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Android Authority
27-06-2025
- Automotive
- Android Authority
This $15 Raspberry Pi hack fixed my car's biggest Android Auto annoyance
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority Android Auto turned ten years old this year, and most automakers have adopted it by now. But unless you drive a car from the past couple of years, chances are that it does not support wireless Android Auto. A good number of vehicles require a wired USB connection to establish a connection with your phone every single time you need to use Android Auto. That's not a big hassle, but I find it a bit annoying to plug in on shorter trips or when I'm running errands. Luckily, a simple USB dongle like the AAWireless TWO dongle is all you need to make that wired connection wireless. That dongle works well enough, and is reasonably priced at $65, but I recently found out that you can make your own for a fraction of the cost. And after driving around with one such DIY wireless Android Auto adapter for two weeks now, I'm left wondering why I didn't try it sooner. The experience is nearly on par with wired and best of all, it only costs $15 and a few minutes of your time. A wireless Android Auto adapter for just $15 Andy Walker / Android Authority The appeal of wireless Android Auto is rather straightforward: you hop in your car, push the ignition, and your phone automatically connects within seconds. You don't have to worry about fumbling in the dark or keeping unsightly cables tidy. My car's USB ports are in a rather conspicuous position, and I don't like how cables run alongside the gear selector. A wireless Android Auto dongle circumvents all of this, allowing you to tuck a device into the USB port and forget about it. The DIY solution I ended up with involves using a Raspberry Pi configured to act as a wireless bridge between my phone and the car's infotainment system. The Pi is a small, low-power computer that connects over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to my phone. It draws power from the car's USB port and passes Android Auto data to the infotainment system over it. The car thinks the phone is plugged in, and the Raspberry Pi is entirely transparent. All of this is possible thanks to an open-source project — descriptively titled WirelessAndroidAutoDongle. You can find detailed instructions on how to set it up below, but first, how well does it work in the real world? How well does the DIY dongle work? Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority While a DIY solution may sound unreliable, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Pi-based wireless Android Auto dongle worked almost flawlessly. Every single time the car starts up, my phone connects to the dongle automatically. The initial handshake takes place over Bluetooth, but the phone then connects to the Raspberry Pi's Wi-Fi Direct network for a more stable connection. The car doesn't seem to know the difference and over the two weeks that I used it, I faced no unexpected Android Auto disconnections or drop-outs. Music and navigation worked well, even simultaneously with a split-screen view. The interface did not skip a beat either. Users of older dongles like the Moto MA1 have long complained of laggy performance and intermittent audio stutters. No such problems here — navigation worked flawlessly even when I received a phone call, and the music always resumed immediately after the call. Music, navigation, phone calls, and text-to-speech worked flawlessly, even completely wireless. Having said that, I did notice inconsistent performance in one area: Google Assistant voice commands. Basic commands like navigating to a particular location and notification readouts worked fine, but replying to text messages was sometimes a hit and miss experience. It worked fine about half the time but sometimes left me waiting for a long time after I dictated a response. Discussions on the project's Github page suggest that this issue might be linked to the particular Raspberry Pi I used — a more powerful model may not have this problem. Or it could be my car's infotainment display because the issue does not seem to affect everyone. Unlike the AAWireless Two, the DIY dongle does not have a companion smartphone app. This is not a big deal — the AAWireless app has limited settings anyway, but it also means you cannot delete or re-order smartphone connection priorities. After pairing two phones to the Raspberry Pi, both would compete to connect every time I entered the car. This can get annoying quickly if you take turns driving with your partner. Commercial dongles have a push button to quickly switch between paired devices, but the DIY dongle lacks one. The only way to work around this is to disable Bluetooth on the phone that you don't want to connect to the dongle. Aside from occasional slow voice recognition, the DIY dongle lacks a way to quickly switch between paired devices. These two annoyances aside, I had a nearly flawless experience with the DIY dongle. Android Auto does take slightly longer to pop up than the wired method, but it's still a tolerable 30 seconds. This cannot be sped up since the Raspberry Pi needs to boot up a lightweight Linux OS every time it's powered on. But this is also true of commercial dongles like the AAWireless TWO. Setting up the DIY wireless Android Auto dongle Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority If you're sold on the idea of making your own wireless Android Auto dongle, the good news is that you only need a $15 Raspberry Pi and a microSD card. The cheapest model you can get away with is the Pi Zero 2 W, but you could also use the Pi 4 or Pi 3 A+. Older models don't support USB OTG functionality. Next, you'll need to flash the adapter software onto a microSD card using a computer. Here's how: Insert a microSD card into your PC or Mac, either directly or using an adapter. You don't need much storage — I used an old 8GB card. Download an image flashing tool like balenaEtcher and the pre-built SD card image from the Wireless Android Auto Dongle Github page. Open balenaEtcher, click on 'Flash from file' and browse to the image you downloaded in the previous step. Click on 'Select target' and pick the microSD card you inserted earlier. Hit Flash and wait for the process to complete. Once flashed, you can eject the microSD card from your computer and insert it into the Raspberry Pi. With the image loaded onto the Pi, it's ready for the car. But first, make sure that you've connected to your car's Android Auto in wired mode at least once. After that, you can disconnect your phone and connect the Raspberry Pi to the car instead. On the Pi Zero, you'll need to use the microUSB port that's labelled USB — not power. Assuming the car is running and the Pi is powered, head into your phone's Bluetooth settings and search for a device named WirelessAADongle-*. Connect to it and accept the prompt to connect to the Pi's Wi-Fi network. You should now see Android Auto pop up on your car's display. Once paired, your phone will automatically connect to the Pi every time the head unit starts up. And from then on, you never have to plug in your phone for Android Auto again — except maybe to keep the battery topped up on longer drives.
