Android Auto users get some great news after botched update

You wait all year for an Android Auto update and then two come along at once. Well, not quite.

After reports of an update to Android Auto that was raising problems with some drivers, Google has pushed a fix, which should address the complaint.

This all started with an update that rolled out for some Android Auto users. It didn’t ever arrive on any of the devices I have here in the UK, but there was plenty of furore over on Reddit with users complaining about the chaos that the update had wrought.

Downloading the software changed the centring of Google Maps, so that the route you were driving on was in the middle of the display. That’s not a problem when navigating, but if you didn’t have a route set, the Search box would cover the route ahead, rendering it useless. That meant that if you were casually looking for a street name, cross-referencing with Android Auto, you wouldn’t be able to see anything.

Google now appears to be rolling this back, so the route you’re driving on is towards the right-hand side of the display, meaning that the user interface elements on the left don’t obscure it. As pointed out by 9to5Google, this roll-back has appeared for some users, but some are still waiting for the correction.

What’s in store for Android Auto in the future?

Despite the irritating tinkering to the UI, Google has bigger plans for Android Auto.

For some time, we’ve been tracking background changes which appear to be readying Android Auto to better interface with the hardware in your car.

The big drive (pardon the pun) is to give Android Auto control over local media. The idea is that you can control your car’s radio – or media on a USB device – from within Android Auto, without having to return to the car’s own operating system, which is currently necessary.

Many users will have become accustomed to streaming all their entertainment from their phone, but this move could be a boon for those who prefer to use the car’s radio, either because of patchy cellular connectivity or because of data usage concerns.

On the other side of the aisle, Apple’s plans for a renaissance in CarPlay hasn’t yet surfaced. The redesign was originally slated for 2024, but didn’t happen. Instead, Apple has confirmed that it “continue[s] to work closely with several automakers, enabling them to showcase their unique brand and visual design philosophies in the next generation of CarPlay”.

What Apple might be discovering is that car brands are fiercely protective of their brands and evolution in the automotive world happens at a slower pace than it does in tech.

For the time being at least, it looks like change in Android Auto and Apple CarPlay remains a very slow evolution.