Ford owners prefer factory infotainment over Android Auto

[Popplemer]

Google Pixel.

My point is there is not enough benefit to AA to justify me having to deal with taking my phone out of my pocket to plug in every time I drive. I'm back to having 80% battery remaining when I get home from work and I use my phone quite a bit during the day. Better than getting home with 40%+ battery usage from AA in 60 minutes of roundtrip driving.

So you're the other guy in the US with a pixel I've never noticed the battery issue with AA and my pixel but I've been using Sync instead of AA lately and I actually like it. I will say the voice commands don't work for anything with Sync though...maybe someone will chime in on how to improve it

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[fordtruckman2003]

So you're the other guy in the US with a pixel I've never noticed the battery issue with AA and my pixel but I've been using Sync instead of AA lately and I actually like it. I will say the voice commands don't work for anything with Sync though...maybe someone will chime in on how to improve it

Used sync in my 2011 it worked great up until trading it this year.
I have to argue with sync in my 2021.
Still have issues with it demanding access to contacts that it already has access to...

I'm used to using the dumb old sync that didn't have AA and just used Bluetooth for music. So doing same with current truck is no big deal to me. I think AA is nice if not have the built in Ford navigation like I have that is decent enough, but way too aggressive with traffic rerouting.

 

[HammaMan]

So you're the other guy in the US with a pixel I've never noticed the battery issue with AA and my pixel but I've been using Sync instead of AA lately and I actually like it. I will say the voice commands don't work for anything with Sync though...maybe someone will chime in on how to improve it

Push the voice button to talk to the truck, push and hold to talk to the phone. I've done nothing but connect it up and the phone voice control works just as it does by pushing the speak button on the phone. Looking into how to access the Ai via the voice.

 

[Popplemer]

Push the voice button to talk to the truck, push and hold to talk to the phone. I've done nothing by connect it up and the phone voice control works just as it does by pushing the speak button on the phone. Looking into how to access the Ai via the voice.

Hmm. I'll give that a shot. I've never had the truck figure out the simplest of commands though

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Apple is just as bad but they are nicer about it. I was given an iPhone for work and it's already collected a large amount of data with me barely using the thing. Big tech has a nice profile on you no matter how much you try to avoid it. Can limit it but it's still gonna happen. All the TV apps get a nice profile of your usage. Smart TV by default build a profile of what you are watching by analyzing the screen. LG lets you opt out and turn it off but not all do. You can not connect the TV to the internet but whatever alternate method you use to watch content will collect it's own info on you.

With our trucks Ford has a lot of data collection items in the settings that can mostly be turned off, but then you break some of the sync features.

 

[HammaMan]

There's not a device out there that will let you talk to the world that's got true privacy. You can have technology, or privacy. I really love to hear people's thought's about 'privacy' regarding COTS devices. The level of work required to remain anonymous today, and I mean truly anonymous is insanely difficult to do if you make use of any network connected services. At best you've got the illusion of privacy, nothing more.

People still get surprised today by this story. Today these tactics are exponentially more scary. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmi...-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did

The manufacturer of your cellular provider's tower radios know your schedule better than you do.

 

[oneinch]

I use AA because it is visually appealing to me, whereas the built-in nav is not. I like using satellite view. The street map view in Maps and built-in nav is just boring and dull looking. My friend uses Apple maps. It is street view also and it's the better looking of the three in street view. Still, I prefer satellite view. Google and the built-in nav have navigate equally well for me. I think Google Maps is the smarter mapping/navigation between the two. Ford needs to add a whole lot of visual punch to it's product. Ford is like watching a one camera high school football game on TV vs Google Maps looking like the Super Bowl on network TV.

 

[HammaMan]

I think Google Maps is the smarter mapping/navigation between the two. Ford needs to add a whole lot of visual punch to it's product. Ford is like watching a one camera high school football game on TV vs Google Maps looking like the Super Bowl on network TV.

Google has been pushed by open ai -- all of their products are about to get much better. They've got the best traffic data because they're watching all google phones and are able to see them literally sitting in traffic / suddenly stopping. Apple does the same for theirs. Ford can't come close to that type of service without buying data from one of those 2, and even then there's a delay. They know of road blockages as they happen as phones begin to stack up. Unfortunately they're not yet utilizing it to warn oncoming traffic which should be coming soon. It's over-due, they may be holding back on that level of fidelity as such things tend to highlight just how closely they're tracking.

As for the quality of the map itself, AA / ACP will always be better as they're rendering on your phone which is leaps and bounds far more powerful than sync 4 -- sync 4 for all intents and purposes is a galaxy s7 and it's got quite a bit going on in the background as well as less than optimized code. Take the mach-e for instance. If you're listening to something from the phone and hit the tire pressure icon to see tire pressures, both the screen and audio stutter as it maxes out its resources to draw a little image with 4 discrete values from the TPMS.

Ford was at least smart in one regard with the 24 refresh -- not going with the portrait mode screen with the climate functions on it. I suspect that's a clear sign that it's still got the crappy processor at its heart.

 

[DT444T]

I'm curious what you folks think? I'm not sure I could own a vehicle without Android Auto.

https://fordauthority.com/2023/07/ford-owners-prefer-factory-systems-over-android-auto/amp/

Lol fck the stock ford. I use Android Auto, exclusively.

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