New Google Maps (Beta) and AA

[Andrew DeFaria]

I recently saw an update for Google Maps and being curious I checked out the "What's New" section. It said:

• Add multiple destinations to your route, get directions and navigate
• Search for places along your route when getting directions
• Add notes to your days in Your Timeline to keep track of the memories you make on the go

Become a beta tester http://goo.glVLUcaJ​

Now I already knew about how you can search while navigating a route and find say a restaurant and add a (single) stop to your route. But the above says "multiple destinations" and I'm assuming that means more than just a single, additional stop, as I already had this functionality before the update. How do you navigate a route with say 2 stops and a final destination in AA? Isn't this the promise of AA? That new functionality will appear when the Google Maps app on your phone updates?

Note I also signed up to be a beta tester and it downloaded the beta app (says so in the name) so I assume I have this functionality but I see no way of activating it in AA. Maybe it's:

1. Program your final destination
2. Add multiple destinations to your route, get directions and navigate
3. Voice search again for stop #2 and add it as an additional stop

However this leaves open the question about how would you delete say stop #1 if you didn't want to navigate to it again? Also, exactly how many "stops" can you have in a route?

What I'd really like is to be able to use Google Maps on a laptop/desktop, find locations, string together my stops then send that route as a package to my phone. Google Maps on my phone (and thus powering AA) should then be able to handle the multi-stop route.

Thoughts?

 

[ireknole]

It seems they only mirror what they want to with AA maps. For example, there is a 3rd volume option ("alerts only") in the app, but you can only turn on and off all navigation sounds from within Android Auto.

I think you're right that you should be able to design a route on your computer or phone and AA should be able to pick it up.

 

[Andrew DeFaria]

OK, where is this "Alerts only" option in Google Maps? I don't see it.

While listening to the All About Android Podcast, they discussed this new feature and I found it in Google Maps on the phone! The trick is to tap the "hamburger menu" before you top the ^ symbol to start navigation. There you will see an Add Stops selection. Add stops and then tap Done. Then you will have multiple stops. Other options appear to Edit Stops and Remove Next Stop. This is on Google Maps on the phone. This may only be in the beta version. I don't know how this will work or not work through the project to AA. I've programmed a few stops and I'm heading out to lunch to test it out.

Ah! OK, so in the desktop version after locating a place and setting the starting destination you'll notice a little "+" sign which allows you to add a stop.

OK now the test - on the Desktop plan a route to that Vietnamese place for lunch, back to work and then home... Ugh! On the desktop (web) version it currently grays out the "Send to phone option" and when hovered over it it says "Not supported for for multiple destinations"! Bummer. I suspect, however, that this restriction will be lifted when multiple locations gets out of beta shortly...

 

[ireknole]

OK, where is this "Alerts only" option in Google Maps? I don't see it.

On the app, if you start navigating a route, click the speaker icon on the far right and you get 3 choices, turn off, alerts only, and turn on. This "Alerts only" choice is only available in the app, not in android auto.

 

[Andrew DeFaria]

Interesting. It doesn't say "Alerts only" rather it uses 3 icons. I gotta play with that more. I've only seen that speaker icon on the AA map and it only toggles on and off. I wonder, the head unit shouldn't need a firmware update should it?

 

[ireknole]

Interesting. It doesn't say "Alerts only" rather it uses 3 icons. I gotta play with that more. I've only seen that speaker icon on the AA map and it only toggles on and off. I wonder, the head unit shouldn't need a firmware update should it?

Right that third icon is alerts only volume and isn't available on android auto. It's not the head unit. Google needs to update the Android auto interface to include it, if they even plan to.

 

[Andrew DeFaria]

I'm confused. I'm trying to understand this. I thought that AA (and CarPlay for that matter) are "projection systems". By that I mean that they simply project or drive the display to tell it what to show. Additional they get tap information (the user tapped the screen at these coordinates). Therefore I don't see how or why the firmware (or software) in the head unit would need to change. Or are you saying that it doesn't need to change rather the app on the phone needs to change? Granted while Google Maps on the big screen looks similar to Google Maps merely running on the phone it is different. Perhaps Google Maps (the app on the phone) needs to change to say "Oh yeah, and when the user taps on the speaker icon on the AA screen, present this menu of 3 speaker icons and then detect where the user taps next"?

I'm assuming the later and I'm assuming they'll get this fixed before leaving beta. Also assuming the send to phone option of Google Maps Web edition will be working by the time they leave beta.

I'm also assuming that if you're not a Google Maps Beta Tester you won't see any of this functionality.

 

[ireknole]

I'm confused. I'm trying to understand this. I thought that AA (and CarPlay for that matter) are "projection systems". By that I mean that they simply project or drive the display to tell it what to show. Additional they get tap information (the user tapped the screen at these coordinates). Therefore I don't see how or why the firmware (or software) in the head unit would need to change. Or are you saying that it doesn't need to change rather the app on the phone needs to change? Granted while Google Maps on the big screen looks similar to Google Maps merely running on the phone it is different. Perhaps Google Maps (the app on the phone) needs to change to say "Oh yeah, and when the user taps on the speaker icon on the AA screen, present this menu of 3 speaker icons and then detect where the user taps next"?

I'm assuming the later and I'm assuming they'll get this fixed before leaving beta. Also assuming the send to phone option of Google Maps Web edition will be working by the time they leave beta.

