Featured Toyota Announces 2020 Prius Prime With CarPlay Support

Same boat would mean same timeline. What other vehicle is at the introductory stage right this very moment?

 

The Ioniq and Niro.

 

I wasn't aware of 2020 updates for the United States. Are either ready for a growth push yet?

 

That wasn't a counter though. It was an attempt to widen scope, which has no baring on the original claim. Also note that I stay away from grouping luxury vehicles together with mainstream vehicles, since they have very different customer-service expectations. With Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and Cadillac, it's easy for owners to expect a post-purchase upgrade. For a Honda or a Toyota, that's hit or miss.

So, back to the topic. With such a major software upgrade (new interface, new/refactored coding), isn't it within reason to expect Android Auto to become available later?

 

Tesla doesn't fiddle with such nonsense. In effect, the Tesla is a plug-in headphone or bluetooth.

Bob Wilson

 

Telematics to that degree would be wonderful. Someday...

 

They already have Android Auto, and had it since their release. As do many cars, some of which are new or a refresh the same year as the Prime getting is its refresh.

But that really doesn't matter for calling your statement BS.
Android Auto has been getting regular updates since its introduction; the version in place when Google made the big update announcement was less than a week old. The big announcement was a change to the UI. It isn't even big a change in the app version. AA went from 3 to 4 in the beginning of the year.
It is a phone app. While the car has to have the supporting hard ware and software to support AA, it is the phone that is running it. So the version of AA that shows up on the car screen is whatever version is on the phone. So delaying AA for the Prime because of a new update is a statement for duping the ignorant. If the Prime had AA, a person wanting the new version would just need to update it on their phone.

"The new Android Auto will start hitting phones today (it actually started a little early), but very few will get the update right away. It'll take several weeks before most phones have it." - The new Android Auto officially starts rolling out today, and it's mostly an improvement
This site has downloads of the older AA versions: Android Auto 2.9.574924-release APK Download

 

Moving the app from phone to car, rather than just mirroring, is a big improvement.

That's not an upgrade. It's a different approach.

 

If that is happening, it isn't in the news.

Google is getting rid of stand alone AA, but app is still staying on the phone.

 

9 months later, there have been many upgrades... 4.6 and 4.7 and 4.8 and 4.9 and 5.0 and 5.1 and 5.2 with 5.3 soon to be available... confirming much work still needed to be done to establish that different approach.

People didn't understand what it would take to transform an application not designed for that new platform. It totally makes sense that Toyota didn't want to deal with the inevitable flurry of customer requested updates to their vehicle. Just imagine what it would have taken to support an upgrade process. Waiting until a stable version becomes available and has proven effective of at-home upgrades, rather than having to burden dealerships with low-profit services, was the better choice. It simply wasn't worth being hasty.

As the Android Auto matures on the automotive platform, being able to seamlessly executes upgrades without interruption to the driving won't be a big deal. Think about what it takes on your phone. Will the car stay active and have internet access the same way to download software while not in use at home? Will you be willing to wait while the upgrade installs? Will you schedule the upgrade for later?

This is a paradigm shift, a new ownership experience for automakers to address. Delay until Google works out the kinks is an effective way to avoid issues the automaker has little control over.