Modders almost always find a way to tinker with Android and while wants to maintain control over the apps that work with Android Auto it can’t keep the modding community for what it does best. Third-party ROMs for Android Auto are inbound for Pioneer headunits which means that at least those aftermarket radios will be able to much more with Android Auto than what Google has intended.
Despite the open nature of Android Google’s version of the operating system for cars is closed off. UI and apps are tightly controlled by Google and by default there aren’t any options to customize the experience or even sideload apps not meant for Android Auto.
However the modding community has eliminated all barriers to development on Pioneer AVIC units, the security has been stripped and thus modified versions of Android Auto can be installed. The AVIC Development Mod changes SD card behavior allowing users to load a custom ROM on the external memory card and boot directly into it.
The door is now open to install Android Auto on those Pioneer AVIC radios that don’t come with the OS pre-installed, it may even allow access to features like Wi-Fi that Pioneer has switched off by default for some reason.
The next parts in the project deal with adding a custom app launcher, interface skins, iDatalink gauges, Google Play Store and much more. Development of ROMs is in early stages right now but it’s only a matter of time before some really good custom Android Auto ROMs are released.
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