Apple CarPlay in the UK?

[WllXM]

I've sadly relented and purchased one of these as I just can't get my hands on a Raspberry Pi.

I'll put up a review once I get my hands on it, god knows how long it'll take to ship over here from China...

Purchased one. Returned it the following week.
Bluetooth connection is patchy and you lose connectivity every half hour at least. Nightmare to reconnect. Sometimes you have to put the phone in AirPlay mode or restart it, or unplug the carlinkit from the centre console and try again.

Also I missed the ability to see the Tesla built in navigation for Superchargers & al.
Spotify integration is much better on Tesla vs the Carplay one, and navigating between the two by closing the browser was nightmarish, etc…

I think I am gonna cave in soon for a dedicated hansshow CarPlay second screen behind the steering wheel instead. Then I’ll have a good waze / whatsapp display and will be able to keep Tesla own OS visible on the main screen

 

[Zilla91]

How long ago was this? It looks like it's improved from the earlier versions from the YouTube videos I've seen.

Also how long did it take for it to be delivered?

 

[Medved_77]

I've sadly relented and purchased one of these as I just can't get my hands on a Raspberry Pi

Pi Hut UK got a lot of stock in yesterday. There's still a 4GB Pi4 starter kit available, at a premium.

 

[WllXM]

How long ago was this? It looks like it's improved from the earlier versions from the YouTube videos I've seen.

Also how long did it take for it to be delivered?

Last month. Updated to the latest v3 that leverages hotspot and advertised ´improved reliability’. Aliexpress took about 20 days but you can also order from Amazon (at a slightly higher price) but then you get an easy next day delivery + 30 days free returns policy.
I would advise to do this, trial it for a couple weeks, possibly before a long trip, and make your own opinion on whether or not you want to keep it or send it back.

To me it wasn’t worth it and I’ve found I’d rather spend 200 quid for a dedicated CarPlay screen rather than £50 for a half-baked hack/integration that works maybe 70% of the time with some pitfalls such as Bluetooth audio, etc, but to each his own I guess

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

They've been updated to allow you to use your phone as a hotspot for the box so there's no need for a SIM card

@GeorgeSymonds where has the edit button gone? I've had to break the golden rule and double post because I couldn't edit my last post

I’m not aware of it going anywhere, I have god like privileges when it comes to edit so I don’t see what others see so it’s hard to check, I know some functions aren’t allowed for new members, and maybe there’s an age limit on post edits (I know others have tried to go back and slip in a spammy url to an old post only search engines would read). If others have the same problem, let me know.

 

[Zilla91]

Last month. Updated to the latest v3 that leverages hotspot and advertised ´improved reliability’. Aliexpress took about 20 days but you can also order from Amazon (at a slightly higher price) but then you get an easy next day delivery + 30 days free returns policy.
I would advise to do this, trial it for a couple weeks, possibly before a long trip, and make your own opinion on whether or not you want to keep it or send it back.

To me it wasn’t worth it and I’ve found I’d rather spend 200 quid for a dedicated CarPlay screen rather than £50 for a half-baked hack/integration that works maybe 70% of the time with some pitfalls such as Bluetooth audio, etc, but to each his own I guess

Good shout, I've just cancelled my order with Carlinkit and ordered the same thing via Amazon to be delivered tomorrow as I've got a long trip coming middle of next week so that should be a good place to trial it.

 

[RedMod3]

I’ve been using my Hansshow unit for a year now. It’s great having Waze available, especially on longer trips.

 

[connectjunkie]

I’ve been using my Hansshow unit for a year now. It’s great having Waze available, especially on longer trips. View attachment 937313View attachment 937314View attachment 937315View attachment 937316

Did you install this yourself, or have someone install? I’m tossing up going this way too, but would prefer someone who knows what they’re doing installing it…

 

[RedMod3]

Did you install this yourself, or have someone install? I’m tossing up going this way too, but would prefer someone who knows what they’re doing installing it…

Did it myself, it is very easy to do except plugging in the Y piece into the computer, and that is very very hard. You may need to remove the glove box to do it. If you are thin, and slender and bendable, you may be able to do it.

