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Comment by nichos | Hacker News Reader

You might want to look at tasker to have it enable Bluetooth when you're not at home or something similar. Also, on most cars you can change the priority of phones, moving yours down would help.

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Then it becomes really annoying when we're both in the car and I want to use my phone.

There is no magic solution that would, without user intervention, automatically know which phone you want to connect. It can't (yet) read your mind.

I'd rather it just not autoconnect. That's all.

At the moment it autoconnects (even if you're already connected to another device), AND autoplays. Doubly annoying.

There is a magic solution. It's called "Ask the user". All these companies think they know what's best for users, with their minimal settings, AI, and auto-magic this-that. Just ask.

"Hey, last time you drove in me you were listening to music via bluetooth. I found the following _two_ devices that I can connect to. Whuch one do you want?"

Perfect solution for the touch screen. Show a bunch of fat icons for all the found and paired devices. Usually it'll be 2-3 devices. Make it easy to tap your option as you are getting settled in the car.

That doesn't come close to being a perfect solution for the touch screen. This one is vastly better:

1. Eliminate the screen.

2. Provide an audio port.

3. When audio comes in through the port, play it over the car speakers.

You know I tried to think of a legit case where screens are better - if I could get engine details that'd be rad but not actually that useful, weather might be nice as well but actually no while I'm driving I'd prefer just to ask my car or phone to tell me, maps are nice but really that can be done better by a GPS box with updatable maps/software (I own a car that has a nav system built in that is now non functional due to age, plus while it worked it was wildly out of date), rear view camera is nice but actually you could put that in the back or on the vehicle ceiling, it's safer to turn around and actually look, movies and games are not safe, and everything else is just text e.g. audio info, but you could get away with a couple of those old scrolling tickers.

I think you are right, we should be demanding cars with zero or very little dash at all.

Then I need to take my phone out of my pocket, find somewhere to put it where I can fiddle with the screen and change tracks while driving. Not ideal...

Get an mp3 player. Your phone is a step down from the car screen.

I have a wireless CarPlay dongle. If you don’t do anything it connects to the last used device if it can find it in 15 seconds or so. Otherwise it connects to any remembered device, and you can pick which one if you have one to prioritize.

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