Anyone with concerns about privacy and thinking about buying a car in Europe should have eCall in mind.
An European citizen unwilling to have an embedded system that tracks location, accesses mic and transmit GPS data has three options: burn the SIM card module, buy a pre-April-2018 car or something outside the EU.
By the looks of it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tC_NX5D8AA) the latest Suzuki Jimny still doesn't have a built-in navigation or anything like that, it will probably be on my to-buy-list in 6 or 7 years when (and if) I decide to buy a new SH car. I like my cars with a very plain and simple interior, just AC and a basic radio/CD player it's perfect for me.
This is the opposite for me. I'm switching from an iphone to an android mainly so I can use android auto with google maps support in my new car. Google assistant is the cherry on top. This would be nice though since I would not have to switch phones just to get around apple carplay forcing their garbage maps on me.
Apple carplay and android auto allow you to view windows displayed by your phone on your car screen. While I can use google maps with it and get the voice directions, it does not support displaying the map on my car screen for google maps, only apple maps. I want to be able to quickly look at the physical map on the big screen in my car while driving like so: https://www.google.com/search?q=android+auto+maps&tbm=isch&s...
CarPlay does not let you use any maps app aside from Apple Maps. Which is a dealbreaker since where I live Apple Maps are terrible (and Google Maps aren't great either, I use a local mapping app)
Can you follow up on that? What if the Volvo, other than Google's involvement, was otherwise the best vehicle for you? Would you get an otherwise worse car, just because of the G stamp on it?
Probably yes. I don't think cars need 'bundled' software any more than computers do.
Open standards such as the DIN dash mounts for in car entertainment systems do just fine. I've never seen an integrated audio system that I like, usually they're junk to begin with and they are obsolete long before the car is and hard - or sometimes even impossible - to get rid of.
Well, I like how they are not hard on design and their kept focus on the safety since. That fits to my character. Of course I could still get a volvo, but a year earlier / non-android version.