 

[Js1977]

Last month. Updated to the latest v3 that leverages hotspot and advertised ´improved reliability’. Aliexpress took about 20 days but you can also order from Amazon (at a slightly higher price) but then you get an easy next day delivery + 30 days free returns policy.
I would advise to do this, trial it for a couple weeks, possibly before a long trip, and make your own opinion on whether or not you want to keep it or send it back.

To me it wasn’t worth it and I’ve found I’d rather spend 200 quid for a dedicated CarPlay screen rather than £50 for a half-baked hack/integration that works maybe 70% of the time with some pitfalls such as Bluetooth audio, etc, but to each his own I guess

Thanks for confirming this. I have been tempted to grab one but the reviews albeit replies to reviews on youtube are not good nor are the amazon ones.

 

[WllXM]

To be clear I had two main issues with the Carlinkit/Gapinski solution. I’ll try to post an honest review:

Granted it is a marvel of dev / tech deployment that Gapinski came up with this working workaround through the Tesla browser, and there is almost no latency when it works.
Carlinkit packaged it into a nice little box that’s almost plug and play. Just power it through the centre console usb, pair your phone via bluetooth, activate Personal Hotspot, then add the car to the ssid broadcasted by the device, and there you go, it works in minutes. If you’re anything like me you feel some joy to recover the long lost CarPlay screen I was familiar with before switching for a Tesla.

But unfortunately the experimental part of the solution will eventually resurface, when for some reason the box will either not pair via Bluetooth, or fail to broadcast a wifi signal, and you’ll have to unplug it and plug it back again.
Also, often the car’s Wifi will default to off and you’ll have to re enable it by searching through the menu while driving, which necessarily causes distraction.
And of course, often too, you’ll abruptly lose signal and the browser will default to the Carlinkit settings that is indefinitely searching for your phone…
Again, this is a great proof of concept, but it is absolutely not usable on a day to day basis.
On the plus side, I moved to be able to use Hey Siri commands in a much more intuitive way and while keeping both hands on the wheel. Of course I missed waze on a decent screen size, oh, and whatsapp notifications as well!

But even if the system had worked flawlessly, I’ve found my problem was with the UI.
You need to do so many things with Tesla menus, such as Supercharger navigation, Radio, Spotify menus that you constantly find yourself switching between the two I interfaces on the main screen. That’s when I realised I actually wanted to be able to look at the two at the same time. Have Tesla navigation side by side with Waze or Whatsapp. Retain the superior Spotify/Tesla interface rather that being forced to stream everything through Bluetooth Audio. All the little things.
That’s why I’m convinced a hansshow second screen will be better down the road.

Will probably order one from aliexpress in the upcoming weeks. But confused at the wide range of price ranges (from 150 to 500 roughly) and the different advertised characteristics (Android OS/Linux OS) versions 5 to 12, etc….

Of course @Zilla91 happy to hear your thoughts about your own experience in a few weeks time!

 

[Zilla91]

I think I might have a bit more joy as your usecase differs from mine in that I plan to have all my media via CarPlay (hello Apple podcasts, my long lost friend) and exclusively use Waze for navigation unless I'm making a long journey that requires charging stops.

Where I do need to use the Tesla nav, I'll just have Waze running in the background for alerts.

The connectivity issues do worry me.

 

[rob@rar]

I’ve used the Carlinkit (bought through Amazon UK) for a couple of months. It is sometimes frustrating that the various links between car, phone and Carlinkit don’t automatically connect, requiring unplugging the Carlinkit to re-boot it. But mostly it works pretty well for me, and it is terrific to have CarPlay in the Tesla, overcoming a major weakness. Being able to have my digital life operate seamlessly between home, car and out’n’about is important for me, so I’m happy to put up with the occasional frustration to have CarPlay available. Switching between CarPlay and Tesla’s sat.nav is entirely straightforward so it’s easy to run both systems in parallel (useful if you need to pre-condition for a SuC stop). It’s not a perfect solution for sure, but it works well enough for me.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I'm tempted by teslaandroid as it beats teslaa in one important respect - it doesn't need bluetooth.

Getting hold of a pi 4 though.. that's hard.. they're made of purest unobtanium.

