They don’t seem to quite exist yet, but it looks like we are getting close to having nice Android car radios available.
There are car radios with slide out screens, but the ones available domestically are proprietary software that I assume won’t be as good as Android and will cost a lot more for less. I already use my Android tablet kind of hanging from the dash of my car, so any installed unit needs to be as good.
What would I like?
- A single-din unit, not one of those big double jobs. Single will look less obvious to anyone looking in the window.
- The radio to be a real radio with a real volume control that will work even when the computer part is, er, being a computer. So the Android part is add-on, let it be a fancy remote control for the radio.
- FM HD radio, RDS.
- Radio needs to be good, I want selectivity so I can be parked next to a powerful transmitter and listen to something else. I want it to be sensitive to I can pull in a distant station while near the middle of no where. If the radio wants to be frequency agile and let me see if there is anything on shortwave anymore, that’s okay with me.
- AM, too.
- Android. Let me use Google’s maps, or let me choose OsmAnd, or let me buy a Tom Tom product. Let me use other Android software.
- SIM slot if I want to buy data service from a cell company.
- Wifi, let it connect through my phone’s wifi, let it connect to my house wifi when I am parked at home if I need to download something big. Let it be a wifi hot spot if I do buy cell data.
- Bluetooth, let it be a speakerphone for my cellphone, let me stream music from my cellphone through the car speakers.
Sound cool?
-kb