TL;DR I will post comments with version number and release notes. Mostly the system works well but credential management is bad and there have been three crashes on day one. My dream of a perfect in car system is still a dream. Overview One of the things that attracted me most to this car was the infotainment system. It's something that I have disliked about every car I have owned and I was glad to see Google integrating in some of the tech. This post is the initial experience with both the infotainment system and Volvo On Call. Volvo On Call Volvo On Call is, apparently, like GM On Star. An included layer that connects the car back to the factory and connects the owner to Volvo. I say apparently because it wasn't explained to me (they may have tried.) During our purchase process we were asked to set up Volvo IDs by installing the On Call app (already done.) The ids would then be linked to the car by the dealer. This did not work. Later on our own I "paired" our phones to the vehicle which connected our Volvo IDs. Volvo is using some poor terminology here. If I ask you to pair your phone you are going to think about bluetooth. What is actually happening in this process is that you are linking a token generated by the app to a profile in the car. Simultaneously you are connecting your Volvo ID to a profile in the car. Clearing the storage on the app removes the association with your vehicle. There were multiple options for adding your Volvo ID into your car including via both Android and iPhone options. Neither Android option worked and we had to add our IDs in by typing passwords on the center display. The app is apparently unreliable. There are plenty of reviews saying this. In our case the app would show the status of the climate control and whether the vehicle was locked, but it would not show the charge level. Chat through the app was immediate and pleasant though it did not resolve any issues. There is supposed to be a map in the app, I did not see that. Overall, Volvo needs to do a better job on their app and the process for connecting a Volvo ID to the car. Perhaps if the server based system had worked we would not have had the in car problems. Bluetooth Pairing If you have never had an issue with Bluetooth in a vehicle then you don't know what you're missing. But we're 20 years in at this point and we shouldn't be having issues. My wife's phone paired up immediately and worked fine. Once I paired my phone hers stopped connecting. No matter what I did we couldn't connect. We ended up deleting the phones from the vehicle, renaming them because they had the same name which was confusing and then repairing. I am still waiting to see if this resolves the issue. Since the system itself is Android the only reason to pair is for calls and messages. Ideally Google would support Google Voice on Android Automotive and also support RCS with Google Voice and all of this would be moot, there would be no need to pair a phone. Alas, that's not how Google works. Android Automotive It's Android and familiar. It's also different enough to cause problems. I have screenshots of versions and release notes, I will OCR them and post them later. The system crashed three times on the first day. The screen turns blue and then shuts down. I used the interface for quite some time in the garage last night without an issue so I am hoping it was setup related nonsense. It's still pretty unacceptable. The touch screen and shiny black bezel are covered with fingerprints. The dealer should give you a microfiber cloth when you buy this car. The mics seem very good. I have yet to take a call from the car but Google is very responsive to both the driver and passenger even with the windows and sunroof open and music playing. Android Automotive vs Android Home Training my wife to use her voice for everything is going to take some time, and she is a fast learner. There are some physical buttons still which was important to me. IMHO, looking at a screen while driving is bad. My wife has been trained by poor Google implementations to yell at Google. I have been modeling whispering to hope to fix that. There is enough similarity between Android Automotive and Android Home as to cause problems. For example, my wife tried to change the temperature in the car and it turned on the heat at home. ("OK Google, I'm too cold") She was able to accomplish this with "OK Google, turn the temperature in the car to 74." As with everything Google there is a certain amount of privacy to be given away to achieve full functionality. There are a ton of nag screens about sharing vehicle location throughout the setup process. To attempt to make things work a little better my wife gave a bit more location information to Google Assistant. In the vehicle "OK Google" triggers the car and the phone. At home your phone will tell you it's answering on another device. In the car this results in your phone and car both taking action. For example, "OK Google navigate home" will start maps in both places. The use of the assistant button is a workaround for this issue. Maps versus Waze In typical Google fashion maintaining two products that do nearly the same thing is making me angry. Maps is integrated into the car and used for route planning and locating chargers. However it doesn't have some Waze features I use. When I start up Waze it is usually pretty good at knowing where I want to go. In addition to Maps you also probably need the ChargePoint app. If Google can integrate Uber and Lyft functions into Maps you think they could do the same with ChargePoint. Navigating to a contact has never been a strongpoint of Maps and we are still figuring that one out. It seems like Android Automotive doesn't want to know about your contacts and you have to connect a phone. I'll post when I have more details on this functionality. Messaging and Calls I'm dissatisfied that Android Automotive relegated itself to an interface on your phone for this function. I think that this goes beck to Google's poor track record with messaging. There is something about it uploading your contact each time you connect your phone, that's just crazy! While I think that it is important that Android Automotive can work with any phone, I think it's also important that it can work without a phone for messaging and calls. I have not tried, but want to check out calls directly to Google Home devices. Something that is becoming common in my household. Dual phone capability should be included. Why should only the driver be able to use handsfree. The car should be capable of connecting to multiple phones simultaneously. Playing Music, etc. The radio appears to be an app, that is good because it unifies the audio interface. Since I am not the driver I haven't tested this out as much. My wife primarily listens to audiobooks via Libby. That is supported, which is very good, but the setup instructions are wrong. I'll post a comment with the correct instructions. I listen to music from YouTube music, but only because Google killed Google Music and I'm still bitter because YouTube music is inferior. Regardless it's there and it seems to work like it does on the phone with the addition of steering wheel controls to switch tracks. I have been trying to listen to podcasts while driving. I have been using Google Podcast which doesn't appear to be present. The system appears to prefer Pocket Casts. I will have to see if I like it, but again, I don't get to drive this car. Profiles I have three Google accounts on my phone with three different contact databases. My phone handles this well for the most part. I have mentioned before about the issues with car profiles and I need to check out whether I can add multiple Google Accounts to a single car profile.
Model: Volvo Android version Android 10 Android security patch level March 1, 2021 Kernel version 4.19.152-PKT-201102T090902Z-gd38365ca3532#1 Thu Mar 18 21:54:58 CET 2021 Build number QA1A210116.001.ARTINFO.QAB.5-13-g7441a9224
System has continued to crash today. A dealership visit is called for. On call told me the app is currently not supported though my wife told me hers was reporting charge level today.
Based on information from the internet we tried pairing different keys with the primary profile. That did not resolve the issue so we are headed to the dealer today.
