Can car manufacturers block future updates?

[urimish]

Hi,

Considering buying the new Opel astra, which supports Android Auto, and not sure about something - while I'm the one controlling app updates on my phone, I pretty much depend on the car manufacturer local service to update the infotainment system firmware. I live outside the US and the service here isn't that great.

Does this mean I might be stuck with an outdated Android Auto system on the Car end? How frequent/important do you think AA car firmware updates are expected to be? And, most importantly, will car users be able to roll them out indepently of car vendors?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Phil Nickinson]

I don't think you need to worry about that. AA just needs the car to (essentially) support the Cast protocol. Everything else is done by the phone. So long as the phone connects (which has been the No. 1 problem, and generally because the phone manufacturer did something dumb), you should be OK.

 

[urimish]

So, for example, the upcoming Waze support in AA is expected to work without any updates on the car side, just a phone-side update?

 

[Phil Nickinson]

So, for example, the upcoming Waze support in AA is expected to work without any updates on the car side, just a phone-side update?

Yep! It's just an app update. (And I got to see it in action last week. Is pretty great.)

 

[steveg2112]

What about the proposed wireless connectivity? That may be more hardware reliant and in the hands of the vehicle manufacturer.

My GMC has built in wifi and I'm guessing this would be a primary requirement of any car for it to use AA without the need to plug it in to the usb port. Interestingly GMC recently sent me a customer survey about in car technology and options like AA and Apple Carplay and one of the questions was about wireless connectivity and how important I thought it was (very), they also asked if I would be willing to pay for these features in the future (no).