[adrianmtl]

Now that we have a vehicle with the Google system, I have to say that it's more disappointing to us than I feared it would be. Half-baked and buggy as hell, and always needing a reboot.

I hear your pain.

I work in software, and tolerating the infotainment system was a large part of my brand and model decision. Sensus is not perfect and looks dated, but some other systems are way more difficult to live with, especially if you're more informed about usability, user experience, and feature design. Sensus feels less pretentious and more honest.

I'm tired of useless animations, video game-like design and plain gimmicks in cars that add distraction and will only age horribly. More when the party extends into the dashboard. Take Mercedes, for example. Their physical and software personalities don't even match. On the one hand, the car design is classy and clean, and on the other, their UI has all sorts of things going on.

 

[HDKeith]

I came from a long line of Acuras and their latest infotainment was a mess and drove us away. Wife loved her multiple RDXs over the years, but the last one with that infotainment was awful. Sensus has worked flawless for her and we got one of the dongle attached wireless Apple Carplay adapters and it works great for her.

 

[alax00]

I wonder if Apple had had a more open approach to providing the in car experience vs. trying to control the hardware I bet Apple's car OS would be good. They could have figured out a basic min hardware spec and then a way for the car centric maker info to be and overlay app. Don't get me wrong I love my Android phones, but I use an iPad as Google has messed up tablets and swing more to the dark side (Apple) every day. If Apple had not just announced that scanning phone for child porn I probably would have been getting a iPhone 13 in a few months. but I am a huge civil liberties and privacy rights person. They are opening Pandora's box. I am fed up with Googles lack of privacy and pseudo user controls that are buried, hard to understand and break apps when you turn them on.

So you were going to be getting an iPhone13 but hearing one out of context bit of news about Apple has you worried about civil liberties made you change your mind? Are you now planning to buy an android device? This seems exceptionally reactionary given google's track record/business model, which is really what this whole thread is about.

 

[HDKeith]

So you were going to be getting an iPhone13 but hearing one out of context bit of news about Apple has you worried about civil liberties made you change your mind? Are you now planning to buy an android device? This seems exceptionally reactionary given google's track record/business model, which is really what this whole thread is about.

I was considering an Apple, but that has caused me to give it second thought. I will be waiting to see what the Pixel 6 and iPhone 13 before I decide. I am tied of Android device upgrades being so manual and needing everything re-tweaked unlike Apple where device upgrades are seamless. And the thing that has me looking at Apple is Google's horrible record on data privacy as well and how they pivot and blow with the wind.

 

[kevinG]

There is a long history of software companies designing disastrous auto interfaces. One just has to think of the Ford - Microsoft Synch interface f&$@up from the early 2010s.

The Synch interface single handedly caused Ford to lose several market share points. It was pretty yet slow, with multiple levels to do almost anything, and caused several deaths. I haven’t seen the new Google interface yet. I hope it is better than Synch.

 

[HDKeith]

Google’s record is not great either. I am shocked some of the big players did not do a joint venture to do an OS. I like Google’s attempt, but it is not even close to ready. My best guess, is 1-2 years and maybe it is where it should have been today. And that assumes Volvo does their piece on top well.

 

[FusionRedXC60]

Google's record is not great either. I am shocked some of the big players did not do a joint venture to do an OS. I like Google's attempt, but it is not even close to ready. My best guess, is 1-2 years and maybe it is where it should have been today. And that assumes Volvo does their piece on top well.

Every car maker wants different UI, how could they do a joint OS. Most likely every big auto group builds their own software team. But still hard as there are many models with very different designs, mounting space, etc. At least Volvo infotainment software team is separate from Geely auto.

Sent from my moto g power (XT2041DL) using Tapatalk

 

[HDKeith]

Plenty of partnerships are there, like Subaru and Toyota, are there to leverage platforms. Sure they want differentiation, but the economies of scale help. Maybe Google will surprise me, and I am a Google person, but they have so many irons in the to give AAOS the attention is needs.

 

[FusionRedXC60]

Plenty of partnerships are there, like Subaru and Toyota, are there to leverage platforms. Sure they want differentiation, but the economies of scale help. Maybe Google will surprise me, and I am a Google person, but they have so many irons in the to give AAOS the attention is needs.

Subaru and Toyota now is in one big group. Right? Anyhow, Subaru infotainment dash looks so much better than Toyota cars.

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[taofen_wang]

People have been crying to have a button on Sensus home screen to turn on 360 degree view. Volvo can't do it after 5 years and Android Sensus now has it in day one.

Volvo couldn't create every piece of software. Sensus is not done by Volvo either. If not Google, they will outsource it to someone else, maybe even the newborn Android-alike HarmonyOS from Huawei.

Sent from my Z978 using Tapatalk

Volvo has stopped Sensus development for a while and that is why we haven't seen any enhancement in Sensus. It doesn't mean Volvo can not do the job.

I don't like Android Automotive just because I don't want to see all car manufacturers use the ONE OS in the future. No carplay support in the near future pushes good percentage of customers off the Volvo option.

