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> I'm constantly surprised by how terrible it is even in high price ranges.

Car makers don't really care. They want features on a list to check off and don't care how well they work. You can't return. The car easily after a month of frustration and realization that the car is the problem not you or your phone trying to interface with them.

Two things:

* It's probably not anyone's job to make it better [1]

* They're probably just buying the IVI module from someone else and slapping some logos on it. [2]

1: I'm misremembering or can't find a talk by Seth Godin along the lines of "everything sucks because it's no one's specific job to make it better"

2: https://www.genivi.org/compliant-products

The Seth Godin talk is “This is broken”. Very entertaining.

https://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_this_is_broken_1/up-nex...

Thank you!

That sounds like great support for cptskippy's point.

That's odd because you know they spend a lot of time/money on interiors. I remember a 2001 German car I owned had terrible cupholders that broke easily(I noticed that is a lower priority for foreign cars). The next model year changed to a more sturdy design. But on the flip side, I've greatly preferred the tactile buttons on the low-end over the touch screens and menus on the high-end.

I'm confident most people care a lot about the infotainment systems. Even 10 years ago, the Millennials cared about getting their iPods to work. I had modded so many friend's cars or upgraded their head units. Their parents, boomers, just assume it's too complicated (which it is) for audio and navigation. I feel like after literally a decade they've all just given up on everything except basic Bluetooth audio (when it works out of the box).

I've ended up renting, borrowing, and test-driving (and buying) a surprising number of cars over the past 5 years and it's pretty uniformly terrible. I remember being sheepish a couple years ago when the most important thing in a new car was phone compatibility. I would have happily preached and bought something that just worked well.

> I remember a 2001 German car I owned had terrible cupholders that broke easily(I noticed that is a lower priority for foreign cars). The next model year changed to a more sturdy design.

Volkswagen Jetta?

Yep! A plastic coke bottle was just big enough to fit. When the bottle warmed and expanded, it was slightly too big and would break the flimsy cup holder. After replacing it once and having it break twice I gave up. I remember later seeing a different model year (I'm pretty sure with the same body style) where they had replaced it with a more normal cup holder.

I would also have the mirror adjustment knob on the door snag on my clothes and snap off.

I have a 2017 Mini and I have all these problems. The audio clips and has other issues when played over USB, but not Bluetooth. So I have to choose between good audio and charging my phone. I’m about to buy a USB adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter just to fix this problem.

Just as you describe, the entertainment system UI is god awful too.

Wonder if you could get one of those "USB Condoms" to be able to charge without it connecting?

http://syncstop.com/

Thank you. Combined with some other advice in this thread, I’ve settled on this one:

“PortaPow 3rd Gen Data Blocker” https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QRRZ2QM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_X....

In addition to blocking the data lines, it should also provide faster charge speed.

You're better off with a dongle anyway because they almost always charge faster than the car ports.

In most cases you can use the car port and just make a custom cable that bridges the two data pins together which tells the phone to use high current charging. The car’s port’s overcurrent protection will kick in if it’s an issue but I’ve got such a cable and so far I have yet to see any issues and I’ve used it for years with hundreds of different devices. No fire yet.

You can cut the data lines in a cable and it should solve some of the issues with unwanted behaviour.

The album art and track progress I don't really care about (eyes on the road!) but via Bluetooth that's AVRCP and there's a stack of standards for people to butcher there, too.

I was wiring in a charge only USB port in my car today and found out that cutting the data lines limits the charge rate to a uselessly low rate. You need to tie the data lines together to put it in usb bc1.2 mode. Or 2.7 v on each line for 2.4 a iPhone charge or other modes. It isn’t simple. Simpler than Bluetooth, but not “hook up ground and 5v” simple.

iOS devices will outright not charge if there’s just 5V on the port. Even the lowest charging current requires some sort of resistor arrangement.

Fortunately it seems like bridging the two data lines (essentially a 0 ohm resistor) is what’s needed to allow high-current charging (I think it’s 2 amps), so as long as your supply can withstand it (which pretty much every single device can, given that it’s tied to its own 5V rail which can supply many amps) you can just bridge the two pins together. Worst case scenario the overcurrent protection on the port will protect the source device.

There's a fast charge dongle for this. Portapow makes one.

Looks like there is a StarTech one too with a button to change modes - search for USB2CHADP (although currently out of stock at Amazon).

Jeebus. Might be easier to wire in a 12V compatible USB charger in that case.

A few weeks ago, I asked for a compact rental car, but was given a 2018 or 2019 Chevrolet Equinox. It had an USB-A as well as an USB-C port. I already had Android Auto on my Pixel, so I was up and running in a few instants. I did NOT miss setting up Bluetooth or Ford's Sync thingie. Maybe there's hope at the end of the tunnel.

Often in cars (especially when traveling and there's no dock) I get a poor wired connection. I suspect it's just lint caught in the connector, but it makes wired CarPlay or USB audio very frustrating because if anyone bumps the wire the connection stops and you have to wait for the handshake to continue. It's much less of an issue with charging.

My Ford has Android Auto and CarPlay. And it never messes up Bluetooth if I don’t plug in ‍️. My WRX is kind of a hot mess. Plugging in never worked. It does fine with Bluetooth, usually, but when it gets confused it really shits the bed. Does not have AA or CarPlay. Is a newer car.

My Audi has two USB ports in the driver center console: one connects to the car, the other is charge only. It’s pretty great.

I had hoped that was the case in the car I was borrowing, but all of them were data connectors (not sure what happens if you attached multiple devices).