Android Authority
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Android Authority
This dongle brings wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to your car
Supplied by AA Wireless TL;DR The team behind the AA Wireless dongles has launched the AA Wireless TWO Plus. This new dongle turns your car's wired Android Auto or Apple CarPlay system into a wireless setup. The device has received a limited launch on Indiegogo, with early bird pricing of $29 to $39. The AA Wireless and AA Wireless TWO are among the most useful automotive gadgets on the market. These dongles bring wireless Android Auto support to your wired-only car. Now, the company behind these products has launched the AA Wireless TWO Plus. The biggest reason to get the AA Wireless TWO Plus is that it supports both wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. This is a welcome upgrade after the previous models only supported Android Auto. So this is worth considering if you want to upgrade your vehicle's wired CarPlay system into a wireless setup. It's also useful if you've got two vehicles with different automotive platforms. Supplied by AA Wireless Otherwise, the new dongle is very similar to the previous model. That means you can expect a multi-functional hardware button for pairing, switching to standby mode, and more. The team also promises 'regular' software updates via the AAWireless app. The AA Wireless TWO Plus has a recommended price of $59. However, the company is offering an early release via Indiegogo, with prices ranging from $29 to $39. You might want to move fast, though, as only 3,000 units are available as part of this initial launch. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Stuff.tv
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Stuff.tv
I added wireless Android Auto to my car with this affordable adapter – now I won't drive without it
I didn't think I'd ever get excited about a small black box that hides in my car's dash. But here we are. The AAWireless Two adapter has quietly become one of the best upgrades I've made to my 2016 Volkswagen Tiguan. It does one simple thing incredibly well: it lets me use Android Auto wirelessly. No more plugging in my phone every time I get in the car. No more fumbling with cables, especially when I've got a drink in one hand and the other's trying to open Google Maps and YouTube Music. This little adapter just works. Setting it up took less than five minutes. I plugged the AAWireless TWO into my Tiguan's USB port, paired it via Bluetooth with my Pixel 9 Pro, and Android Auto popped up on the infotainment screen as if it had always been there. The first time it happened, I was genuinely shocked at how easy it was. The connection is quick, usually taking the same time as if I'd plugged in a cable. Once connected, everything works exactly how it should. Google Maps, YouTube Music, Pocketcast, calls – all smooth and snappy. There's no noticeable lag, and everything responds just as fast as the wired version. It also switches between phones effortlessly. My wife drives the same car sometimes, and she uses a Pixel 9a. All it takes is a press of the button on the adapter and it swaps over to her profile. No digging around in menus. No repeated setup. It's basically seamless. Physically, the adapter's about the size of a matchbox. It tucks neatly away out of sight. I don't even think about it anymore, which is kind of the point. It just does its job. Well, most of the time… I can't say it's completely flawless. During my time testing it, I did have a few dropouts. Nothing major, and usually it reconnected in seconds, but worth mentioning. And, of course, wireless Android Auto drains my phone's battery much faster than plugging it in, but that's a wider Android Auto issue, not necessarily a problem with AAWireless Two. Still, the pros outweigh the cons. Not needing to fish out a USB cable every time I get in the car is a huge win, and being able to keep my phone in my pocket or bag without a mess of cables hanging about is life-changing (yes, I'm that sad). The adapter costs £53.99 in the UK or $64.99 in the US and you can buy it from the AAWireless website or on Amazon. It comes with a free companion app, but you don't need it for everyday use – though it's handy for updates and tweaks if you're the kind of person who likes fiddling with settings. One of the new tricks this version brings is a multifunctional button. You can use it to enter pairing mode, switch between phones, or even factory reset the device if something goes wrong. You rarely need it, but when you do, it's great to have. Now, if you're thinking about grabbing one, it might be worth knowing that AAWireless TWO+ is on the horizon. It's not out yet, but it's expected to bring a few more features to the table. So if you're not in a rush, you might want to wait and see what the new version offers. For me, though? This one's already earned a permanent spot in my car. No cables. No fuss. Just Android Auto without the cables. Liked this? The McLaren Artura is the most engaging hybrid I've ever driven