 

[Zilla91]

Hello, old friend, I've missed you.

Initial thoughts; it's nice to have CarPlay back to control my media and to have Waze on screen or running in the background to warn me of any cameras or obstructions on the road.

On the other hands it's incredibly laggy, the picture quality is poor and I'm not convinced the tethering works as I can't load up any of the native car apps but weirdly the internet browser works and the Tesla nav doesn't complain about route planning without connectivity so I'm not sure what's going on.

I had a couple of drop outs while on the move but it did come back quickly and at one point the output went all pixelated like you get if your TV satellite signal gets interrupted.

Minded to keep it just because it gives me a safe and legal way try interact with the media on my phone but we'll see if my opinion changes after a few weeks...

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I managed to get a pi4 and set everthing up how I liked it..

Teslaandroid is great.. in pure android mode everything is fast and although there's some lag (inevitable with the round trip between the car and the browser) it's pretty much just android. Audio comes out of the browser, and is excellent quality (better than bluetooth, possibly lossless, but forum posts seem contradictory on that). It supports fullscreen mode too (currently 4:3 but they're working on that).

Playing music using the inbuilt apps and just using waze on AA is entirely possible and probably what I'll do (AA music apps generally suck, being designed for small displays and having no search functionality etc.).

To do the android auto bit I loaded headunit reloaded.. that adds about half a second of lag somehow.. it's not well optimised. But it does work.. as soon as I connect the phone it comes up and works. (Although I had to drop the DPI to 150 to get a nice display, since the default 200 is just too large).

I've been unable to get wireless AA to work.. it's supposed to be possible but it's barely/not at all documented & after a couple of hours on it I gave up.

In theory the pi can just do the AA itself, but at the moment there's no GPS so not worth it (this is due o be fixed imminently, I believe).

After using it though it just highlights that this is all a bit of a hack to get around Tesla.. having to connect to the pi hotspot, microphone doesn't work as there's no support (so no 'hey google' in waze/spotify/etc.), plugging in cables.. and you really can't get around it's a bit of a faff. Having got there I'm 50/50 whether it's worth it.

 

[Mrklaw]

I just don’t know why both Android and Apple don’t let you use a phone/tablet as the carplay/AA screen. Assuming it is mounted like a hands free phone should be, whats the practical difference between a 6-8” car touchscreen showing effectively a screen mirror, and a 6-8” phone/tablet just doing it natively?

 

[Zilla91]

I managed to get a pi4 and set everthing up how I liked it..

Teslaandroid is great.. in pure android mode everything is fast and although there's some lag (inevitable with the round trip between the car and the browser) it's pretty much just android. Audio comes out of the browser, and is excellent quality (better than bluetooth, possibly lossless, but forum posts seem contradictory on that). It supports fullscreen mode too (currently 4:3 but they're working on that).

Playing music using the inbuilt apps and just using waze on AA is entirely possible and probably what I'll do (AA music apps generally suck, being designed for small displays and having no search functionality etc.).

To do the android auto bit I loaded headunit reloaded.. that adds about half a second of lag somehow.. it's not well optimised. But it does work.. as soon as I connect the phone it comes up and works. (Although I had to drop the DPI to 150 to get a nice display, since the default 200 is just too large).

I've been unable to get wireless AA to work.. it's supposed to be possible but it's barely/not at all documented & after a couple of hours on it I gave up.

In theory the pi can just do the AA itself, but at the moment there's no GPS so not worth it (this is due o be fixed imminently, I believe).

After using it though it just highlights that this is all a bit of a hack to get around Tesla.. having to connect to the pi hotspot, microphone doesn't work as there's no support (so no 'hey google' in waze/spotify/etc.), plugging in cables.. and you really can't get around it's a bit of a faff. Having got there I'm 50/50 whether it's worth it.

Where did you get the pi and are they still available?

 

[Mrklaw]

Where did you get the pi and are they still available?

i got mine for home assistant from Pimoroni - just checked they look to have pi4 in stock

 

[Zilla91]

i got mine for home assistant from Pimoroni - just checked they look to have pi4 in stock

Legend! Just ordered the starter kit as they're not allowing new customers order just the boards. Thanks!