djdaddykool

Benn attempting to use this for awhile now.

Verdict: Complete crap.
Random disconnects ( gee, why no automatic attempt at reconnect? Now there's an idea we never thought of)
Magic USB cables that people search for like Dr. Frankenstein to bring life back to the dead....kinda ironic don't you think?
Google Assistant? It comes, it goes, sometimes it listens, sometimes it gets lost (gee, use the Nav why don't you?)
I have read the Google Support ( ha, ha oxymoron) , here, and the reddit forums.
The litany of woes is incredible. High end Android phones which have probably 20 times the horsepower of whatever the MCU in the head unit brought to its knees by a frackin' USB cable. And this is almost 2020. Absolutely incredible.
Anyone ever heard of certification testing to ensure that the head ends are actually solid upon release with AA?
Honda, how the hell do you test this? Do you actually? If you had ten of your software engineers actually DRIVE an RDX and force them to use AA, they would all want to crawl under a rock and be embarrassed that they actually served this up as a 'feature'. Or run screaming to A Korean car that just does work well for an idea how to do this properly.

Complete clusterfrack.
I have made my displeasure known by writing an email to the owner of the dealer and Honda/Acura Canada.

My experience with the 'technical' support has me wondering whether it has been outsourced to Disney it is so Mickey Mouse.

Acura, if a car that costs half as much can get this to work properly, why can't you? You should be deeply sorry to your customers that you have offered this steaming pile as your infotainment hell.

ncsustash

Can you be more specific about the issues you have? If I plug my phone in first before starting the car it usually loads Android Auto back automatically and i haven't had any disconnects..

The only issues I have had:
- Figuring out how to turn off the chime on Waze for an upcoming turn when Spotify is the primary screen.
- The waste of the left screen (it would be great to have navigation on the left and music on the right)

ncsustash

Actually....i did some functional testing and it didn't load back automatically. Still can't figure out the chime.

djdaddykool

Issues:

Disconnects ALL the time. To me it seems signal strength related. Hopefully with a Pixel 4 running Assistant on the phone this will become less of an issue? Dreams die a slow death.
Assistant is hit or miss. Sometimes it does nor respond, sometimes it does but cannot understand requests(retrained a couple of times BTW). With the latest AA update the Assistant banner comes up on the bottom of the screen(if and when it works and shows itself). Other times it just goes away and never comes back. SO you get the gist.

Don't use Waze so that is a don't care for me.
Apps. Spotify is hit or miss like so many other things.
Google Maps continues to display two recent trips ALWAYS displays. Cannot clear them from the display screen. This eats up a good part of the left hand portion of the screen.
I had to go through 5 or 6 USB cables before I found one that worked....most of the time. To me this is just a joke in 2020. And all of the failing cables worked fine with other devices.
No automatic reconnect upon disconnection. No error messages as to why the frack the app disconnected in the first place. Wouldn't it be nice to know why? And what is more silly is that the app is still running. Great software and UI design.
Google should have mandated USB-C for AA a long time ago. Then the speed issues would be a non factor. But Google is creative in other ways to break Android.
Car manufacturers cheap out on hubs and connectors. Hard to believe that a $50K vehicle has issues because of a cheap connector or hub controllers in the head unit.
But HEY! This all could have been ferreted out if a proper certification of head units was mandatory. It is nonsensical to have a s/w offering across so many vendors of vehicles and phones and NOT have a process to catch these things BEFORE shipping the product.
I blame Google and their stupid bug reporting as much as the vehicle vendors.

samiam_68

It's a Honda + Android thing. Just went through an exercise in my GF's CRV (brand new) and her LG V20 where AA would sometime connect, but more often not. Tried different cables, no luck. Then I had a Eureka moment, and plugged in my phone (Moto G7). AA worked consistently every time with every cable. Final outcome was - completely uninstalled AA from her phone. Installed it again. Paired it with the car, and now it works correctly every time.

Another thing - as an experienced IT guy (old school), I know how most of today's software is absolute garbage. It has to do with low quality developers, incompetent managers, Agile methodology, test-driven development, and poor choices of beta quality software platforms (Java, Node, etc....). With this tidal wave of crapware descending upon us, what I do is when I have stuff on my phone working satisfactory, I turn off all automatic updates and only manually update any app that has issues. Everything else I leave alone. Same on my home PC. Security patches? We don't need no stinking security patches....

LAJ

My USB never worked correctly for USB drives or iPods (and Apple CarPlay from what I've read). Acura must know by now that they will have no repeat purchasers of the RDX.

djdaddykool

AA is a core component of Android 10 and cannot be uninstalled only disabled.

mungee

Use Samsung OEM USB-C cables. I have AA on both my Honda products (Accord and MDX), I can attest to how finicky AA is with non-OEM cables. Every bump/turn would disconnect it.
We have a Note 9 and a S10, both devices behave differently with AA on the two cars.

