto the dash like I do in my (dumb) cars.



I bought a 2020 car recently. It comes with Android Auto, whereas previously I'd just mount my phone to the dashboard. But with Android Auto, every time the voice gives out a navigation instruction, music playing from the infotainment is paused; in my previous car the voice would play from my phone, on top of the music coming out of the car's sound system.

So I've ordered a mount so I can mount my phone to the car again...


Android auto also prevents you from typing in a new destination while driving. Because no one ever has a passenger that can do that for you, right?


The story is still infuriating. You can't use what you paid for, unless you comply with what the manufacturer wants.


Oh, I agree that it's infuriating, frustrating and disappointing. My US-based stance is that, while there have been some encouraging developments on the right-to-repair front, more generally the rollback/demonization of regulations, de-fanging of CFPB et al all project a future where this sort of behavior is the norm for an ever increasing number of "critical" devices and we have no recourse. So, I think we have to be ready to vote with our dollars and reject these options, bend these devices to our will when it's possible and work around them when it's not.




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