BTW, HarmonyOS is just so fake. I was told by Huawei the HarmonyOS was ready two years ago and it was not released for a favor of Android ): .

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[FusionRedXC60]

Volvo has stopped Sensus development for a while and that is why we haven't seen any enhancement in Sensus. It doesn't mean Volvo can not do the job.

I don't like Android Automotive just because I don't want to see all car manufacturers use the ONE OS in the future. No carplay support in the near future pushes good percentage of customers off the Volvo option.

BTW, HarmonyOS is just so fake. I was told by Huawei the HarmonyOS was ready two years ago and it was not released for a favor of Android ): .

Sent from my SM-N986W using Tapatalk

It is used on cars of a few carmakers with Huawei help on integration. It is backed by a big team and is big bet. Can't be fake.

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[taofen_wang]

It is used on cars of a few carmakers with Huawei help on integration. It is backed by a big team and is big bet. Can't be fake.

Sent from my moto g power (XT2041DL) using Tapatalk

LOL, "you are too simple , sometimes naive". Do you know where this statement comes from?

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[rlboston]

Google maps was a selling point for me. I had a Mercedes before and had to plug in my phone for navigation. Very annoying. I used Google maps on my phone then. It has all my favorite places. I'm accustomed to the interface so it works for me. Anyone with a phone in their pocket has far greater fears of of being tracked than Google in their car.

 

[FusionRedXC60]

LOL, "you are too simple , sometimes naive". Do you know where this statement comes from?

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Different company is different. Huawei don't do fake stuff.

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[taofen_wang]

Different company is different. Huawei don't do fake stuff.

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You don't really know Huawei.

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[RonLin]

Volvos having google in the car is enough to sway me to Audi. Assuming there is no choice and they all would come with it, then it’s a level playing field again, unfortunately. I will not, by choice, drive a car with anything google keeping track of me.

I totally agree with above statement. It may not be an Audi, but I will never get a Volvo (or any car) with Google Android (Amazon Alexa, Facebook or any other similar) - for privacy issues. This is a huge mistake by Volvo and I am very disappointed (beeing a long time Volvo customer), and one of the main reasons I dont have a Tesla. I totally agree that Volvo themselves could never design such nice user interface and they for sure will save lots of money by using Android. But that's about it.

I have worked with cybersecurity and e-marketing for over 15 years - I know how scary this is, very few do understand, what can be collected, and how it can be used. Unfortunately, I do not think Volvo understands the implications of using Google. I believe it is driven by money. If you are an executive for a large company, discussing company secrets inside your Volvo (that has Google Android), and driving to important in-person meetings - not sure you can or should use a Volvo. You just don't know what is shared, or with whom, and how it is used, or if 3rd parties has been leaking your info.

Sorry for being so critical.

/R

 

[cometguy]

I totally agree that Volvo themselves could never design such nice user interface and they for sure will save lots of money by using Android.

No automaker is really set up to do infotainment well -- at least amongst the older ICE automakers. I won't give Volvo an "F" for their pre-Google Sensus sytem, but it won't get higher than a "D" from me; as a decades-long Volvo owner who still owns a 2001 V70XC wagon (whose infotainment setup is better than Sensus, to my mind), I have tried to buy Volvos in the Sensus era but have ended up buying four other non-Volvo vehicles so far in the past decade because of Sensus and because of their removing audio/climate buttons and just not thinking through the safety issues of putting driver selections into an infotainment screen. So Volvo gets an "F" for removing the buttons, as a safety issue, and that contributes to the "D" that I give Sensus, by default. I was thinking as I was driving my 2001 Volvo yesterday how I changed climate and audio using only the buttons on the center panel and on my steering wheel, without ever looking -- just by touch/feel because I'm so accustomed to knowing exactly where they are.

One of the cars we bought recently (instead of a Volvo PHEV, which was also in the running for us) was a RAV4 Prime; its infotainment system sucks also, but guess what? They have kept all their climate and most of their audio controls in buttons and dials that are easy to access without taking your eyes off the road. (And don't get me going on how "voice control" is NOT the answer to removing buttons/knobs/dials!)

As for Google OS in the infotainment system: Yeah, I have my worries about Google collecting data, but then everybody is collecting data on us all, every day, every time we do practically anything online or electronically. The biggest fear, of course, is hacking, and in this case, whether your car can be hacked, even to the point of endangering your life; but this isn't just an issue with Volvos/Polestars that have Google OS, because it's an issue with any automaker, really. I don't know what your answer is to Volvo going to Google OS; would you prefer that they go to Apple, for example, to build such an infotainment system? The one thing I can say about Google (and I avoid their phones and web browsers like the plague, but use their email interface) is that their Maps is the best maps on the planet, and most every analyst agrees with this; Apple Maps sucks in comparison, as does Waze and pretty much anything else. I have test-driven both Polestar 2 (twice) and the XC40 BEV with the new Google system, and I can say that their maps are way better than what has been in Sensus for years now (but they aren't as good as the Google maps on my computer or my iPhone, by a long shot; I'm not sure why they can't just move those Google Maps straight into the new Volvos).