Recently test drove a Impreza with AA, it hated non-OEM cable, but worked perfectly with OEM.

Mikeg040

I haven't had any issues with connections but I do think carplay is better display wise The album artwork and name shows up on the secondary screen and you can also have google map or apple maps on the main screen. With android auto both have to use the main screen. If you try to have google maps on the main screen and music player from android auto in the secondary screen. Just shows AA which suck. Pretty sure they rushed it since a lot of people were complaining. I hope google and acura fix it

Smilin_Jim

I wonder if some of the issues that are noted above are because of a bad USB jack. I have a real issue with mine and one of these days I am going to make time to go back into the dealer and have it fixed, but this is what I am seeing and it may explain you issues, too.

Any touching of the USB jack causes a disconnect of whatever is accessing it. Doesn't matter if it is a thumb drive, phone or what. I could not isolate this until I started using a short USB jumper because of some threads I read here about heat-related issues with accessing thumb drives. Once I put in the juper, it became very obvious it was the car's port that was the problem.In real time, there are disconnects with the source and perhaps some drop outs in the stream of music, though this could be a separate issue.

I have also started seeing serious interference on the audio of both USB-connected and radio music streams (static and pops) which can be triggered by the passenger door being opened.

djdaddykool

What is a juper? Not sure what you meant.

Smilin_Jim

There is a thread elsewhere on the forum that notes that the USB port gets unusually warm when a device is plugged in and they reference the user's manual as stating that thumb drives should not be directly plugged in to the port to keep them from overheating. Madd Dog or someone can probably cite the reference. They recommend a USB extension cable be plugged into the port to provide some distance between the thumb drive and the port. These are short USB (B) cables that are female on one end and male on the other (or socket and plug to be PC). I have one that is about 12" long that I use. This eliminates any possibly port heating issues from hurting the thumb drive. I don't think it made a difference in that respect, but as I mentioned before, it sure highlighted the issue with the port being faulty.

djdaddykool

OK. Getting warm would point to excessive current draw or some other resistance generating heat.
There is definitely something going on here with this port and the head unit.
Who makes the head unit, do we know?
Cheers.

dcmod

Dj,
Here is the jumper to USB jack thread : https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...b-port-972360/


Cheers

Mapdoc

I'm getting ready to get an Advance and AA is one of the reasons I'm not getting another X3. Can you have Android Auto in the main screen and SiriusXM in the secondary?

RobinL

You using a Samsung phone?
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/s...dw9b35dOCOmXMg

Jayde

To be honest, I never like how AA worked. I ended up uninstalling it and having it connect to my phone via Bluetooth and using Google Maps on my phone with the sound alerts going out with Spotify to the car speakers. Sure it might not display on the screen but if I need to see where I'm going I'll look at my phone.

PNWRDX2020

I have a V30+ and have never been able to get Android Auto to work. I'm an experienced IT person as well. I have a 2020 RDX with Tech. Not feeling the love from the Tech so far. For a vehicle in this price range it's absurd and unacceptable.

JB in AZ

Yes, I have it displayed this way all the time.

Sorry for delayed reply, I was "on a break"

Mapdoc

Great! Thanks.

jcross1231

Thing I don't get is AA works fine in the Wife's '19 Civic with an S9 or S10+ and whatever cable I pull out of the box. Why can't Acura figure out how to do this - and do it quicker so we're not embarrassed by the fact the lower end car owners have had it a while already.

JB in AZ

The only problem I have with Android Auto, is sometimes it takes unplugging and reinserting the cable into the phone (Samsung Galaxy S8) two or more times when I first start up the car. Other times it launches AA just fine. Sometimes I get an error message, other times just a black screen. I have tried waiting until the infotainment system fully boots, and I have tried plugging the cable into the phone before starting the car, and various times in between...I can't seem to figure it out. Once it connects it works as I expect it to, and I am able to ask Google to navigate, text someone, (it is pretty slick dictating a text message) make a call, etc without issue, or disconnects. I do not use my phone to play music, only relying on SiriusXM, and ...hmm, what else might be a variance?

It was my hope that the latest update might have resolved this issue but I wasn't very optimistic as it was very minor update. from D.1.2.1 to D.1.2.2

I have gotten used to the different use of the touch pad in AA (not great, but workable for my needs) vs the Acura suite of apps...

mungee

That's exactly what I have been saying too!!

2018 Accord Sport: Sometimes slow to connect on bluetooth on Note 9 but rock solid on any USB cable (plus the interface so much better)
2020 MDX Advanced: Fast connection to bluetooth on same Note 9 but even if you breath on the phone it will disconnect but better with OEM USB-C (plus there are several other glitches on screen-like you cannot see the blue circle to know what you are selecting)