I'm also assuming that if you're not a Google Maps Beta Tester you won't see any of this functionality.

It doesn't project anything, it's really its own app. Google essentially took their app and built it again for Android auto. So they took out menu options and such that they deemed "distracting" for a driver. So if something is not available for Android auto, Google has to update their app to include what's missing for Android auto. Just because they add it to the phone app, it does not mean it will be added to the Android auto interface.

For example, they added a podcasts section to Google play music a little while ago. It took a few weeks after that section was added to their phone app for it to also be built into android auto.

 

[Andrew DeFaria]

Again I'm confused! If Google needs to refresh or update the firmware in the AA app in the car itself then doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of AA? How, for example, does the consumer update this firmware? How do they know they need to even update it? Or is it perhaps that if you update AA app in the phone and there's functionality needed in the AA app on the car then the AA app on the phone will perform the update? (Sounds odd).

That and also you mention that Google added podcasts to Google Music (wish they would add playing at various speeds as if they had that I might ditch BeyondPod but quite frankly I got used to 1.5x speed for most of my podcasts). Yes I noticed that update. But I also believe that I saw Podcasts (in passing) as an option on the head unit in my car! And I can assure you I did not go to the dealers recently to get an update to AA on the head unit, nor did I do any kind of USB flashing or anything like that. So then, how did that happen? Just checked, yes I have a podcasts selection (perhaps solely because I added a podcast in the desktop app) and I did no firmware update to AA in the car.

BTW found a bug in multi-stop routes. I was out and about this weekend and planned a multi-stop route. When I started the route I thought better of going to my first stop so I deleted it. I started driving to the next stop thinking it was stop #2 that I programmed but it was stop #3! After being about 10 miles off course I finally figured out I was going to the wrong place. My "crime" was trusting that Google Maps was doing the right thing and it did the wrong thing.

 

[ireknole]

Again I'm confused! If Google needs to refresh or update the firmware in the AA app in the car itself then doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of AA? How, for example, does the consumer update this firmware? How do they know they need to even update it? Or is it perhaps that if you update AA app in the phone and there's functionality needed in the AA app on the car then the AA app on the phone will perform the update? (Sounds odd).

That and also you mention that Google added podcasts to Google Music (wish they would add playing at various speeds as if they had that I might ditch BeyondPod but quite frankly I got used to 1.5x speed for most of my podcasts). Yes I noticed that update. But I also believe that I saw Podcasts (in passing) as an option on the head unit in my car! And I can assure you I did not go to the dealers recently to get an update to AA on the head unit, nor did I do any kind of USB flashing or anything like that. So then, how did that happen? Just checked, yes I have a podcasts selection (perhaps solely because I added a podcast in the desktop app) and I did no firmware update to AA in the car.

BTW found a bug in multi-stop routes. I was out and about this weekend and planned a multi-stop route. When I started the route I thought better of going to my first stop so I deleted it. I started driving to the next stop thinking it was stop #2 that I programmed but it was stop #3! After being about 10 miles off course I finally figured out I was going to the wrong place. My "crime" was trusting that Google Maps was doing the right thing and it did the wrong thing.

No, that's actually the best part of android auto. As soon as Google releases an update to the "android auto" app, we get it on the head unit. No more needing a new car to get up to date technology. The problem is that those updates are very infrequent.

The podcasts section was added to the head unit because Google updated the Google music app to include it. These features are baked into the phone apps, so as soon as Google updates an app and includes changes to Android auto, it updates the head unit interface.

 

[Andrew DeFaria]

Let's be clear - by "we get it on the head unit" you mean it's projected to the head unit, not "the AA app on the phone updates the firmware on the head unit". IOW no software has been updated on the head unit, right? But if that's really the case then why wouldn't this be working right now? Is it just that the code to do it is running in the phone and when displaying to the phone's screen it displays it, but the engineer neglected to say "Oh yeah - display this to AA if applicable"?

 

[ireknole]

Let's be clear - by "we get it on the head unit" you mean it's projected to the head unit, not "the AA app on the phone updates the firmware on the head unit". IOW no software has been updated on the head unit, right? But if that's really the case then why wouldn't this be working right now? Is it just that the code to do it is running in the phone and when displaying to the phone's screen it displays it, but the engineer neglected to say "Oh yeah - display this to AA if applicable"?

I don't know the technical details, but by "get it on the head unit", I mean it shows up in the Android Auto interface. The AA app on the phone does not update the head unit firmware, only the manufacturers can do that.

I'm not sure what car you have, but my Hyundai 2015 has received some manufacturer head unit updates to add car play and such, so they can update how their unit works with Android auto.

For features missing from maps, that's all Google. Google has to update the maps app to include whatever is missing, if they even want to. This is where we're at their mercy because Android Auto users are somewhat forgotten since there isn't a large user base yet and it seems to be a separate process.

 

[Phil Nickinson]

There are a lot of variables at work here.

There's the Android Auto app itself.
There's Google Play Services.
There's the firmware of the head unit itself. (I've had two of those on my 4100 since I bought it, the last in December.)
Probably something else I don't even know about.

Anecdotally I think there might be something wonky in Google Play Services right now. The only phone I can get to work with AA on the 4100 are my Nexus devices.