Android Auto has recently undergone several visual modifications which, instead of improving the user experience, complicate the lives of drivers. For example, the new conception of the music player reduced the size of the album cover, narrowed the cursor and compressed the lyrics – without obvious functional reason. Result: the driver must pay more attention to the screen, which goes against the main objective of the platform: maintaining his attention on the road.
Google strives to adapt to new trends in design, but driving, this often results in poor readability, uninstructed commands and unnecessary visual effects. Icons with a halo effect, contrasting texts on inappropriate backgrounds or unexpected changes in the display of navigation (for example in Waze) are only some of the problems reported by users.
Added to this is the lack of reliability of the vocal assistant, which often breaks down at the very moment when it should be the most useful, for example when entering a destination on Google Maps. In addition, when the user must manually search for an address instead of using the vocal command, the interest of hands -free control is lost.
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Google constantly publishes new Beta The version constantly offers new, more efficient new versions that try to correct old bugs, but generally bring new ones, which seems to me to be a vicious circle. It is also necessary to take into account Google’s decision to delete a functionality, to reintroduce it in x years (simplified mode). It is a real disaster, not only at Google, but also on the dashboards of our cars.
What could Google improve? Offer more customization options, from the size of the elements to the colors, including the possibility of choosing between stable elements and more complex elements. Beta version of the system. Android Auto is not a smartphone, it is a driving tool, and as such, it must be above all practical, predictable and safe.
