Tesla doesn’t support Apple CarPlay nor Android Auto in its vehicles, and it’s essentially the only major automaker that still doesn’t support it at this time. For any other company, it would be inexplicable to omit such a ubiquitous feature, but Tesla has managed to get rid of it. A smart owner has come up with a solution that allows the phone to be projected onto a manufacturer’s vehicle, and it’s a far cry from “plug-and-play” as you might imagine.
It’s the work of a Polish developer named Michał Gapiński, whose craft documentation is available for download GitHub. Now, even though I consider myself a fairly tech-savvy person, I’ve never used a Raspberry Pi before and it seems you need two of them for this to work – one to run Android and the other. one to maintain the network of things, with Linux already installed. You also need, every MacRumors“LTE modem and Wi-Fi hotspot, running custom Android-based firmware, as well as a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable and an Ethernet cable.”
The internet tool is needed because, as my colleague Steve explained to me, this is completely doable via In-car web browser. “The Linux Pi is just running PiHole and creating a local Wi-Fi network that the Tesla and the Android Pi connect to,” Steve told me.
That may seem like too many laps to cycle through CarPlay or Android Auto on the infotainment screen, but I have to commend Gapiński here because they can still be controlled with buttons on the Tesla steering wheel, just like conventional means. Unfortunately, the installation instructions made me nervous and took me back to my Android rooting days:
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Gapiński knows this, though, and down the line he hopes to reduce both the hardware involved and some of the command line fussing. From the Tesla Android Blog:
Right now, the focus is starting to shift towards better integration and simplification. Eliminating the two-panel requirement will help reduce both costs and barriers to entry by reducing installation instructions to something that can be done in minutes.
For example, in this initial release, Gapiński noted that CarPlay may flicker when displayed on Tesla’s display. His fix for that currently overclocking Raspberry Pi. I recall doing it on my first generation Motorola Droid so it was actually usable after about a year of ownership. The point is, if you do that, you can But also need to get one small radiator for the Pi running Android, because it tends to overwork under all the aforementioned pressures.
This is by no means criticizing the developer, of course – he’s working magic with the supply-limited Pi board being used. miniature everywhere and some chicken wire. It would be magical when any of these things worked, but it would also be nice if Tesla just gave their customers the luxuries that owners of every other new car get, without falling in love. ask them to buy half of Newegg.