Oh, and no, Apple CarPlay is inadequate in my experience for Google Maps, in Volvos and in Toyotas and in other cars; it's not easy to maneuver around on your car's touchscreen with Google Maps via CarPlay, and it tends to be really slow and frustrating to use (better than Sensus, yeah, for sure, but that's not saying much; you really want it built into the car, not coming off your phone). The biggest flaw in CarPlay is that it will not project what is on your phone onto the car's screen; if it did that, it would be a game-changer. Plus, you really want your car to be using satellite signals for your maps/navigation; if you get to areas where cellphone reception is poor to zero (as we often are), your CarPlay is totally useless.

And do we know that Google is really collecting all that much data on us? We don't have to use any apps in the Google infotainment system outside of Google Maps, really. I looked at the skimpy offerings of apps in the Polestar 2 and XC40 P8 that I test-drove, and I didn't see anything there that I'd be likely to ever use other than the Maps. The only apps that I'd really like in my infotainment screen are those dealing with finding open/working public-charging stations (for BEVs) and perhaps weather apps showing active radar. The Google Maps on the Polestar 2 and XC40 P8 vehicles that I have test-driven did not have the traffic-flow coloring that normally comes with Google Maps on your computer or your iPhone, and that's a huge omission; it should be standard. I do not like the look of the "new" version of Google Maps that is implemented in these Volvo/Polestar vehicles because it has much less useful information.

 

[TheDeep]

I absolutely agree that the current (my 2021) infotainment gets a D. It's slow (fast compared to I guess what people in 2018 and 2019 were dealing with) and the voice recognition is an absolute F. That said - it's plenty good - when I need voice features or active guidance, I plug in my iphone and use Apple CarPlay. Auto manufacturers don't need the latest, greatest cutting edge UI. Just a UI that is good enough and supports both Android Auto and Apple Carplay so that the driver can decide what they want to use.

I tried to let the navigation guide me home from a major city and it was a nightmare. So in fact, as far as I care, auto manufacturers can ditch the navigation too - because it will never be as good as our always-on, always-connected phones that can get updated any minute of any day (or night), while we barely notice.

 

[ntmehan]

Do all you people that are so concerned with "privacy" use flip phones? I don't get it, at all. If you sign into your google account in a Volvo with Android Automotive it is tracking absolutely nothing less than your smartphone already is. If you use Google Maps on your phone (iOS or Android, no difference), you're signed in, and maybe if you've opted out of all the right things (Google doesn't make it easy), you're precious data is "safe", where if you use Google maps in a Volvo with Android Automotive you DON'T HAVE TO sign in to use it, and you're in the exact same place you are with your smartphone if you've done all the right things.

Demo cars that haven't been fully activated WILL NOT HAVE ALL FEATURES AVAILABLE ON A TEST DRIVE. Stop whining about no traffic in the native maps, it's absolutely there. Period. Either the connection wasn't fully active, service was poor, or you didn't turn the setting on.

I'm also so tired of the "I'll never buy a modern Volvo because touch screens aren't safe. I'll just keep driving my 20 year old Volvo because it's safer." No. No it isn't. The structural material tech improvements alone trump the "unsafeness" of heaven forbid swiping once and tapping a button on the Sensus display vs using a hard button. That's not even mentioning all the active safety features, airbag improvements, CAD accident analytics applied to structural design, electronic pretensioning safety belts, etc etc etc. Even a Volvo from 2015 is not remotely as safe as an SPA Volvo.

GPS is satellite based. Whether you're using it on your phone, or in the car, it's all the same. The difference is cached map data. Your car has it all onboard (and this is not updated unless you actively update it with snapshots when new map data is released) while your phone has to retrieve it from the internet (unless you do a little legwork and download map data, which is perfectly easy to do in GMaps.) It's literally the same technology, but vehicle in-built systems have a much better antenna to use.

Audi has the same level of "Google" built in as Volvo does, so I'm not sure why any of this would be the straw that broke the camel's back to sway anyone to Audi.

Tesla doesn't have any Google built in at all. The included Navigation data is from Google via an API, and that's all. There is absolutely nowhere to sign into anything in a Tesla except Spotify (and only if you want to because you have an account you want to sync across.) Voice Commands aren't even processed on Google's voice recognition servers, they're processed by Tesla's servers.

I have a connected, SPA Volvo and a Tesla Model S and you know who cares about any of that data? Absolutely nobody... I can't roll my eyes hard enough.

 

[TheDeep]

lol - your post has so many inaccuracies that it would take way too long to go through them all.

I'll touch on a few points, however. As a security engineer, and one who has worked for many agencies throughout the years, yes, I value my privacy. You are correct - in this day and age, you have to put some level of trust into some company when using modern technology. I chose a more privacy-focused company, Apple as opposed to Google. I feel that their phones are more "solely controlled and run by Apple" as opposed to an Android-based phone where there are third parties all over the place essentially tossing your data around among them all.

That said - maybe you should concern yourself a little less with other people's choices - and just respect their choices as things that are important to them. I'm no more right (or wrong) for my personal feelings than you are for yours. You shouldn't just dismiss our feelings as completely wrong just because your feelings happen to differ.